Partner News and Resources
Arrest, Release, Repeat: How police and jails are misused to respond to social problems
Data, Policy & Culture Change, Public SafetyPolice and jails are supposed to promote public safety. Increasingly, however, law enforcement is called upon to respond punitively to medical and economic problems unrelated to public safety issues. As a result, local jails are filled w...
Could Norway’s mental health focus reduce incarceration in Michigan?
Corrections, Health Care, JusticeNorway has gained an international reputation for effectively rehabilitating prisoners, while officials in Michigan and across the country face burgeoning jail populations and costs — fueled significantly by the mentally ill. Norwa...
From NHPR: UNH Asks: What Is A Criminal?
Corrections, Health Care, Justice, Policy & Culture Change, Public SafetyUniversity of New Hampshire Roundtable asks: “What is a criminal?” Donna Perkins is an associate professor of justice studies and UNH, and Blair Rowlett is the director of the Strafford County Mental Health Court. Rowlett: (My) “work wit...
From NYT: Mississippi Mental Health System Violates Federal Law, Judge Says
Health Care, JusticeExcerpted from the September 4, 2019 article by Mihir Zaveri. A federal judge in Mississippi ruled Wednesday that the state had violated federal civil rights law by not providing mental health patients enough care in their communities, f...
From Florida Phoenix: Florida leaders consider better approaches to handle the mentally ill’s revolving jail door
Health Care, Judge Steven Leifman, Justice, National Advisors, Policy & Culture Change, Public SafetyMiami-Dade founded the nation’s first “problem-solving court,” focused on drug abuse, in 1989. Problem-solving courts mix criminal justice with specialized therapy. Miami-Dade Judge Steve Leifman is a key figure in this effort. Hi...
Policing Reform Essential to Address Mass Incarceration
Corrections, In the News, Justice, Public SafetyVera Institute of Justice report published earlier this month finds that: “While not all jail admissions stem from arrests…the growth in admissions as crime and arrest rates have fallen to lows not experienced since 1970 and 1980, resp...
Equitas Project Executive Director Vincent Atchity Announces Departure to Lead Mental Health Colorado
In the News, National AdvisorsVincent Atchity, Executive Director of The Equitas Project, has announced today that he is leaving his role at the organization as of mid-August. Dr. Atchity has served as executive director at Equitas since 2015, and will now be hea...
Changes to Help Those “Lost in the System” Because of Mental Illness
UncategorizedColoradans who are declared incompetent to proceed in court have long faced a catch-22 in the criminal justice system that leaves them languishing in jails or state hospitals for months, sometimes even years, before they have ever been ...
USA Today Opinion: To fight opioid epidemic, treat drug use with compassion, not judgment
Health Care, Policy & Culture Change…We often hear that we know what we should do regarding the opioid epidemic; we simply aren’t doing it. But we’re only sometimes right about this, and it’s often much harder than we think. For instance: If you’ve been reading the ...
‘Answer is not building better jails’ – From Lee Provost at The Daily Journal
In the News, Judge Steven Leifman, Justice, National Advisors, Policy & Culture ChangeLee Provost from the Daily Journal in Kankakee, IL writes about Equitas National Advisor Judge Steve Leifman, who presented at the Kankakee Country Club in Kankakee, IL last month. Leifman, a national leader in solving complex and costly...
Equitas Executive Director Vincent Atchity appears on panel – Mental Health: A Crisis in Colorado
Childhood, Corrections, Education, Employment, Health Care, Housing, In the News, Justice, Policy & Culture Change, Public Safety, ReentryLIVE: A Community Conversation – MENTAL HEALTH: A crisis in Colorado hosted by KKTV Channel 11 and The Colorado Springs Gazette at Pikes Peak Center in Colorado Springs. Read more about the discussion here....
Forbes: How Does A Pipeline Of New Treatments For Mental Health Combat Stigma?
Health Care, Policy & Culture ChangeLeading global experts have stated that a coordinated, diverse effort has the potential to reduce suicide, psychosis, and mental illness-related disability by 50% by 2030. However, the current level of unmet need in brain health is sign...
Mental Health Colorado “scores” state lawmakers
Health Care, Policy & Culture ChangeMental Health Colorado, a nonpartisan 501(c)3 organization that advocates for mental health, led the pack this year in releasing its scorecard May 21. Article by Faith Miller with the Colorado Springs Independent. Read the full article...
Equitas ED quoted in Special Report: Colorado’s jails and prisons house many of the state’s mentally ill
Corrections, Health Care, In the NewsWritten by Rachel Riley at the Colorado Springs Gazette. “They miss medication doses, sinking further into psychosis as their symptoms take hold. They try to kill themselves and sometimes succeed. They lash out at staff and fellow inmate...
Oregon Governor Signs Bill To Track Info About Jail Inmates
Data, Health Care, Public Safety, ReentryOregon Gov. Kate Brown signed legislation Wednesday that will require local and regional jails to provide the state with information about the people in their custody, as well as details about the health care inmates receive. “It is i...
Higher Rate of ED Visits in Mental Illness Patients Explained
Health Care, Ron HonbergIndividuals with mental health diagnoses make 25% more visits to the emergency department (ED) than those without mental illness; increases in frequency correspond to illness severity, new research shows. Investigators analyzed data on m...
Evaluation of North Carolina’s Pathways from Prison to Postsecondary Education Program (From the RAND Corporation)
Corrections, Education, ReentryBefore 2013, incarcerated individuals in North Carolina could enroll in college correspondence courses, but there was no coordinated effort to provide a path toward a postsecondary degree or credential. Furthermore, there was no coordina...
Trump pardons Pat Nolan, former GOP lawmaker taken down in FBI’s ‘Shrimpscam’ probe
Pat Nolan, J.D., Policy & Culture Change, ReentryPresident Trump has pardoned Pat Nolan, a former Republican state legislative leader who spent years in prison after being convicted in the “Shrimpscam” FBI sting in the 1990s and later became a high-profile conservative apostle fo...
Trump hailed Mississippi prison reforms. But the numbers reflect a grim reality.
Corrections, Data, Pat Nolan, J.D.When Gov. Phil Bryant, a Republican, signed House Bill 585 into law in 2014, the measure drew widespread praise from conservatives and liberals alike because it promised to reduce the prison population, save millions and reinvest some o...
Innovative social work and criminal justice research center finds a home at FSU
Carrie Pettus Davis, In the News, Justice“We currently have millions of people incarcerated in jails and prisons in the United States,” said Carrie Pettus-Davis, founder and executive director of (Institute for Justice Research and Development, IJRD). “Right now, we are a...
Swath of legislation reforming Colorado’s criminal justice system to affect tens of thousands
Policy & Culture ChangeAmid heated public debate about school sex education, the death penalty and vaccinations, many of the criminal justice bills drew less attention. But the reforms already have affected thousands of Coloradans — especially those who are ...
Think you need mental health care? Here’s a place to start
Health Care, Policy & Culture ChangeSeeking mental health treatment may seem like an intimidating, confusing process at first. However, it is possible. And this guide can help you get started. Half of all adults in the U.S. will experience a mental illness at some point...
Does our county really need a bigger jail?
Corrections, Public SafetyA guide for avoiding unnecessary jail expansion By Alexi Jones May 2019 Press release As jail populations have skyrocketed over the past three decades, jails around the country have become dangerously overcrowded. The reflexive response...
Report: U.S. Incarceration Falls to 20-Year Low
Corrections, Data, Policy & Culture Change, Public SafetyThe share of the adult population in prison has fallen to its lowest point since 1997, a new report released in April 2019 by the Bureau of Justice Statistics shows. To be sure, the United States does lead the world in per capita incar...
Giving ex-convicts healthcare helps all of us
Corrections, Data, Health Care, Housing, Justice, Policy & Culture Change, Public Safety, ReentryThe Transitions Clinic Network, founded by Yale Associate Professor Emily Wang manages the specific needs of patients with chronic illnesses on their release from prison, help improve their health outcomes, and facilitate their reintegra...
Los Angeles chooses mental health treatment over jail
Corrections, Health Care, Policy & Culture Change, Terry A. Kupersby Dr. Terry A. Kupers Written for SF Chronicle. “Mental health jails” have been proposed in Alameda, Contra Costa and San Francisco counties, and elsewhere. The Contra Costa County Board of Supervisors voted to fund the sheriff’...
Mentally ill homeless people keep going to jail. But a study says L.A. County can fix that
Corrections, Data, Housing, Jackie Lacey, Policy & Culture Change, Public SafetyOn a typical day, thousands of homeless and mentally ill people are behind bars in Los Angeles County’s jails. But more than half of them would be good candidates to divert into housing with supportive services instead, according a new...
National Leaders in Law Enforcement Agree on Mental Health and Justice System Solutions
Jackie Lacey, Judge Steven Leifman, Media Releases, National Advisors, Pat Nolan, J.D., UncategorizedThe nation’s first response to mental health crises is often dangerous for all involved, say experts. April 10, 2019 – (DENVER, COLO.) – The way we currently address mental health amounts to a public health crisis, say law enforcem...
Colorado Leaders Call for Action to Address Urgent Statewide Mental Health Needs
Douglas K. Wilson, In the News, Lisa M. Clements, Media Releases, Rick RaemischIndividuals with mental health and substance use concerns need access to earlier support and care, rather than criminalization and punishment. April 2, 2019 – (DENVER, COLO.) – Colorado leaders in mental health and criminal justice j...
Mario Drops New Visual/Song, Announces Partnership with Equitas
Blog, In the News, Media Releases, Policy & Culture ChangePublished on PR Web. Chart-Topping, multi-platinum selling, singer, songwriter, and actor, Mario premiered his stunning new introspective video for the emotionally-charged single, “Care For You” today with BET Soul and BET Her for broadc...
Equitas Executive Director Interviewed on Wrongful Conviction // Season 8 Episode 4 // Disentangling Mental Health & Criminal Justice
Corrections, Health Care, Policy & Culture Change, conviction, criminal, criminal justice, jason flom, justice, kelly grimes, mental health, vincent atchity, wrongful, wrongful convictionIn this compelling interview, Vincent Atchity and Kelly Grimes join Jason Flom for a candid discussion about the criminal justice system and how it fails to support Americans with mental health challenges. Vincent Atchity has served as ...
Equitas National Advisor Rick Raemisch Reduced Solitary Confinement in Colorado by 98%. He’s Just Been Named Public Official of the Year.
Blog, Corrections, National Advisors, Rick RaemischGoverning Magazine this year recognized Equitas National Advisor and Colorado Department of Corrections Director for ending the overuse of solitary confinement in the state. Some say it’s like being buried alive. The walls close in on ...
Law Enforcement Leaders Agree: Communities Must Step Up to Address Mental Health Needs Preventatively
Blog, Jackie Lacey, Judge Steven Leifman, Pat Nolan, J.D., Public SafetyOn November 13 and 14 in Los Angeles, the Equitas Project convened 90 leaders and decision-makers in law enforcement for the Course Corrections: National Law Enforcement Summit. Participants at the event included police chiefs, sheriffs,...
Judge Steven Leifman Receives Pardes Humanitarian Prize for Helping Thousands Towards Mental Health Instead of Incarceration
Blog, Jeffrey Borenstein, Judge Steven Leifman, Justice“Judge Leifman has accomplished something amazing. Thanks to Judge Leifman’s efforts people don’t go to jail but instead receive treatment so they can move forward with their lives in a healthier way.” –Dr. Jeffrey Borenstein, Pr...
Jailing people with mental illness is a national problem. The solutions are local.
Corrections, Health Care, In the News, Policy & Culture Change, Public Safety, ReentryThere are countless problems in this world that lack ready solutions. Jailing so many people with mental illness is not one of them. While it’s a national problem, addressing mental illness in America’s jails requires local people fi...
Coordination and Communication are Key to Improving Mental Health and Criminal Justice in America
Blog, Childhood, Corrections, Data, Education, Employment, Health Care, Housing, In the News, Justice, Media Releases, Policy & Culture Change, Public Safety, ReentryMental health and criminal justice are a tangled mess in communities all across the country. Rather than supporting health from childhood through old age, our social systems show hardly any signs of understanding mental health at all. We...
National Public Defenders Summit Directives Document Now Available
Blog, Douglas K. Wilson, Judge Steven Leifman, Justice, Policy & Culture ChangePublic defenders from around the country convened in Denver this spring for the first of its kind event to build consensus for policy and practice reforms. Top defenders from 21 states and the District of Columbia met for two days to ...
A Criminal Past, an Unwritten Future
In the NewsTheir message to these young men was simple: “You may be locked up, but your mind can still be free.” Over time, what started as a book club transformed into a robust operation that supports D.C. men from the day they are arrested to...
Celebrities Highlight Mental Health Issues
In the NewsAs the stigma surrounding mental illness has declined in recent years, so has the reluctance many have had to discuss their own mental health issues, including celebrities. It’s become the new norm for stars to divulge vulnerabilities ...
In Billerica, Young Prisoners Give Freedom A Trial Run
ReentryAt Middlesex House of Corrections in Massachusetts, the P.A.C.T. unit, which stands for People Achieving Change Together, opened in February, 2018. P.A.C.T. was born out of a collaboration between Middlesex County and the Vera Institute ...
‘Silence can be deadly’: 46 officers were fatally shot last year. More than triple that — 140 — committed suicide.
Public SafetySuicides left more officers and firefighters dead last year than all line-of-duty deaths combined — a jarring statistic that continues to plague first responders but garners little attention. According to a new study by the Ruderman F...
How I Learned Not to Call 911
Public SafetyEvery day, New Yorkers encounter so many mentally ill people, whether on the street or in their own buildings. The most recent data for New York shows that some 95,000 New Yorkers with serious mental illnesses, including bipolar disord...
A CRIMINAL PAST, AN UNWRITTEN FUTURE|
ReentryTheir message to these young men was simple: “You may be locked up, but your mind can still be free.” Over time, what started as a book club transformed into a robust operation that supports D.C. men from the day they are arrested to...
Why Jail is No Place for the Mentally Troubled
JusticeIn a discussion with The Crime Report about her new book, “Insane: America’s Criminal Treatment of Mental Illness,” Alisa Roth, a former Soros Justice Fellow, describes how jails and prisons have become the nation’s principal ins...
You Are What You Eat: Nutrition Plays An Important Role In Children’s Brain Health
ChildhoodParents of children who have mental illness fight so many daily battles—small and large—that trying to get a stubborn child to eat a healthy meal can seem like an impossible task. “But based on my research, I’ve decided healthy mea...
Commentary: The Recidivism Trap
ReentryRecidivism is the reoccurrence of crime among people known to have committed crimes before. At all levels of justice, from local probation offices to the U.S. Bureau of Prisons, if we judge the impact of interventions at all, we do so in...
A Crop of Reform-Minded Mayors Is Trying to Fix Policing and Fight Mass Incarceration
Public SafetyIn their choice of a police chief and through other local initiatives, mayors can make major strides in improving the way their constituents interact with police and the criminal justice system. “All of the dollars we’re spending to ...
The Burden of Mental Illness Behind Bars
DataToday, about 14.5 percent of men and 31 percent of women in jails have a serious mental illness, such as schizophrenia, major depression, or bipolar disorder, compared to 3.2 and 4.9 percent, respectively, in the general population. Whil...
Brenda Siegel: For-profit prisons are modern day slavery
CorrectionsA “for profit” or “private” prison, as evident in the name, is designed to make a profit. What are they profiting on? People. They are profiting on the buying and selling of human beings. They have motivation to keep their costs ...
Opinion: Turn Prisons Into Colleges
ReentryWhile racial disparities in arrests and convictions are alarming, education level is a far stronger predictor of future incarceration than race. Today, only a third of all prisons provide ways for incarcerated people to continue their ed...
Report Finds Racial Disparity in Youth Confinement
ChildhoodMore than 70 million people in the United States are under the age of 18 and on any given day, about 48,000 juveniles are held in youth correctional facilities across the country, the Prison Policy Initiative’s Feb. 27 report states....
PODCAST: How to reduce the U.S. prison population by nearly half
CorrectionsEditor’s note: Knowledge Applied is a new podcast from the University of Chicago News Office. Each of its five episodes will take listeners inside the research of UChicago scholars helping reshape everyday life while tackling some o...
ADMINISTRATION PRESSED TO EXPAND MENTAL HEALTH TREATMENT
Health CareWASHINGTON — Amid the outcry over the Florida school shootings, the Trump administration says it is “actively exploring” ways to help states expand inpatient mental health treatment using Medicaid funds. Organizations representing stat...
Mental Health Courts and Sentencing Disparities
JusticeDespite the proliferation of mental health courts across the United States, virtually no attention has been paid to the criminal justice effects these courts carry for participants. This article provides the first empirical analysis of d...
What Colorado schools are doing for students’ mental health
ChildhoodThe American Academy of Pediatrics has announced new guidelines to help spot signs of depression in pediatricians’ young patients. They are recommending that doctors carefully screen their patients ages 12 and over during their annual ...
Restorative Justice Repairing Harms, Reducing Incarceration in Colorado
Corrections(In Colorado), local restorative justice activists and policymakers work to reduce recidivism rates and repair harms to the community. Restorative justice is finding community solutions to criminal acts by bringing the offenders, victims...
Checking Facts and Falsehoods About Gun Violence and Mental Illness After Parkland Shooting
Health CareA heavily armed young man is accused of killing 17 people after opening fire on terrified students and teachers at Marjory Stoneman Douglas High School in Parkland, Fla., on Wednesday. It was the third mass shooting in the past four m...
BRYAN STEVENSON ON WHAT WELL-MEANING WHITE PEOPLE NEED TO KNOW ABOUT RACE
ChildhoodAn interview with Harvard University-trained public defense lawyer Bryan Stevenson on racial trauma, segregation, and listening to marginalized voices. You can’t understand many of the most destructive issues or policies in our country w...
Breed, Wiener working to ease destructive behavior on street
Health CareCalifornia state Sen. Scott Wiener’s newly introduced legislation would give counties more control over conservatorship programs for the mentally ill and drug-addicted. Currently, California counties can hospitalize people for 72 hours...
NEW REPORT FINDS CLASS IS A MORE POTENT PREDICTOR OF INCARCERATION THAN RACE. BUT RACISM DRIVES IT.
EducationIT’S A FACT that African-Americans are disproportionately represented in America’s prisons. In state prisons, where the majority of prisoners are held, African-Americans are incarcerated at 5.1 times the rate of white Americans. But...
Law-Enforcement Unions Have Too Much Power: In serving the interests of cops and prison guards, they hinder criminal-justice reform and encourage irresponsible public spending
Corrections“Take prison guards,” says John Pfaff, a professor at Fordham Law School who researches criminal justice. “They’re always going to fight efforts to decarcerate, because if you start emptying out prisons, you’re going to get dem...
How mass incarceration harms U.S. health, in 5 charts
DataThe evidence is clear: Mass incarceration is a public health scourge in the U.S. Most people who die in jails are not convicted. Suicide rates for incarcerated individuals are three to four times higher than rates for the general publi...
How to Employ the Formerly Incarcerated to Help Grow Your Business
ReentryOur biggest fear for the economy is that we essentially run out of labor. To gauge the importance, look at the numbers: over 2 million incarcerated, 4.8 million currently on parole or probation, 19 million with a felony conviction on the...
What if we saw jury duty as something to be embraced, not dreaded?
JusticeJury duty is an important element of a fair and democratic justice system. Another strategy to address mass incarceration is to reform juries. Founder of The Juror Project William Snowden doesn’t just want more racial diversity on jurie...
Colo. sheriff’s office to pair mental health specialists with deputies
Public SafetyBefore the Colorado Springs Police Department started its Community Response Team to better assist residents dealing with mental health issues, one woman was calling 911 about 300 times a year. But in those situations, officers were limi...
Ignoring rural areas won’t solve America’s mass incarceration problem
CorrectionsUnlike prisons, jails exist in nearly every county in America and are under local control. Designed to only hold people for a short time and when absolutely necessary, jails have become massive warehouses — particularly for those too p...
Redemption for Offenders and Victims
JusticeOFTEN, RESTORATIVE JUSTICE is an adjunct to the criminal justice system or occurs years after that process has concluded. But it can also be a stand-alone alternative. There are few pre-determined expectations other than open-minded and...
What does someone with mental illness look like? A museum tries to answer that.
Health Care“Many Faces of Our Mental Health,” an exhibition at Boston’s Museum of Science, is an attempt to cut through common misconceptions about mental illness. The show explores mental health through the lenses of both art and science,...
Measuring Up on Mental Health?
Health CareHow are we doing on goals to reduce mental health disparities and improve outcomes in the federal government’s Healthy People 2020 goal? “We have seen some gains in the expansion of mental health treatment in recent years.” But, “despite...
GO-TIME: Corrections On Course To Save Over $35 Million On Inmate Care Through Federal, State Partnerships
CorrectionsThe Pennsylvania Department of Corrections (DOC) has reduced medical costs for inmates by $14.5 million over the past two years – while maintaining or improving care – by leveraging federal and state programs and innovative partnerships,...
Our Journey Home (Official Trailer)
Health CareHousing is the foundation on which we build our lives. As a country, we have had an unstable relationship with public and affordable housing. Housing people affordably is key to helping communities foster citizens who are healthy and eng...
Washington’s Gutless Approach to Our Addiction Crisis
Health CareThe Portuguese government implemented this model of decriminalization in 2001: if someone is arrested with a small quantity of any illegal drug, they are not placed in handcuffs or sent to jail. Instead, that person receives a summons to...
Mental health and substance-use disorders are growing problems in Colorado. Pairing police with mental health professionals could help.
Public SafetyColorado is pushing for new approaches to how police officers handle cases involving mental illness and drug addiction, encouraging them to steer low-level offenders toward treatment rather than jail and giving them assistance in dealing...
The Court of a Million Chances
JusticeMental health courts, rather than a broad solution to the general problem, are best used when considering the diversion of a small percentage of that target population. However, even that small percentage can fall through the cracks with...
What It’s Like to Get Clemency — One Year Later
ReentryOver the last few months I’ve been meeting Obama’s clemency recipients for Nation of Second Chances, a photojournalism series that captures their stories. Through it, I’ve had the opportunity to connect with people like Michelle M...
College can be brutal for students with serious mental health conditions. Here, they find support their schools can’t provide
EducationFor the past three years, Boston University has offered one of the few programs in the nation dedicated to teaching students who have had to leave college the coping skills that will give them a shot at getting back into school or work...
Actually, my mental health does define who I am
Health CareTo say it doesn’t define me is to radically undermine the experiences I’ve lived through. And even if I get to the point where I’m completely, 100% ‘fixed,’ nothing can ever change the fact that my mental illness has made me who I am....
Mental health and addiction stigmas are holding us back from helping people
Health CareA powerful report by Milliman confirms insurers are not adhering to the Mental Health Parity and Addiction Equity Act of 2008 (The Federal Parity Law), which requires them to treat illnesses of the brain, such as depression and addictio...
Prison Sentences Shouldn’t Be Death Sentences: How To Fix Correctional Health Care
CorrectionsEngland’s correctional health care system offers three key lessons for the US correctional health care system. First, correctional health care should be integrated into the general health care system to ensure that all providers are su...
How The Loss Of U.S. Psychiatric Hospitals Led To A Mental Health Crisis
Health CareThe disappearance of long-term-care facilities and psychiatric beds has escalated over the past decade, sparked by a trend toward deinstitutionalization of psychiatric patients in the 1950s and ’60s, says Dominic Sisti, director of the...
Diversion Programs Are Cheaper and More Effective Than Incarceration. Prosecutors Should Embrace Them.
ReentryWhen it comes to reducing mass incarceration, some solutions are actually staring us right in the face. By targeting the underlying problems that led to the crime in the first place, effective diversion programs can improve long-term co...
Fact Sheet – Barriers to Successful Re-Entry of Formerly Incarcerated People
ReentryEvery year, nearly 700,000 people are released from American prisons, and an estimated 9 million are released from jail. According to the National Institute of Justice, almost two-thirds of them are arrested again within three years. Onc...
America’s Most Feminist Police Department
Public SafetyVisit the original article here....
Sheriffs Lead the Way
Public SafetyThough “the system” hasn’t kept up with addressing the growing social responsibilities put on law enforcement, sheriff’s offices and police departments are not alone in recognizing that there is a problem. The National Sheriffs’ Associat...
The Unsung Role That Ordinary Citizens Played in the Great Crime Decline
Policy & Culture ChangeMost theories for the great crime decline that swept across nearly every major American city over the last 25 years have focused on the would-be criminals. But none of these explanations have paid much attention to the communities where ...
How Prisoners on the Verge of Freedom Are Getting Screwed by the Feds
ReentryResidential re-entry centers provide certain rehabilitative services for people who may have been in prison for decades, the basic idea being that kicking a person back into the world without a job or a support network is likely to land ...
Why Oprah pitched a 60 Minutes story on prisons
CorrectionsRead the article here....
We need to rethink how we classify mental illness
Policy & Culture ChangeHow do we decide what emotions, thoughts and behaviours are normal, abnormal or pathological? This is essentially what a select group of psychiatrists decide each time they revise the Diagnostic and Statistical Manual of Mental Disorders...
Nothing holds Joe Coleman back as he battles through adversity
EmploymentJoe was diagnosed with cerebral palsy and mild mental condition at a young age. “I started at the bottom, and I am working my way up to the top,” said Joe. October is National Disability Employment Awareness Month, and those who know...
In Defense of Risk-Assessment Tools
DataIt may seem weird to rely on an impersonal algorithm to predict a person’s behavior given the enormous stakes. But the gravity of the outcome—in cost, crime, and wasted human potential—is exactly why we should use an algorithm. Read...
Meet the Prisoners Who Have Their Own Keys, Therapy Horses, and Leave Prison Every Day
ReentryVisit NBC news website for more....
Imprisoning the Mentally Ill: America’s ‘Shameful Tragedy’
Justice“These people are not in Rikers because they’re hardened criminals,” said Jonathan Lippman, former New York State Chief Judge. “They’re there because they have a problem, (and) they don’t need to be brutalized by a penal colo...
Why We Ended Long-Term Solitary Confinement in Colorado
ReentryRick Raemisch is the executive director of the Colorado Department of Corrections. When he began his role in 2013, there were still over 700 inmates in solitary, some of whom had been there for years. Approximately half of them were stil...
Want less crime? Put fewer people in jail
JusticeRecent studies show that even short stays in jail can spur a significant increase in a person’s likelihood to reoffend, while longer detentions correlate with even greater odds of recidivism. Overall crime rates are lower than they...
Natural experiment tests rehabilitation potential for teen killers
Reentry70 newly released men and women “are the first of 517 juvenile lifers in Pennsylvania, the largest such contingent in the nation, to be resentenced and released on parole since the Supreme Court decided that mandatory life-without-parole...
Not the worst, but not Norway: US prisons vs. other models
ReentryThe US prison system is certainly in need of reform, but compared to others around the world, it’s not the worst — nor is it the best — system on the planet. Between the two extremes — torture and intimidation versus a focus on e...
Cops and the Mentally Ill: Finding a New Approach
Public SafetyAccording to a 2016 report by the National Alliance on Mental Illness, CIT has been adopted by more than 35 states, with statewide initiatives in effect in Ohio, Georgia, Florida, Utah, and Kentucky. These methods alone are not enough ...
(NY) City Hospital System Is Expanding Children’s Mental Health Programs
ChildhoodRecognizing that negative childhood experiences can affect a person’s health long into adulthood, New York City’s public hospital system is expanding its mental health programs for children and adolescents. “Traditionally, everythi...
Less Is More: How Reducing Probation Populations Can Improve Outcomes
JusticeHarvard Kennedy School Report: It is possible to downsize probation while simultaneously decreasing incarceration and increasing public safety. New York City provides an example of how this can be done and how other jurisdictions can...
Pew Public Safety Performance Project summarizes JRI reforms
JusticeIn a recent report the Pew Public Safety Performance Project summarized reforms undertaken as part of a decade-long effort by the Justice Reinvestment Initiative (JRI), in which 36 states have enacted laws implementing research-based ...
Supporters of Forced Treatment Take Issue With Expanding Patient Consent To Refuse Care
Health CareIn a recent op-ed in Politico, law professor Elyn Saks argued for “expand[ing] the definition of competence” of seriously mentally ill people so more can refuse to consent to treatment. “Instead of designing new ways to force med...
Locking Kids in Jail for Misbehavior Isn’t Just Unfair—It’s Abuse
ChildhoodWhile wealthy kids might get grounded for a week, poor kids who run away from home or defend themselves from bullies might end up jailed for the rest of their teens. Being cut off from school could foreclose future possibilities of earni...
Cash for Leaving Prison: A New Solution to Recidivism?
ReentryWe must address the poverty that underlies criminal recidivism if we want to reduce the number of people in US prisons and jails. By addressing head-on the financial troubles of people leaving incarceration, we may be able to accelerate ...
Police Unions Join Forces to Rally for Mental Health Reform
Public SafetyUnions involved with Compassionate and Accountable Responses for Everyone push for the funding of national legislation aimed at helping officers. The “accountable” in Compassionate and Accountable Responses for Everyone...
How to End Mass Incarceration
ReentryWe see no emergent institutions on the horizon today that might render prisons a thing of the past. What we see instead are examples of criminal justice systems that have continued reforming, modulating, humanizing, shrinking, and decent...
Special probation for prisoners with mental illness cuts recidivism
ReentryEvery year, an estimated 2 million people diagnosed with mental illness are jailed in the U.S., and soon after they’re released, many wind up behind bars again. But specialized supervision on probation for people with mental illness c...
How Mental-Health Training for Police Can Save Lives—and Taxpayer Dollars
Public SafetyRarely do we find a policy option that both saves lives and saves money. But that option is here for addressing police encounters with people with mental illnesses. It is called crisis intervention team training, or CIT, and it...
‘I just started flowing. It was the only thing that helped’
ChildhoodIn tough neighborhoods, can high-school mental health counselors cut the school-to-prison pipeline? “You can ask any kindergarten teacher to pick out which one of their kids are most likely to get into trouble down the road, and they...
Opinion: The Practical Case for Parole for Violent Offenders
JusticeThose prison inmates who are eligible for parole consideration are usually repeatedly denied based on the “nature of the crime,” rather than an evaluation of a person’s transformation and accomplishments since they committed it. T...
Denver’s jail population is shrinking and officials hope new practices will hasten the decline
JusticeDenver’s jail population is on the decline after reaching near-crisis levels last winter, and officials hope that several new practices will continue to reduce the number of people who spend time in the city’s two jails. Since Januar...
Too Many People Are Calling 911. Here’s a Better Way.
DataA committee of civic, healthcare, and faith leaders launched a program called Rapid Assessment Decision And Redirection (RADAR). For weekday daytime calls that are very likely to be non-emergent in nature, Memphis partners with a faith-b...
Resilience
ChildhoodDownload this one-pager. Stay tuned for our one-pager on Childhood Resilience! For more on Resilience, Adverse Childhood Experiences (ACEs) and more, see the resources below: On building resilience: http://www.resiliencecenter.com/...
YSF: Minority Mental Health Month
Health CareMinority Mental Health Month Mental illness does not discriminate. It affects millions across the United States regardless of race, sexuality, or upbringing – impacting every aspect of their lives. But still, 80% of African Americans and...
Nine Lessons About Criminal Justice Reform
JusticeEvery year about 650,000 of those prisoners are released back into the world. We know that most of them will be unemployed a year later, and that two-thirds of them will be rearrested within three years. We have a corrections system that...
‘The Nearly Perfect Recidivism Machine’
ReentryThere is nothing about punishment that changes the underlying conditions, disorders and deficits that the majority of criminal offenders bring into the justice system. What we have accomplished is a nearly perfect recidivism machine,...
For Four Days, She Was at His Side as He Descended Into Madness
Public SafetyShe told him it was all in his head. No one was out to get him. No one was at the door. Those lights were from passing cars — not coded language that he said he alone could understand. She tried to steer him to hospitals, into ambulanc...
US police forces are practicing mindfulness to reduce officers’ stress—and violence
Public SafetyMindfulness has been gaining steam as an element of US police training in recent years, and is being introduced in departments including Seattle, Washington and Madison, Wisconsin. Research shows that because of the violence, pressure,...
Addiction doc says: It’s not the drugs. It’s the ACEs – adverse childhood experiences.
ChildhoodThe ACE Study found that the higher someone’s ACE score – the more types of childhood adversity a person experienced – the higher their risk of chronic disease, mental illness, violence, being a victim of violence and a bunch of ot...
Mental Illness Is Common, but Long-lasting Mental Illness is Rare
ChildhoodNew research suggests that nearly everyone will develop a psychological disorder at some point in their lives—but for most, it’s temporary. As a result, society should begin to view mental illnesses like bone breaks, kidney stones or...
The Essential Role of Medicaid and Criminal Justice
JusticeSpecialty courts take aim at social determinants which can be “root cause drivers” and the intersections between poverty, trauma, adverse childhood experiences and disparities in race, health and education. From a criminal and juvenile...
It’s time to refocus the punishment paradigm
JusticeBy shifting the emphasis from retribution to rewards, we can make a greater impact on inmate behavior. We’ll not only help adults in the criminal justice system minimize their offending; we’ll strengthen their resolve to successfully...
Girlhood Interrupted: The Erasure of Black Girls’ Childhood
Childhood“This groundbreaking study by the Georgetown Law Center on Poverty and Inequality provides—for the first time—data showing that adults view Black girls as less innocent and more adult-like than their white peers, especially in...
Everyday trauma reshapes Rochester schools’ approach to teaching and supervision
EducationAcross the Rochester City School District, adults are being asked to fundamentally recast the way they think about the children they teach and supervise. The new approach, called trauma-informed education, begins with a recognition that ...
To understand mental health, start teaching at an earlier age
EducationMental illness is no longer an obscure term shrouded in misunderstanding. A substantial scientific body of evidence concludes it is a disease. It’s far beyond time to standardize mental health education in students as early as...
Research: How Kids’ Health Suffers When Parents Go To Jail
ReentryMore than 1 in 10 Indiana children have a parent who has been incarcerated, the second highest rate in the nation. Recent research has focused on how this loss can impact children’s health – mind and body. Read the full article here....
When twisted justice stops prisoners from starting over
ReentryIn U.S., men, women, children get caught in revolving door of incarceration at rate that exceeds nearly all other nations. “Education, employment, housing and treatment are the four hallmarks of a really strong community. You...
Piper Kerman, Author of “Orange is the New Black” on Incarcerating Mothers
CorrectionsPiper Kerman, author of the popular book “Orange is the New Black: My Year in a Women’s Prison,” says locking up mothers has a seismic effect on children. USA TODAY...
Vera Institute: Out of Sight
Policy & Culture Changehis report explores one of the Incarceration Trends project’s most startling revelations—that the main drivers of mass incarceration are small and rural counties, not major cities. Vera’s research identified two drivers of this trend:...
Reducing Recidivism: States Deliver Results
Public SafetyBy improving the accuracy and consistency of data collection, using more timely measures, and expanding the types of recidivism metrics that are tracked as well as the populations to which these metrics are applied, states are now better...
Police speak less respectfully to black drivers, study suggests
In the NewsOne year after a succession of high-profile police shootings, researchers are still trying to better understand the delicate relationship between police and the communities they patrol. Now, instead of focusing on police use of force,...
We Need School in Prison, and States Must Take the Lead
EducationMaking education available for all people in prison is essential. When individuals participate in any kind of educational program within a prison, their chances of future incarceration drop by 13 percent. Read the full article here....
We Asked What It’s Like to Have a Mental Illness in Prison
Policy & Culture ChangeHow do circumstances like waiting months to see a psychiatrist or not having access to medication impact the people who rely on this care to stay healthy? We asked six former inmates who were managing psychological conditions during thei...
Era of Mass Expansion: Why State Officials Should Fight Jail Growth
DataOne out of every three people behind bars is being held in a local jail, yet jails get almost none of the attention that prisons do In terms of raw numbers state prison reform is the larger prize, but embracing the myth that jails are...
Media’s Damaging Depictions of Mental Illness
Policy & Culture ChangeResearch has shown that many people get their information about mental illness from the mass media (Wahl, 2004). What they do see can color their perspective, leading them to fear, avoid and discriminate against individuals with mental i...
A Fresh Take on Ending the Jail-to-Street-to-Jail Cycle
DataA “frequent flier” is someone who has cycled in and out of jail on mostly low-level charges. “Frequent fliers” are expensive: between jail, shelters, and the emergency room, they end up costing a lot more in taxpayer dollars than yo...
Let’s Call Mental Health Stigma What it Really Is: Discrimination
Policy & Culture ChangeThe negative stereotypes that shame those with mental illness and prevent them from seeking help don’t just constitute stigma ― they’re discrimination. It’s a blatant, prejudicial outlook on a certain population. Read the full article here....
Lessons From Rikers Island
In the NewsJails like Rikers—and the broken systems of which they are part—perpetuate inequality and injustice. The jail is a microcosm of everything wrong with America’s criminal-justice system—but may also offer a model for how it can be...
Uncharted State of Mind episode 1: Where we are as a nation
In the NewsEpisode 1 of “CBS Evening News Uncharted: State of Mind” examines the state of mental health care in the United States. Rocky Schwartz, a mother of two sons suffering from mental illness, discusses the impact it has had on...
I Escaped My Manic Demons, but My Clients Usually Can’t
Policy & Culture ChangeA social worker struggles to keep the mentally ill poor out of jail, fighting the stigma that surrounds her clients and unable to disclose her own struggle with bipolar disorder. “My personal experience has been both a blessing and a cur...
Equitas Hosts Two Regional Summits on Behavioral Health and Criminal Justice
Blog, In the News, Media Releases“You wouldn’t take a car to a dentist to get fixed. Why would you use a jail for mental health treatment?” asked Fairfax County Sheriff Stacey Kincaid during Equitas’ Mid-Atlantic Summit. April 4, 2017 – (DENVER, COLO.) – March...
Ex-Offenders Need Jobs, Not Handouts. But There Are Too Many Regulatory Barriers.
ReentryWhat most ex-offenders need isn’t a handout, but a job. Alas, landing a job is no easy feat for those with a criminal record. And to at least some extent, bad public policy is to blame. Read the full article here. ...
American prisons’ cruel and unusual health care
CorrectionsAll but 8 states charge mostly indigent, unpaid inmates for medical care and then release them, unhealthy and unprepared, into society. No wonder we have a 70% recidivism rate. The job of wise governance is to construct public policy...
Video: Watch Lady Gaga and Prince William discuss mental health over a FaceTime chat
In the NewsLady Gaga, who last year spoke out about her struggles with post-traumatic stress disorder, places the call from her kitchen in California, and William answers at his desk in Kensington Palace. Read the article here....
Falling Through the Cracks in our Mental Health System: A Way Out
Health CareThe Colorado State Legislature is considering a bill, SB17-207, this year that would end the practice of holding people, who have committed no crime, in prison for 72 hour mental health holds. In response to hearing about Healthier Color...
Film: God Knows Where I Am
Policy & Culture ChangeGod Knows Where I Am—beautiful, haunting and supremely moving—is one of the most powerful documentary films I have seen on America’s flawed approach to mental health and homelessness. Essential viewing for anyone seeking to underst...
What Medicine Could Teach Our Flawed Justice System
JusticeDana-Farber recognized that safety should be a core property of its system of care. It made transparency a central goal and, most importantly, it recognized that safety work is never finished; that nothing is permanently “fixed” and th...
How much do incarcerated people earn in each state?
Policy & Culture ChangeThe meager earnings from prison work assignments can be essential to a person’s success – and even survival – when they return to their community. Of course, raising wages is a tough sell politically, but policymakers and the public...
The Prison-Health Paradox
Policy & Culture ChangeParadoxically, going to prison can actually improve health—at least temporarily—for some inmates. Black male inmates, the authors write, have a lower mortality rate than similarly aged black men who aren’t in jail. Read the full...
Simplifying How the Courts Seal Criminal Records
JusticeNew legislation in Pennsylvania would change the now-costly and time-consuming process—and mitigate the employment obstacles people face when they cannot shake their old convictions. “People recognized that a criminal record...
Can Pennsylvania find a way out for thousands of mentally ill inmates languishing in county jails?
Reentry“Our numbers are getting worse,” Wetzel said. “It’s a combination of more folks coming in — three decades of overusing incarceration as a response to crime — but, also, we’re probably doing a better job of identifying folks, wh...
When a drug epidemic’s victims are white
Policy & Culture ChangeLawmakers, the media, and the general public treated the crack epidemic much differently than they do the opioid epidemic of today. Why? Read the full article here....
Does the death penalty target people who are mentally ill? We checked.
JusticeCurrent debates are considering whether those bans should extend to people with severe mental illness. While considering the question, Americans may wish to be aware that, statistically speaking, our current death penalty system does...
When Warriors Put on the Badge
Public SafetyEven as departments around the country have attempted a cultural transformation from “warriors” to “guardians,” one in five police officers is literally a warrior, returned from Afghanistan, Iraq or other assignments. Attracting...
Investing in early childhood education now reduces crime later
EducationThe evidence shows that high-quality early childhood education programs are critical for our future public safety, and for many of the kids, they are a ticket to a successful life that does not include crime. Preschool can return, on ave...
Father Of 2 Sons With Schizophrenia Talks Of His Struggle To Save Them
In the NewsRon Powers’ new book, No One Cares About Crazy People, is both a memoir about his sons and a history of how the mentally ill have been treated medically, legally and socially. “To force that person into being helped is a violation of hi...
New Prison Program Pairs Mentors With Young Offenders
EducationThe pilot program, called T.R.U.E. (Truthfulness to oneself and others, Respect toward the community, Understanding ourselves and what brought us here, Elevating into success) was set up about seven weeks ago for about 70 18- to 25-year-...
Listen up, lawmakers. Mandatory minimum sentences won’t stop crime: Amasa Miller
Justice“It’s crazy to think we would be deterred by something we didn’t even know existed.” Take it from her, a young, non-violent drug dealer who since served 9 years in prison. Read the full article here....
Colorado would outlaw using jails for mental health holds, increase services under $9.5 million proposal
Public SafetyA $9.5 million proposal would outlaw locking people in jail when they are picked up on mental health holds and bolster the state’s network of crisis-response teams, walk-in treatment centers and transportation from rural Colorado. A bi...
Cost-Benefit Analysis and Justice Policy Toolkit from Vera Institute of Justice
Health Care“From our trainings we…learned that analysts in the justice field encounter a few common obstacles. Some face data or methods challenges when teasing out an investment’s impact or cost. Others are working to monetize intangible benefit...
We spend $100 billion on policing. We have no idea what works.
Policy & Culture ChangeIt is one thing to count crimes that did happen; it is quite another to count crimes that didn’t. We can, of course, compare crime rates before and after a new technology or tactic is put in place, but it is hard to establish the cause...
My Damn Mind (This American Life)
Public SafetyThe brain! It’s powerful! Two stories of the brain working for and against its owners. A staffer at St Joseph Medical Center in Houston finds a patient shot on the floor of his room. He is unarmed, and has been shot by the cops in the ho...
Colorado corrections staff wrap youths in straitjackets, subdue with knee strikes, report says
In the NewsThe “culture of violence” at the Colorado Division of Youth Corrections is not only unsafe for teens and staff, but is further torment to youths who suffered abuse and neglect before they were sent behind bars, says the February 2...
This Town Adopted Trauma-Informed Care—And Saw a Decrease in Crime and Suspension Rates
EducationThe members of the Walla Walla coalition each agreed to create a community that understands the impacts of trauma, brain development, and ways to foster resilience. “There’s so many things that happen outside of the classroom that ca...
Disabled teen rages, pounds on cell door and confounds Florida juvenile justice
JusticeAt least 13 times in the past six years, psychologists and psychiatrists have declared Keishan Ross too intellectually disabled or mentally ill to be judged for the one-child wrecking crew he has become. His intelligence score has been t...
Exclude mentally ill defendants from death penalty
In the NewsExcluding severe mental illness defendants from the death penalty would be a fair and efficient reform. Our society’s understanding of mental illness improves every day, with a growing movement nationwide to reduce the number of indiv...
Emptying the ‘New Asylums’: A Beds Capacity Model to Reduce Mental Illness Behind Bars
DataEmptying the ‘New Asylums’: A Beds Capacity Model to Reduce Mental Illness Behind Bars reports the findings of a mathematical model built to project whether relatively modest selected changes to the status quo could break this logjam. Th...
Mass Incarceration is the Enemy of Economic Opportunity
DataBridgespan’s report is part of its “Billion Dollar Bets” series, which identifies six areas of philanthropic investment that could have outsized impacts on improving “economic opportunity for every...
Update On NAMI Petition
In the NewsAn Internet petition asking NAMI to focus more of its programs and lobbying efforts on behalf of the 4 % of individuals with serious mental illnesses has garnered more than 550 signatures. The petition signers, many of whom are long time...
Colorado Department of Human Services Requests a Six Million Dollar Annual Allocation from the Marijuana Tax Cash Fund to Pursue a Public Health Approach to Drug Use and Mental Health
Health CareFunding Will Support Innovative Harm Reduction Models of Care including Law Enforcement Assisted Diversion and Mental Health Co-Responder Initiatives. Advocates Applaud this Critical Step Forward for Cost Effective Public Health...
He Was Saved From Homelessness But Will This Recovery Program Survive Anticipated Cuts?
Policy & Culture ChangeHis mental illness nearly took his life away. Then a unique program gave his life back. Read the full article here....
Hickenlooper delivers state of the state address
In the NewsEquitas’ favorite part of the Governor’s address: “Being the healthiest state means caring for our bodies…and also our minds. We’ve made important strides in mental health by expanding access to coverage, integrating primary care and...
Colorado Mental Health Hold Task Force Recommendations
Blog, Douglas K. Wilson, In the NewsSB 16-169, which would have extended the time individuals in mental health crisis could be held in jails was vetoed by Governor Hickenlooper in June 2016. “We agree that appropriate mental health facilities are not always readily avail...
Task Force Releases Recommendations to Protect the Rights of Coloradans Experiencing Mental Health Crises
In the NewsA task force created to evaluate the legality of ‘mental health holds’ provided recommendations this week to ensure people who are experiencing a mental health crisis receive proper treatment and constitutional protections. The task ...
Nashville to build first-of-its-kind health center for mentally ill arrestees
Public SafetySheriff Daron Hall of Nashville says it’s time to find a new way to treat the inmate population so that they get the help they need. As part of that effort, Davidson County will create a behavioral health care center. The budget for th...
More People Die in Police Encounters Than We Thought
Policy & Culture ChangeThe number of police-related fatalities in the United States appears to be far higher than the federal government has previously estimated. The Bureau of Justice Statistics’ researchers identified 1,348 arrest-related deaths from...
A New Day for Mental Health: Author and advocate Pete Earley reflects on passage of mental health reform
Public SafetyIn a year when political discourse seemed to reach all new levels of fire-spitting acrimony, one collaborative bright spot was the recent passage of the 21st Century Cures Act, part of which aims to reform the nation’s mental health...
Psychiatrists Must Face Possibility that Medications Hurt More than they Help
Policy & Culture ChangeReporter Sarah G. Miller notes in “1 in 6 Americans Takes a Psychiatric Drug” that prescriptions for mental illness keep surging. As of 2013, almost 17 percent of Americans were taking at least one psychiatric drug, up from 10 percen...
Drug companies prey on children
Policy & Culture ChangeOne out of 13 American children between the ages of 6 and 17 has taken a psychotropic medication within the last six months, according to the Centers for Disease Control. Meanwhile, youth suicide rates are at their peak going back at lea...
Mass incarceration and children’s outcomes: Criminal justice policy is education policy
Policy & Culture ChangeThe discriminatory incarceration of African American parents is an important cause of their children’s lowered performance, especially in schools where the trauma of parental incarceration is concentrated. In this report, we review stu...
Consensus Workgroup Policy Recommendations to the 115th Congress and Trump Administration on Behavioral Health Issues in the Criminal Justice System
In the NewsThe Consensus Workgroup includes organizations representing individuals with behavioral heath needs and their families, providers, correctional systems and administrators, criminal justice reformers, state and local governments, state an...
Does the death penalty serve a purpose? Supreme Court hasn’t decided either
JusticeThe next step for the court, beyond juveniles and the intellectual disabled, may be to set a national standard for defendants with severe mental illness. The American Bar Association, American Psychological Association, National Allianc...
Many states still execute inmates with severe mental illnesses
In the NewsSeveral states, including Ohio, Tennessee, Texas, Virginia, and North Carolina, are “expected to consider severe mental illness exemptions” to their death penalty law next year, said Hilarie Bass, president-elect of the American Bar ...
Unnecessary incarceration costs U.S. taxpayers $20 billion a year, Brennan Center study says
DataMany of the country’s inmates shouldn’t be imprisoned, the Brennan Center concluded. In particular, nearly 40 percent of the country’s inmates are being incarcerated “without a sufficient public safety rationale. They include low-level...
San Antonio became a national leader in mental health care by working together as a community.
JusticeOver the past decade and a half, San Antonio community leaders, government officials, law enforcement, judges, medical institutions, and the county mental health authority have made tremendous strides together in identifying and treating...
An Incubator for (Former) Drug Dealers
Reentry“Hustlers are entrepreneurs denied opportunity” Defy ventures, a non-profit teaching entrepreneurship to the formerly incarcerated, based out of New York, boasts a 3% recidivism rate, 72% lower than the national average. TRAP House in...
Mental Health America’s Report: The State of Mental Health in America 2017
Policy & Culture ChangeRead the full report here....
From Princeton to prison, in this jailhouse classroom everyone learns
EducationDozens of volunteers in the Petey Greene Program spend two hours a week in a state prison tutoring inmates working toward their high school diploma or equivalency. Students are given an opportunity to venture outside the bubble of campu...
Texas’ Standard of Intellectual Disability Is Horrific
JusticeIn the case of death row inmate Bobby Moore, a lower Texas court prohibited the use of current medical standards in evaluating intellectual disability in death-penalty cases and instead used its own unscientific approach and outdated ste...
Giving ex-prisoners drugs may help stop them re-offending: Mental health medication could cut relapse rates
ReentryIn a population of more than 22,000 Swedish prisoners, researchers found during an average follow up period of more than four and a half years over 4,000 of them went on to violently reoffend. But providing ex-prisoners with the...
To Reduce Prison Population, Invest in Public Mental Health, New Study Says
Health Care‘It is well known that U.S. prisons and jails have become de facto mental health facilities.’ A new study points to a key way to reduce the prison population in the incarceration capital of the world: boost spending on...
Mental health center’s new house for youth is the “cool” version of a mental health clinic
EducationThe point of Emerson St. is to help young people deal with mental health issues before their lives get too far off track to recover. “They have a better chance of realizing their goals and having the life trajectory that they...
How a Philly cop broke the school-to-prison pipeline
EducationThe concept is simple: Give first-time, low-level offenders a one-time break – and, instead of criminalizing the behavior, address its root causes. This mild-mannered approach represents an antidote to zero tolerance, a...
Colorado Summit Resource Compendium
Data, Douglas K. Wilson, Judge Steven Leifman, Lisa M. Clements, Patrick Fox, M.D., Rick RaemischOn August 31st and September 1st, 2016, Equitas Foundation convened hundreds of stakeholders from across the state of Colorado to take on the entanglement of behavioral health and criminal justice and come up with real solutions. As part...
When Police Deal With People Who Have Mental Health Issues
Public Safety…It too often ends in tragedy, but specialized training for officers is starting to make a difference. Leadership, training, data, crisis care response, and continuity of care are necessary for transformative change. Read the...
This Eye-Opening Prison Population Pie Chart will Blow your Mind
Data70% of people in local jails are not convicted of any crime. Of 646,000 people in local jails, only 195,000 have actually been convicted and are generally serving time for misdemeanor sentences of under a year. 1 in 5 people are locked...
Strategies, Tools for Educators to Dismantle School-to-Prison Pipeline
Policy & Culture ChangeAll of us should remember that the consequences associated with detaining, arresting and excluding students from school are devastating for both the students and our society as a whole. Multiple empirical studies show that incarcerating ...
New Report Examines Country’s Racial Wealth Divide
Policy & Culture ChangeA new report released on Monday looks at the country’s racial wealth gap, finding that if current public policies stay the same, it will take more than two centuries for black families to accumulate the same amount of wealth that...
13 Important Questions About Criminal Justice We Can’t Answer
Policy & Culture ChangeThe problem with a lack of data on the criminal justice system is more than just budgetary. It’s a cultural issue that gets to the heart of why criminal justice reform is so very difficult. Read the full article here....
The Hope-Filled Program That’s Keeping One-Time Criminals from Becoming Serial Offenders
ReentryFortune Society’s Alternatives to Incarceration (ATI) is one of New York City’s most prominent pretrial release programs. With it, judges offer second chances in the courtroom and accused felons are voluntarily diverted into treatment....
The Netherlands has a strange problem: Empty prisons
In the NewsThe Dutch crime rate has dropped by about .9% each year for the past several years. Coupled with changing criminal justice policies, the total numbers of inmates held in Dutch prisons fell by 27 percent between 2011 and 2015. As a resul...
Colorado’s new mental health task force to begin meeting in August
Policy & Culture ChangeA new task force requested by Gov. John Hickenlooper after he vetoed a bill that would have expanded Colorado’s mental health hold law will begin meeting next month. The “diverse and talented” group will include Vincent Atchity...
Families failed by a broken mental health care system often have no one to call but police.
JusticeWithout adequate community-based mental health care to address Americans in mental health crisis, complex problems escalate until they finally fall to the police. In Massachusetts, efforts are now being made to address these needs...
Equitas Foundation Announces Colorado Summit on Behavioral Health and Criminal Justice
Blog, Douglas K. Wilson, Judge Steven Leifman, Media ReleasesIn collaboration with its partners, Equitas Foundation announces the Colorado Summit on Behavioral Health and Criminal Justice. At this event, 225 experts and advocates from all over the state will convene to identify best practices for ...
White House pushes communities to use data to cut down on incarceration
DataThe Obama administration announced the creation of its “Data-Driven Justice Initiative,” trumpeting its new partnership with seven states and 60 municipalities to use high-tech techniques to move nonviolent offenders out of jails. “...
Are Traffic Stops Prone to Racial Bias?
Policy & Culture ChangeAcross the country, good data on traffic stops proves elusive and incomplete. Many states are working to improve data collection and analysis. Read the full article here....
What If America Approached Crime Like Treating a Disease?
JusticeWhat if doctors prescribed the same treatment to every patient with a particular symptom, without trying to diagnose its cause? Or if they offered powerful medications, without bothering to figure out if they worked? Read the full...
It’s Time to Ask the Question: What are Prisons For?
Policy & Culture ChangeThe “Reimagining Prison” initiative, launched this week by the Vera Institute, creates a space for big-picture thinking to end mass incarceration. “The only way to change the culture of punishment is to let people see what is...
Incarceration, crime fall
JusticeA new research study from the Brennan Center for Justice at the New York University School of Law finds that in 27 states that have decreased their prison populations, crime also has decreased. Read the full article here....
In the Netherlands, Empty Prisons Become Homes for Refugees
In the NewsAs plunging crime rates close prisons across the country, a government agency is using the space to house refugees. “If a country has no prisoners to put in jail,” said one Syrian refugee, “it means this is the safest country that I...
Our Awful Prisons: How They Can Be Changed
JusticeIn 1950, Finland had a higher incarceration rate than we had in the US. Today, the US has the world’s highest incarceration rates. “One important idea that emerged,” write two scholars of Finland’s changes, “was that prison cures...
High School Suspensions Cost The Country $35 Billion Annually, Report Estimates
Policy & Culture ChangeWhen students get suspended from school for a few days, they may not be the only ones who miss out. A report released today by UCLA’s Civil Rights Project tries for the first time to quantify the full social cost of so-called...
Madness
Policy & Culture ChangeIn Florida prisons, mentally ill inmates have been tortured, driven to suicide, and killed by guards. Shortly after Harriet Krzykowski began working at the Dade Correctional Institution, in Florida, an inmate whispered to her, “You kno...
Privacy, Weekend Leave, Keys…This is Prison?
In the NewsBill Whitaker reports on the German prison system which emphasizes rehabilitation rather than punishment and allows convicts an astonishing amount of freedom. Read the full article here....
Gun Politics Stymie Mental Health Push
In the NewsPartisan tensions over gun control popped up during a Senate hearing on mental healthcare reform Wednesday, threatening the effort to find a bipartisan path forward. To read the full original article, click here....
Assisted Suicide Study Questions Its Use for Mentally Ill
In the NewsA new study of doctor-assisted death for people with mental disorders raises questions about the practice, finding that in more than half of approved cases people declined treatment that could have helped, and that many cited loneliness ...
LA City, County Pass Sweeping Plans Against Homelessness
DataLOS ANGELES — The city and county on Tuesday approved sweeping plans to fight homelessness by subsidizing housing and coordinating programs to keep people from joining an estimated 45,000 people already living on the streets. To read...
When Addiction Has a White Face
In the NewsWHEN crack hit America in the mid-1980s, for African-Americans, to borrow from Ta-Nehisi Coates, civilization fell. Crack embodied instant and fatal addiction; we saw endless images of thin, ravaged bodies, always black, as though from...
The Most Promising Reform
In the NewsMany years ago, I was a criminal defense and civil rights lawyer in Minneapolis. One day, a young woman named Rebecca came into my office. She was a student at William Mitchell College of Law in St. Paul. She and my law clerk were friend...
Autism Community Angered by Mesa Police Shooting of Transgender Man in Viral Video
Public SafetyThe Mesa police shooting of a transgender man with Asperger’s syndrome has one Phoenix-area advocacy group calling for better police training. To read the full original article, click here....
Opening Up About Depression
In the NewsI have slogged through a number of difficult situations in recent months, among them the ongoing crises of my elderly parents’ illnesses and the suicide of a friend. I never lost my appetite nor burst into tears, and I didn’t suffer ...
No Safe Harbor: Pennsylvania Prisons Cope with Mental Health
In the NewsFor a bingo game, it was restrained. No one leapt from their seats. They were chained to the table legs. Winners didn’t throw up their hands. They were cuffed. And while a dozen players sat at tables, four worked their cards while seated...
Denver Sheriff Giving Heroin Antidote to Addicted Inmates Leaving Jail
In the NewsThe Denver Sheriff Department is giving a heroin antidote to high-risk inmates when they leave the city’s two jails. Inmates who have been addicted to heroin and other opiates are being trained on how to use naloxone nasal spray...
Colorado Says It’s Cleared Backlog of Inmates Waiting for Evaluations
In the NewsThe Colorado Department of Human Services says it has cleared a backlog of inmates who had to wait months in some cases for court-ordered mental health evaluations and treatments. To read the full original article, click here....
Cold Turkey: New Hampshire’s Prison Detox
In the NewsThe United States is dealing with a major public health crisis. Over the last decade, heroin-related overdose deaths have nearly quadrupled. The epicenter of this epidemic is New Hampshire, with the highest rate of young adults abusing o...
An Unusual Insanity Plea Highlights the Limits of State Mental Health Services
In the NewsFULTON, Mo. Had it not been for his insanity plea, Sean Cory Carter might have served just 10 days in jail for hitting a mental health worker in the eye in 1992. To read the full original article, click here....
New Plan to Treat Schizophrenia is Worth Added Cost, Study Says
In the NewsA new approach to treating early schizophrenia, which includes family counseling, results in improvements in quality of life that make it worth the added expense, researchers reported on Monday. To read the full original article, click here....
Congress Eschews Conventional Wisdom on Criminal Justice Reform
In the NewsThe Senate Judiciary Committee seems to have thrown the election-year rulebook out the window. Conventional Senate wisdom says similar bills should be paired together for the best chance of receiving floor time. But lawmakers from both s...
New Report Helps Policymakers Better Respond to People with Mental Health Needs in the Criminal Justice System
DataNEW YORK, NY – The Vera Institute of Justice today released a new report containing recommendations on how to reduce the disproportionate contact that people with mental illness have with the criminal justice system. It proposes a “f...
Scientists Move Closer to Understanding Schizophrenia’s Cause
In the NewsScientists reported on Wednesday that they had taken a significant step toward understanding the cause of schizophrenia, in a landmark study that provides the first rigorously tested insight into the biology behind any common...
Michael Marshall’s Death at the Denver Jail Ruled a Homicide: Why Was He There in the First Place?
JusticeMichael Marshall died last November at the Denver jail from injuries he received under the custody of Denver Sheriff deputies. Earlier today, his death was ruled a homicide by the City coroner’s office. In addition to serious questions...
How to Stop the Dangerous “Revolving Door” of Jailing the Mentally Ill
Public SafetyWhile confined in a jail, a prisoner must contend with a wide array of unknowns. Some have to do with getting out: When will I be released, when will I speak to a lawyer, when will I see a judge, how will my case be resolved, will I b...
New York City’s Promising Step on Criminal Justice
In the NewsThe New York City Council is poised to take what could be a step toward a fairer and smarter criminal justice system. A package of bills to be introduced on Monday seeks to resolve an old impasse over how to deter minor lawbreaking...
Massachusetts Chief’s Tack in Drug War: Steer Addicts to Rehab, not Jail
Public SafetyCANTON, Ohio — Leonard Campanello, the police chief of Gloucester, Mass., took the microphone here in mid-December and opened with his usual warm-up line: I’m from Gloucester, he said in his heavy Boston accent. “That’s spelled ...
Rethinking Criminal Intent: Why Mens Rea Matters
In the NewsIn order for the government to legally prosecute, convict and punish someone, in most cases it must prove that the person committed the criminal act (known as actus reus) and that he or she committed that act with criminal intention ...
How the Epidemic of Drug Overdose Ripples Across America
In the NewsDeaths from drug overdoses have surged in nearly every county across the United States, driven largely by an explosion in addiction to prescription painkillers and heroin. To read the full original article, click here....
Massachusetts Mobilizes to Treat Addicted Moms
ChildhoodKayla Duggan, a heroin addict, had just started a one-year jail sentence in Massachusetts when she was startled to learn she was pregnant. Only a few months earlier she had given birth to a baby girl who was immediately taken into...
Cuomo, in State of the State Speech, Unveils $20 Billion Housing Plan
Policy & Culture ChangeALBANY — Proposing to address the dual challenges of homelessness and a lack of affordable housing, Gov. Andrew M. Cuomo unveiled a $20 billion plan on Wednesday to add 100,000 permanent housing units over five years, and 20,000 suppor...
Where Police Violence Encounters Mental Illness
Public SafetyNEARLY 20 years ago, I was a social worker in a county jail where I first began to understand just how frequently the police deal with people with mental illnesses. Run-ins with the police were a regular occurrence for many of my clients...
House Judiciary Committee Approves Bill to Improve Care for Mentally Ill Offenders
In the NewsAs part of the House Judiciary Committee’s bipartisan criminal justice reform initiative, today the Committee approved by voice vote the Comprehensive Justice and Mental Health Act of 2015 (H.R. 1854). This bipartisan, bicameral bil...
Implant for Opiod Addicts Urged for Federal Approval
In the NewsSILVER SPRING, Md. — A panel of medical experts recommended Tuesday that the Food and Drug Administration approve a new way of treating opioid addicts, using a slender rod implanted into the arm that delivers medicine for months at a t...
Investigators Say Denver Inmate Suffocated While Restrained
In the NewsDENVER — A jail inmate choked on his own vomit and suffocated while being restrained by Denver sheriff’s deputies during a psychotic episode, according to an autopsy report released Friday. To read the full original article,...
Prisons Have Become America’s New Asylums
In the NewsAmerica’s prisons have become warehouses for the severely mentally ill. Under the guise of punishing criminality, these inmates may be subject to cruelty from corrections staff, physical constraint up to and including lockdown or solit...
Outsourcing the Mentally Ill to Police
Public SafetyThe latest police shooting to roil Chicago was all too familiar — and not because it fits the poisonous narrative of rampant police racism alleged by Black Lives Matter. To read the full original article, click here....
Promoting Health Access to Keep People with Mental Illness Out of Jail
In the NewsFor many people with mental illness — who lack access to health services and an adequate support system — jail has become a de facto home. Of the approximately 10 million individuals nationally who cycle in and out of local jails eac...
“Infectious Madness,” by Harriet A. Washington
In the NewsOne hundred and sixty odd years ago, Ignaz Semmelweis realized that physicians who didn’t wash their hands were carrying tiny germs from bedside to bedside and causing the childbed fever that killed many women. After doctors began wash...
Suicide Claims 14th Marine From a Unit Battered By Loss
In the NewsLONGMONT, Colo. — Tyler Schlagel slipped out of his parents’ house while they were asleep three weeks ago and drove through the wintry darkness to his favorite fishing lake high in the Rockies. Mr. Schlagel, a 29-year-old former Mari...
U.S. Police Get Little Training to Handle Crises with Mentally Ill
Public SafetyNEW YORK/CHICAGO — Most U.S. police receive little or no training on how best to handle crises involving the mentally ill despite the growing frequency of such encounters and the fatal results in a number of recent cases. To read the...
Advocates Say Chicago Police Training Has Languished
Public SafetyCHICAGO — In the wake of another police shooting, Mayor Rahm Emanuel called for an immediate review of how the Chicago Police Department trains officers to respond to calls involving people in crisis or with mental health problems. But...
Programs Expand Schizophrenia Patients’ Role in Their Own Care
In the NewsSAN FRANCISCO — The idea was to go out in an emotional swan dive, a lunge for the afterlife that would stretch his 17-year-old imagination. He settled on a plan and shared the details with a Facebook friend: He would drop DMT, a powerf...
New York State Agrees to Overhaul Solitary Confinement in Prisons
In the NewsNew York has agreed to a major overhaul in the way solitary confinement is administered in the state’s prisons, with the goal of significantly reducing the number of inmates held in isolation, cutting the maximum length of stay and imp...
Don’t Blame Mental Illness for Gun Violence
In the NewsThose who oppose expanded gun-control legislation frequently argue that instead of limiting access to guns, the country should focus on mental health problems. “People with mental illness are getting guns and committing these mass shoo...
NYC Bets Big on “Supportive Housing” to Curb Homelessness
Policy & Culture ChangeNEW YORK — The scene of neighbors hanging holiday decorations at their tidy Bronx apartment building was nothing remarkable, except to the people doing it. Like everyone else at Haven Apartments, they had been homeless and mentally ill...
U.S. Senate Passes the Comprehensive Justice and Mental Health Act
JusticeThe Council of State Governments Justice Center applauded members of the U.S. Senate for their unanimous vote to approve S.993, the Comprehensive Justice and Mental Health Act of 2015. The bipartisan Senate legislation, introduced by U.S...
Denver’s “Tough Love” Therapy Aims to Turn Lives Around
In the NewsReuters) – Paul Thompson started sniffing glue at 10 years old. It seemed harmless enough at first but it was the first step on a road to addiction and crime. To read the full original article, click here....
What it’s Like to be a Cop Involved in a Mass Shooting
In the NewsThe anger. The numbness. The flashbacks. Mass shootings such as the one in San Bernardino, Calif. this week can haunt, for years, the police officers who are often first to the scene. It is a trauma that Sergeant A.J. DeAndrea of Arvada,...
New York Disarms the “Mentally Ill”
In the NewsWhy mental health experts are up in arms. The proposition that a person who is mentally ill and dangerous should not be permitted to possess a firearm seems incontrovertible. But putting that proposition into practice is controversial, a...
Suicide and Attempts on the Rise in Texas Prisons
In the NewsBruce Harrington was 29 the first time he tried to kill himself. It was just before Christmas in 2008, his sixth year in prison. He slashed his left arm and fashioned a noose from the sheets in his cell. To read the full original...
Treating Mental Illness in New York, From All Angles
In the NewsAs too many people know only too well, mental health is a world of unmet needs and untold suffering. Society’s ability to identify and treat emotional ailments and addiction is painfully inadequate. Families, left to themselves, strugg...
When the Army Pushes a Soldier Out, His Mental Health Struggles Are Left to Others
In the NewsFrank Costabile was broke and paranoid after the Army forced him out in 2012. The former private first class was so jittery from his time in a war zone he says he couldn’t walk down the street without looking over his shoulder. Final...
The Gaping Hole in the Prison Early Release Program
In the NewsIn October, the Obama administration announced the early release of more than 6,000 federal inmates. While a surfeit of data on America’s over-incarceration appears to support the administra...
Suicide in Jail Spurs Action After Mother Shares Son’s Story
In the NewsMy 39-year old son killed himself today. Josh hung himself in a solitary confinement cell in a prison south of St. Louis, Missouri. He died alone, afraid, and powerless. Josh needed help. Instead, he got punishment. To read the full...
NFL Players Talk Openly to Help Destigmatize Mental Illness
In the NewsHOUSTON — Arian Foster was in a bad place, drinking heavily to self-medicate and deal with the problems in his life. The Houston Texans running back knew he needed help but was reluctant to seek it because of the stigma surrounding men...
Judged Incompetent to Stand Trial, People With Mental Illness Still Languish in Pennsylvania Jails
In the NewsSome of Pennsylvania’s most vulnerable citizens—people facing criminal charges who are not competent to stand trial because of mental disabilities—have begun a class action lawsuit over the state’s provision of mental health treatment....
U.S. Courts Should Consider War Trauma of Veterans on Death Row: Report
In the News(Reuters) – U.S. military veterans make up about 10 percent of inmates on death row and courts are not doing enough to consider post traumatic stress disorder (PTSD) as a mitigating factor in sentencing, a study released on...
Fighting the “After-War”
In the NewsThe nearly two million American military men and women who have served in Iraq and Afghanistan put themselves in harm’s way daily in order to serve their country. Nearly 7,000 have died in those wars. Another 52,000 have been wounded i...
How Memphis Has Changed the Way Police Respond to Mental Health Crises
Public SafetyFor decades, the Memphis Police Department has pioneered a model to better serve people experiencing a mental health crisis. The “Memphis Model,” which aims to keep both officers and citizens safe and send fewer people to jail, has sprea...
Where Homeless Meets Crazy
In the NewsIN every corner of the world, there are people who are flagrantly ill, people who mutter to invisible others and box at the air. But because the cultural texture is different in different settings, the experience of madness can be quite ...
Senators Demand Probe Into Army’s Discharge of Troops With Mental Problems
In the NewsA dozen U.S. senators want to know why the Army has booted out 22,000 troops since 2009, soldiers who got into some kind of trouble after they returned from war. Colorado’s Michael Bennet is among the lawmakers who sent a letter to Arm...
Small Towns Face Rising Suicide Rates
In the NewsLARAMIE, WYO. — After her family moved from suburban New Hampshire to the wind-whipped plains of southeastern Wyoming, Monica Morin embraced small-town life, forging lasting friendships and celebrating her own quirky style. To read the...
Investigation: Army Kicked Out Thousands of Soldiers With Brain Injuries, Mental Health Issues
In the NewsStaff Sgt. Eric James, an Army sniper who served two tours in Iraq, paused before he walked into a psychiatrist’s office at Fort Carson, Colo. It was April 3, 2014. James clicked record on his smartphone, and then tucked the phone and hi...
Obama Defends Black Lives Matter in Conversation on Criminal Justice
In the NewsPresident Barack Obama said Thursday that the Black Lives Matter movement had given voice to the anger and discontent over policing and incarceration that has long been a fact of life in the black community. To read the full original...
State Hospital Accused of Cover-Up, Violating Inmate Evaluation Agreement
In the NewsJim Lynn is overwhelmed with guilt for the phone call he made in April. Out of options and again facing his screaming, schizophrenic son, Lynn had hoped his 911 call to the sheriff’s office finally would lead to treatment. Instead, his 3...
What To Do With California’s Mentally Ill Defendants?
In the NewsIn 2010, Rodney Bock was arrested for carrying a loaded gun into a restaurant in Yuba City, Calif., north of Sacramento. Bock had severe mental illness and was later found incompetent to stand trial. He was released on bail, but was rear...
Police Leaders Join Call to Cut Prison Rosters
Public SafetyMore than 130 police chiefs, prosecutors and sheriffs — including some of the most prominent law enforcement officials in the country — are adding their clout to the movement to reduce the nation’s incarceration rate. To read the full...
New Approach Advised to Treat Schizophrenia
In the NewsMore than two million people in the United States have a diagnosis of schizophrenia, and the treatment for most of them mainly involves strong doses of antipsychotic drugs that blunt hallucinations and delusions but can come with unbeara...
Schizophrenia in America – Stop the Madness
In the NewsThere’s a miraculous new treatment for schizophrenia that could transform the way we treat mental illness. And then there are the terrible reasons why most medical professionals have never heard of it. To read the full original...
Treating the Trauma of Young Syrian Refugees
In the NewsIn global health, mental illness has historically taken a back seat to more deadly medical concerns like infectious diseases. But aid organizations, local charities and independent doctors have often intervened during crises to address...
The Chains of Mental Illness in West Africa
In the NewsKPOVÉ, Togo — The church grounds here sprawled through a strange, dreamlike forest. More than 150 men and women were chained by the ankle to a tree or concrete block, a short walk from the central place of worship. Most were experienc...
In West Africa, a Mission to Save Minds
In the NewsSANDEMA, Ghana — For more than a year, Rebecca Ajadogbil had been living alone in her head, convinced that strange men were coming to capture and murder her. Confined to a room in her family’s mud-walled compound here, not far from t...
Gun Deaths Are Mostly Suicides
In the NewsWhen Americans think about deaths from guns, we tend to focus on homicides. But the problem of gun suicide is inescapable: More than 60 percent of people in this country who die from guns die by suicide. To read the full original...
A Criminal Mind
In the NewsFor 40 years, Joel Dreyer was a respected psychiatrist who oversaw a clinic for troubled children, belonged to an exclusive country club, and doted on his four daughters and nine grandchildren. Then, suddenly, he became a major drug...
The Counted: Are US Police Hiding Behind “Suicide by Cop” Shootings?
Public SafetyFatal shootings by police around the US are being ruled suicides. Are officers avoiding scrutiny, or just being used as weapons? To read the full original article, click here....
Watch John Oliver Explain Broken U.S. Mental Health System
In the News“It seems there is nothing like a mass shooting to suddenly spark political interest in mental health,” John Oliver says in his latest Last Week Tonight report, referencing the endless arguments about gun control/mental illness circul...
Wounded Warrior Project Launching New National Mental Health Care Initiative, Warrior Care Network
In the NewsJACKSONVILLE, Fla., June 2, 2015 /PRNewswire-USNewswire/ — Wounded Warrior Project® (WWP) is launching a first-of-its-kind medical care network, Warrior Care Network™, to connect wounded veterans and their families with world-class,...
St. Louis Area Police Reaching Out to Colleagues with Fragile Mental Health
In the NewsSt. Louis. Filling out a traffic crash report felt as challenging as a chemistry test to Joan “Joann” Glover Straughter. A call for all available units boomed across the St. Louis police sergeant’s radio, but she didn’t flinch. ...
In Unit Stalked by Suicide, Veterans Try to Save One Another
In the NewsMembers of a Marine battalion that served in a restive region in Afghanistan have been devastated by the deaths of comrades and frustrated by the V.A. To read the full original article, click here....
Denver’s New $1.8 Billion Budget Would Boost Jail, Welfare Spending
In the NewsThe troubled Denver Sheriff Department would spend $24 million in next year’s proposed city budget to hire dozens more deputies, upgrade a well-worn computer management system, and expand training on inmate care and use of force. In a $1...
Actors, Mentally Ill Aid NYC Police Training Meant to Calm
Public SafetyNEW YORK (AP) — A woman called Emily, tears streaming down her face, stood on a ledge threatening to jump. For 15 minutes, a police sergeant used the common thread that connects them — they’re both mothers — to gradually talk her...
San Luis Veterans Say They Have Been Months Without a Doctor
In the NewsVeterans in the San Luis Valley have been driving hundreds of miles for doctor appointments for five months despite a congressional plea to the Department of Veterans Affairs secretary to help them. To read the full original article,...
Three California Jail Deputies Charged with Murder of Inmate
In the NewsSAN FRANCISCO — Three corrections deputies were charged with murder on Tuesday in connection with the fatal beating of a mentally ill inmate at a California jail last month, officials said. To read the full original article, click here....
Across Much of US, a Serious Shortage of Psychiatrists
In the NewsNEW YORK — It is an irony that troubles health care providers and policymakers nationwide: Even as public awareness of mental illness increases, a shortage of psychiatrists worsens. To read the full original article, click here....
Texas Strives to Lure Mental Health Providers to Rural Counties
In the NewsIn her third year of medical school, Karen Duong found herself on the other side of Texas. She had driven 12 hours north from where she grew up on the Gulf Coast to a panhandle town called Hereford. “Hereford is known for being the beef ...
Make This Death Not in Vain: How Did A Mentally Ill Man Charged With a Trivial Crime Waste Away in Jail for Months?
In the NewsJamycheal Mitchell died last week in a Virginia jail, waiting for a hospital bed to open up in a mental health facility. He was arrested in April for stealing less than $5 worth of junk food (a Snickers bar, a Mountain Dew, and a Zebra ...
Young Black Man Jailed Since April for Alleged $5 Theft Found Dead in Cell
In the NewsA young black man arrested by police in Portsmouth, Virginia, has been found dead in jail after spending almost four months behind bars without bail for stealing groceries worth $5. To read the full original article, click here....
When Prisons Need to Be More Like Nursing Homes
In the NewsAmerica’s prison population is rapidly graying, forcing corrections departments to confront the rising costs and challenges of health care in institutions that weren’t designed to serve as nursing homes. To read the full original...
Mental Health Nurses Team Up With Police in “Street Triage”
Public SafetyPlans to improve care for those with mental health issues has seen the number of acutely ill people held in police cells reduce by more than a third, BBC Breakfast has learned. Last year more than 4,000 people were still held in cells un...
Judge Tells California to Explain Empty Psychiatric Beds While Prisoners Wait for Care
In the NewsCalifornia must explain to a federal judge why state prisons again have a backlog of seriously mentally ill prisoners waiting for inpatient care while there are hundreds of empty beds at a state psychiatric hospital. To read the full...
L.A. County to Relocate Some Inmates, Build Jail to Treat the Mentally Ill
In the NewsSetting a future course for the troubled Los Angeles County jail system, the Board of Supervisors on Tuesday approved a plan to move at least 1,000 mentally ill offenders out of lockups and voted to build a state-of-the-art jail...
Miami’s Model for Decriminalizing Mental Illness in America
JusticeAmerica’s jails are filled with people suffering from severe psychological problems. But largely thanks to one judge, Miami found ways to keep the mentally ill out of incarceration and in treatment. To read the full original article,...
The Diane Rehm Show: New Efforts to Help People with Mental Illness Get Treatment Instead of Jail Time
In the NewsPresident Barack Obama and some members of Congress are pushing for reforms in our criminal justice system. In particular, there’s bipartisan support to give judges more discretion in sentencing, but some say an even bigger problem is ...
Bexar County Awarded Grant to Provide Attorneys to People with Mental Illnesses
In the NewsThe Texas Indigent Defense Commission—chaired by Sharon Keller (pictured right), presiding judge on the Texas Court of Criminal Appeals—unanimously approved a $600,000 grant to be dispersed over four years for the Bexar County (San A...
Pennsylvania’s Mentally Ill Inmates Trapped in Legal Purgatory
In the NewsOn a March afternoon in the Cumberland County Prison in Carlisle, Mike Carey, the prison’s deputy warden, unlocked a door to a section of the prison’s segregation wing. Carey walked into a narrow hallway of steel doors, mesh-glass window...
Los Angeles Agrees to Overhaul Jails to Care for Mentally Ill and Curb Abuse
In the NewsLOS ANGELES — After disclosures of routine prisoner abuse by the Los Angeles County Sheriff’s Department — where jailers were found to break prisoners’ bones and sexually humiliate them — a settlement was announced Wednesday wi...
Another Soldier Spurned by Army Dies of Apparent Suicide
In the NewsFor a U.S. Army where failures to treat soldiers with substance abuse problems have been linked to suicides, Georgia National Guard Spc. Stephen Akins was another tragedy waiting to happen. Scans showing brain scars and a history of ...
A Psychologist as Warden? Jail and Mental Illness Intersect in Chicago
In the NewsCHICAGO — Dr. Nneka Jones Tapia, who runs the sprawling Cook County Jail here, has an indelible childhood memory of police officers pounding on the aluminum walls of the family’s double-wide trailer home in North Carolina, rifling...
Executing “Idiots”
In the NewsAt the end of its term, the Supreme Court revealed its deep divisions over the death penalty. In Glossip v. Gross, the central issue was the constitutionality of a particular drug that Oklahoma used in its lethal injections. However, the...
Did Harrisburg State Hospital’s Closure Lead to More Mentally Ill Prisoners?
In the NewsNearly a decade after its final patients were discharged, opinion remains deeply divided in the midstate over the 2006 closure of the Harrisburg State Hospital. For some local officials those impacts couldn’t be clearer. Dominick DeRose,...
Jails: Revolving Doors for the Mentally Ill
In the NewsBefore he was locked up in the Tulsa County jail, James Alexander lived in a hole in the ground. That hole was under Interstate 44 in east Tulsa, and there he slept, ate and stored his belongings, including food he had stolen from nearby...
Mayor De Blasio: Tear Down This Jail!
In the NewsWant to fix Rikers? Close it. by Neil Barsky A casual reader of the news these days might conclude that there is real hope for Rikers Island, New York’s cesspool of a jail complex, located swimming distance from LaGuardia Airport in...
What President Obama Didn’t Hear or Smell at El Reno
In the NewsFrom several years of touring prisons, I’ve learned they all have a distinctive and oddly similar smell: sweat, human misery, and grime — sometimes overlain, but never hidden, by the acrid odors of chlorine and other cleaning products....
Holmes Will Join Many Other Mentally Ill Inmates in Prison
In the NewsDENVER — Whether James Holmes gets life without parole or a death sentence for the Colorado theater shooting, he will spend years behind bars, joining about 6,000 inmates in Colorado and hundreds of thousands of others nationwide who s...
Minnesota County Jails Struggling with Mentally Ill Inmates Left to Languish
In the NewsAt least three county sheriffs have been told by the state Department of Human Services in recent weeks that they would have to hang on to their mentally ill committed inmates because the state had inadequate or unavailable treatment bed...
Supermax Accused of Violating Rules for Treating Mentally Ill
In the NewsOfficials at the nation’s highest-security prison are ignoring their own newly created policies regarding mentally ill prisoners as they fail to treat those who carve holes in their bodies with chicken bones and smear feces on...
Severity of Illness at Colorado’s Fort Logan Mental Hospital Has Increased
In the NewsIn six years, the number of beds at the state-run psychiatric hospital at Fort Logan has dropped from 222 to 94, forcing the mental institution to admit only patients with the most severe illnesses. To read the full original article,...
LA Police Unit Works to Get Treatment for Mentally Ill Instead of Jail Time
Public SafetyThe Los Angeles Police Department’s mental evaluation unit is the largest mental health policing program of its kind in the nation, with 61 sworn officers and 28 mental health workers from the county. The unit has become a vital reso...
Putting Fewer Innocents Behind Bars
JusticeKalief Browder hanged himself last month. He was 22. You may well know of him; he was 16 when he was arrested in the Bronx for allegedly stealing a backpack. Three years later, the charges were dropped for lack of evidence, but Browder ...
Judges Replacing Conjecture With Formula for Bail
DataSetting bail is a difficult task for judges. They must try to foretell whether the defendant is likely to commit another crime, hurt someone or skip out on the next court date. Now comes help in a distinctly modern form: an algorithm. Af...
New York City Settles Suit Over Abuses at Rikers Island
In the NewsNew York City has agreed to a settlement in the long-running legal battle over abuses at Rikers Island, the country’s second-largest jail system, federal and city officials said on Monday. The administration of Mayor Bill de Blasio com...
Colorado Officials Praise Progress of Restorative Justice Programs
JusticeThe Weld County juvenile was facing serious charges. He’d brought a knife to middle school and shown it to two girls, who felt threatened. Mothers of the victims wanted him prosecuted to the fullest extent of the law, likely a felony. Bu...
In East Ukraine Psychiatric Ward, War Deepens Mental Wounds
In the NewsHORLIVKA, Ukraine — Whenever the bombs fell, the men and women in the psychiatric ward would huddle in terror around fellow patient Valentina Izotova, a stout, maternal-looking woman, and she would read to them from her favorite book....
In Los Angeles, A National Model for How to Police the Mentally Ill
Public SafetyBy partnering beat cops with mental health clinicians, the Los Angeles Police Department has reduced incidences of force used on individuals with mental illness and has connected thousands of individuals with counseling and support. To...
Database May Help Identify Veterans on the Edge
In the NewsResearchers at the Department of Veterans Affairs and the National Institutes of Health have developed a database they say can identify veterans with a high likelihood of suicide, in much the same way consumer data is used to predict...
St. Louis Jail System’s Longest-Serving Inmate Illustrates Mental Health Needs
In the NewsJail is supposed to be a temporary affair. If bail is too expensive, defendants are held until they are sent to prison, or freed. The average length of stay in St. Louis jails is 233 days. That includes people serving short-term...
America’s Largest Mental Hospital is a Jail
JusticeAt Cook County, where a third of those incarcerated suffer from psychological disorders, officials are looking for ways to treat inmates less like prisoners and more like patients. To read the full original article, click here....
Kalief Browder, 1993-2015
In the NewsLast fall, I wrote about a young man named Kalief Browder, who spent three years on Rikers Island without being convicted of a crime. He had been arrested in the spring of 2010, at age sixteen, for a robbery he insisted he had not commit...
“Black Women Unnamed”: How Tanisha Anderson’s Bad Day Turned into Her Last
In the NewsTanisha Anderson’s family can’t help but think about her every time they walk down the street outside her house, because that’s where police restrained her shortly before she died, not far from the tall tree in the front yard. One ...
John Kasich: Number of Mentally Ill in Prison is “A Disgrace”
In the NewsOhio Gov. and likely Republican presidential candidate John Kasich argued last week that the number of mentally ill people in prison is “a disgrace” and touted the changes made by his administration to help treat those afflicted. Spe...
Denver Sheriff Whistleblower: “I Was Ordered to Destroy Videotape”
In the NewsDENVER (CBS4)– CBS4 has learned that an internal investigation is underway into the interim head of the Denver Sheriff Department, Elias Diggins, and the captain in charge of the Denver Sheriff’s Internal Affairs Bureau after an inte...
Mesa County Gets $150,000 MacArthur Grant to Stem Excess Incarcerations
DataA Western Slope jail was one of 20 across the country awarded a $150,000 grant Wednesday to help reduce unnecessary incarceration and provide more mental health options for inmates. To read the full original article, click here....
Consultants Uncover Deep Problems within Denver Sheriff Department
In the NewsThe safety of Denver jail inmates and deputies is jeopardized because of problems at almost every level of the Denver Sheriff Department, a report produced by two consultants says. The long-awaited report, which will be released Thursday...
Opinion Analysis: No New Limit On Police Use of Force in City and County of San Francisco v. Sheehan
JusticeAmid an emotional national debate over claims that police are too quick to use excessive force, the Supreme Court ruled on Monday that officers have some leeway to fire their guns to subdue a mentally disturbed person who is violently t...
How America Overdosed on Drug Courts
In the NewsHailed as the most compassionate way for the criminal justice system to deal with addicts, drug courts were designed to balance punishment with rehabilitation. But after 25 years, the verdict is in: Drug courts embolden judges to practic...
Human Rights Watch Report: “Callous and Cruel: Use of Force Against Inmates with Mental Disabilities in US Jails and Prisons”
In the NewsThis 127-page report details incidents in which correctional staff have deluged prisoners with painful chemical sprays, shocked them with powerful electric stun weapons, and strapped them for days in restraining chairs or beds. Staff hav...
Adding Pepper Spray to the Prison Arsenal
In the NewsThis March, most federal correctional officers started carrying pepper spray. It was a big policy shift for the Bureau of Prisons, which had long been opposed to arming its employees, saying weapons could be taken by inmates and used aga...
Chirlane McCray Promises Millions of Dollars for Mental Health and Social Service Programs
In the NewsThe speaker stood behind the lectern, a cadre of aides and commissioners in tow, shifting gamely to Spanish toward the end of her prepared remarks. Hosts at the Empire State Building muttered into walkie-talkies, plotting how to best shu...
Canon City Police: Suicidal Man Threw Knives at Officers Before Arrest
Public SafetyPolice in Cañon City arrested a 49-year-old man Monday who they say threw several knives at officers, barely missing them, during an apparent suicidal episode. Roy Mondragon was shot by “less lethal rounds” and tased before...
Sounds of Silence from Inside the Jail
In the NewsLong before we make our entrance into the world we can feel; the tactile sense is our first sensory experience. We shift our barely formed bodies away from uncomfortable stimuli in a self-protective, reflexive manner. We are programmed t...
What Happened to the Rights of the Accused in America?
In the NewsReading about the short, troubled life of Freddie Gray — who suffered lead poisoning as a child, was arrested for drug offenses more than a dozen times and died in police custody nearly two weeks ago in Baltimore — I recalled a descr...
Suspect Fatally Shot by Detectives in East Village Had a Mental Illness and a Troubled Past
Public SafetyHarold Carter and Vicente Matias, two veteran detectives from a Harlem police precinct, arrived at a six-story building on East Sixth Street in Manhattan on Saturday afternoon in search of a robbery suspect. After being buzzed inside, th...
By Reason of Insanity
In the NewsMental illness defenses in criminal trials have been controversial since the first acquittal. How does the law define madness? On June 25, 2012, James Eagan Holmes emailed Glenn Rotkovich, the owner of the Lead Valley shooting range in B...
Colorado Theater Shooting Trial Tests Mental Health Network
In the NewsAURORA, Colo. (AP) — Pastor Chris Hill’s suburban Denver church has become a place where shooting victims and first responders have found counselling and peace in the years since a masked gunman opened fire on a nearby movie theater. H...
At Supreme Court, Eric Holder’s Justice Dept. Routinely Backs Officers’ Use of Force
In the NewsWASHINGTON — Teresa Sheehan was alone in her apartment at a mental health center, clutching what her lawyers said was a small bread knife and demanding to be left alone. San Francisco police officers, responding to a call from a social...
Memphis Police Could Provide Example for Cleveland Officers on How to Respond to Mentally Ill
Public SafetyCLEVELAND, Ohio — While Cleveland police take fire for failing the city’s mentally ill, cops in Memphis, Tennessee continue to show their city, and the nation, the ideal way to respond to mental health crises. To read the...
I Spent Seven Years Locked in a Human Warehouse
In the NewsOn the morning of June 24, 2007, I kicked in my elderly neighbors’ door and brutally beat them with a broom handle. I then immediately called the police to tell them what I had done. I was arrested and charged with first-degree...
The Nightmare Outcome of a Son’s Mental Illness
In the NewsCynthia Hernandez was thinking about the missing dog when she awoke early that September morning in her family’s two-story tract home, tucked away in a residential enclave north of a busy commercial corridor in Chino. The 10-year-old coc...
Fairfax Jail Inmate in Taser Death was Shackled
In the NewsA mentally ill woman who died after a stun gun was used on her at the Fairfax County jail in February was restrained with handcuffs behind her back, leg shackles and a mask when a sheriff’s deputy shocked her four times, incident...
For Mentally Ill Inmates, a Cycle of Jails and Hospitals
In the NewsIt was not a particularly violent crime that sent Michael Megginson to Rikers Island. He was arrested for stealing a cellphone. But in jail, Mr. Megginson, who is 25 and has been in and out of psychiatric hospitals since the age of 6, qu...
Fighting Mental Illness on the Ball Field
In the NewsMental illness remains highly stigmatized, even after celebrities like Brooke Shields, Mel Gibson and Robin Williams went public with their stories. So it was really a big deal 60 years ago when the Boston Red Sox outfielder Jimmy Piersa...
Institutionalized: Mental Health Behind Bars
In the NewsAmerica’s relationship with its mentally ill population continues to suffer as a result of inadequacies in the country’s mental health care system. For the mentally ill in Chicago, the effects of this inadequacy are felt on a magnified s...
The Processing and Treatment of Mentally Ill Persons in the Criminal Justice System
DataMentally ill offenders possess a unique set of circumstances and needs. However, all too often, they cycle through the criminal justice system without appropriate care to address their mental health. Their recurring involvement in the cr...
Most Prisoners Are Mentally Ill: Can Mental Health Courts, in Which People Are Sentenced to Therapy, Help?
JusticeOccasionally policymakers and activists will talk about how the justice system needs to keep mentally ill people out of prisons. If it did that, prisons would be very empty indeed. A new Urban Institute report points out that more than h...
The Social Worker in the Patrol Car
Public SafetyAt the Houston Police Department, a licensed clinical social worker or caseworker rides along when police answer an emergency call regarding a person presumed to be mentally ill. Some 30 of those ride-along professionals now work out of ...
California Defendants Declared Mentally Incompetent Face Lengthy Delays in Jails
In the NewsIn January 2014, Edward Lamont Mason allegedly attacked and injured a woman with a baseball bat. He was arrested and has been in jail ever since, even though a judge ruled he was unfit to stand trial. Mason, it turns out, is developmenta...
Role of Illness in Germanwings Crash Raises Worry About Stigma
In the NewsAn intense focus on the role of the co-pilot’s mental illness in the Germanwings jetliner crash has raised concerns that it risks unfairly stigmatizing millions of people with mental disorders and making it less likely they will seek t...
Sheehan’s Shooting: Is There a Better Way?
Blog, In the NewsBy Dunia Dickey Introduction This term, the Supreme Court Cheap Canada Goose Jackets Export Sales will decide a momentous case which highlights the prevalence of police shootings of individuals with mental illness. This case als...
Inside America’s Toughest Federal Prison
In the NewsIn prison, Rodney Jones told me, everyone had a nickname. Jones’s was Saint E’s, short for St. Elizabeths, the federal psychiatric hospital in Washington, best known for housing John Hinckley Jr. after he shot Ronald Reagan. Jones sp...
Seattle’s Sensible Approach Puts Drug Offenders Into Treatment, Not Jail
DataAndre Witherspoon was a hair stylist before he became addicted to crack cocaine and heroin. He tried plenty of treatments, many of them forced on him by social services and law enforcement, but none helped. He was selling drugs to fuel h...
The Nightmare of Prison for Individuals With Mental Illness
In the NewsThe treatment of prisoners with mental illness is often barbaric if not medieval. Here’s what needs to stop. At some point in the 1970s the decision was made to close state-run mental health institutions. Much of this was motivated by Th...
Methods That Police Use on the Mentally Ill Are Madness
Public SafetyWhen This American Life dedicated two episodes to law enforcement in the United States, they titled them, “Cops See It Differently.” Citing examples like the NYPD killing of Eric Garner, which gave rise to the “I can’t breath” protests,...
A Persian in Therapy
In the NewsMy people don’t do psychotherapy. We have friends. We have families. We have pharmacies. Paying strangers to listen to our problems isn’t our style. To read the full original article, click here....
Milwaukee Panel Upholds Dismissal of Police Officer Over Fatal Shooting
Public Safety(Reuters) – A former Milwaukee police officer who was fired after fatally shooting an unarmed black man with a history of mental illness violated department protocol and will not get his job back, officials decided at a hearing...
In San Antonio, Anthony Hill Would Have Been Helped, Not Shot
Public SafetySAN ANTONIO, Texas — When San Antonio, Texas, police officer Ernie Stevens heard about the police shooting of Anthony Hill in DeKalb County, Georgia, two words were burning in his brain: excited delirium. Hill was a 27-year-old Air For...
Health Care Systems Try to Cut Costs by Aiding the Poor and Troubled
In the NewsMINNEAPOLIS — Jerome Pate, a homeless alcoholic, went to the emergency room when he was cold. He went when he needed a safe place to sleep. He went when he was hungry, or drunk, or suicidal. “I’d go sometimes just to have a place to...
Meyer: Denver’s Recovery Court is Working Wonders
JusticeIt is not often the sound of applause is heard in a courtroom whenever a defendant is called to stand before the judge. And normally judges don’t reward people standing before them by letting them take a bag of chips from a snack basket ...
How Police Can Stop Shooting People With Disabilities
Public SafetyHundreds of Americans with disabilities die each year in police encounters, and many more are seriously injured. On Monday, the U.S. Supreme Court will hear oral argument in a case about one of these interactions. In San Francisco v. She...
Denver Sheriff Department Jail Operations Performance Audit Calls for CIT Training of All Deputies
Public SafetyTo read the original report (March 2015), click here....
Where Law and Order Meets Paranoid and Schizophrenic
In the NewsDoctors tell Ronald1 he is schizophrenic, but he doesn’t believe them. For the past few weeks, he’s been an inmate and patient on the 19th floor of Bellevue Hospital, where mentally ill prisoners, mostly from Rikers Island, are held in...
Experts Clash Over Video of Dallas Police Shooting Mentally Ill Man
Public SafetyPolice tactical experts disagreed Tuesday over whether two Dallas officers acted properly last year when they fatally shot a mentally ill man who was holding a screwdriver. To read the full original article, click here....
Federal Trial to Tackle State’s Mental Competency Wait-Lists
In the NewsA federal judge has deemed unconstitutional Washington’s practice of holding mentally ill people in jails while they await competency evaluations and treatment and during a trial that starts Monday, lawyers for mentally ill defendants...
Pheonix Police Assemble Dedicated Mental Health Squad
Public SafetyPhoenix will create a crisis-intervention squad devoted to the city’s mentally ill, a population that triggers about 4,000 court-ordered pickups for officers each year. The seven-member squad will receive ongoing training and shoulder as...
For Homeless Photographers, Pride of Place in Paris
Policy & Culture ChangePARIS — The images capture a different Paris from the one beloved by tourists: refuse in a garbage bag that could be mistaken for a bloom on water; a dank tunnel opening onto a light-filled avenue of trees; a longhaired figure in a...
One Year Later, Inmate’s Death Looms Over State Prison Mental Health Debate
In the NewsIt’s hard to say when Michael Anthony Kerr stopped taking his meds. Before he began refusing treatment, the right of any prisoner within the North Carolina corrections system, the drugs had for months calmed his delusions and kept the ...
The Survival Cycle
In the NewsIn the spring of 2013, the Lane County Sheriff’s Office began to give a persuasive reason for putting people behind bars: to keep the dangerous ones away from the public. To read the full original article, click here....
ID’s Released of DeKalb Officer and Naked, Unarmed Man He Killed
Public SafetyThe names of both the DeKalb County police officer and the man he shot and killed were released Tuesday. But many questions about the deadly incident remained unanswered as the GBI takes over the investigation. The officer was Robert Ols...
Nearly All Denver Jail Inmates Have Traumatic Brain Injury
In the NewsThey were punched in the head in fistfights — or shot, knocked around as children, beaten by spouses or struck by cars. Almost every inmate in the downtown Denver jail’s high-risk unit has a traumatic brain injury, so many that what be...
For Mentally Ill, Too Often Prison Means Solitary, Neglect and Even Death
In the NewsWhen Patti Jones answers the phone, the energetic whirlwind immediately plunges into a story she’s told many times over – and is willing to tell as many times as it takes. Her nephew, Tony Lester, killed himself while in the custody ...
Utah Can Move Past “Lock ‘Em Up” Prison Mentality
JusticeI have had the privilege of serving on the committee that oversees the budget for the judiciary and public safety in the Utah Legislature for 14 years. Over that time I’ve witnessed repeated failed attempts to reform and improve our crim...
Michelle Obama Promotes Awareness of Mental Health Care
In the NewsWASHINGTON — Mental health care is not just a policy and budget issue for America, but also a cultural issue, Michelle Obama said on Wednesday. The first lady said more than 40 million Americans experience a diagnosable mental health c...
LA Police Chief: Man Killed on Skid Row Reached for Gun
Public SafetyLOS ANGELES — Police fatally shot a homeless man on Skid Row during a “brutal” videotaped struggle in which a rookie officer cried out that the man had grabbed his gun, the Los Angeles police chief said Monday. To read the...
Woman Convicted in Ex-Penn Hoops Star’s Death Gets Treatment
In the NewsMEDIA, Pa. — The wife of a former University of Pennsylvania basketball standout found guilty but mentally ill in his stabbing death may soon be paroled to the state mental hospital for treatment. To read the full original article,...
Stop Placing the Mentally Ill in Jails
CorrectionsOne reason annual jail admissions nearly doubled between 1983 and 2013 to 11.7 million, while crime dropped, is that jails have become the provider of last resort for people with mental health issues. To read the full original article,...
LAPD Kill Unarmed Mentally Ill Veteran on TV. Their Defense Won’t Shock You.
In the NewsHe went for his waistband. Yeah, it’s so strange how much unarmed men, confronted by police with guns drawn, seem to LOVE digging in their waistband. Police claimed that they thought they saw Brian Beaird do this over and over again, but...
Banned from 16th Street: Dozens Ordered by Court to Stay Away
JusticeLucas Alejos is a nuisance to society. He admits it, plus it’s recorded in court documents. The homeless 21-year-old has spent the past two years getting high, selling weed to buy crystal meth, shoplifting, stealing and illegally weaving...
Even as Many Eyes Watch, Brutality at Rikers Island Persists
CorrectionsOn Sept. 2, four correction officers pulled Jose Guadalupe, an inmate classified in medical records as seriously mentally ill, into his solitary-confinement cell at Rikers Island and beat him unconscious. A little over two months later, ...
Unlikely Cause Unites the Left and the Right: Justice Reform
In the NewsWASHINGTON — Usually bitter adversaries, Koch Industries and the Center for American Progress have found at least one thing they can agree on: The nation’s criminal justice system is broken. To read the full original article, click here....
The Modern Asylum
In the NewsLast month, three ethicists from the University of Pennsylvania argued in the Journal of the American Medical Association that the movement to deinstitutionalize the mentally ill has been a failure. Deinstitutionalization, they wrote, ha...
How Poverty and Mental Illness Are Putting More People Behind Bars
In the NewsJUDY WOODRUFF: A new report finds that more Americans than ever are spending time in jail. The Vera Institute of Justice showed that, in the past two decades, despite a drop in the crime rate, the number of people going to jail has incre...
Mentally Ill Since 6, Inmate in Solitary Confinement Goes Untreated
In the NewsTECUMSEH, Neb. — Long before he landed in solitary confinement, Chris Seaton struggled with mental illness. To read the full original article, click here....
How Broomstick-Swinging, Mentally-Ill Man Ended up Shot Dead by Police
Public SafetyWell before sunrise on a chilly Sunday morning, Catherine Daniels begged her son to come in from the cold. As he turned and came at her with a broomstick handle, she locked the home’s front door and called police for help. Only a week ...
New Calls for Reform of Our Local Criminal Justice Systems
In the NewsWhile convicted criminals are usually sent to do their time in prisons, U.S. jails are typically for those awaiting trial, and those who have been deemed dangerous or a flight risk. But according to a new report, U.S. jails have today be...
Vera Institute of Justice Report: Incarceration’s Front Door: The Misuse of Jails in America (February 2015)
JusticeLocal jails, which exist in nearly every town and city in America, are built to hold people deemed too dangerous to release pending trial or at high risk of flight. This, however, is no longer primarily what jails do or whom they hold, a...
Jails Have Become Warehouses for the Poor, Ill and Addicted
In the NewsJails across the country have become vast warehouses made up primarily of people too poor to post bail or too ill with mental health or drug problems to adequately care for themselves, according to a report issued Wednesday. To read...
ACLU: Missoula Jail Health Services the Worst in Montana
In the NewsThe Missoula County jail is the worst in Montana for the care given inmates who need medical or mental health care, according to a report released Monday by the American Civil Liberties Union. More than 83 percent of Missoula County’s in...
To Keep the Mentally Ill out of Jail, Multnoma County, OR Needs More Connections to Services, Report Says
DataPeople with mental illness who are arrested should be sent to community-based services, not jail, according to a Multnomah County report released this month. “We are using our jail as an asylum for people with mental illness, which is in...
Troubled Woman Dies in Fairfax: Shot Four Times with a Taser After a Week in Isolation Cell
In the NewsCan you imagine being arrested on a minor charge, stripped naked and put into a solitary jail cell for a week with nothing in it? Can you imagine being slapped in the head by a corrections officer because you didn’t comply with an or...
Delay in Mental Health Placement Frustrates Oklahoma County Judge
In the NewsAn angry Oklahoma County judge Wednesday threatened to jail the state’s mental health commissioner because a mentally ill criminal defendant did not get treatment for six months. To read the full original article, click here....
Voices From Inside
In the NewsSedlis Dowdy, a diagnosed schizophrenic, spent nine years in solitary confinement. He gets out of prison in five. What will we do with him then? To read the full original article and listen to the audio, click here....
Bemidji, Minnesota Asks: Can We Keep the Mentally Ill Out of Jail?
Public SafetyBEMIDJI, Minn. – The man was on a rampage — naked, 300 pounds, tearing a door off its hinges and screaming deliriously into the night. When Beltrami County sheriff’s deputies and Bemidji police finally cornered him, he refused their ...
New York City’s First Lady Shares Family History as She Unveils Push on Mental Health Care
In the NewsChirlane McCray, the wife of Mayor Bill de Blasio, revealed on Wednesday that she had been surrounded by mental illness most of her life — first as a child of parents who had depression and later as a mother of a daughter who is...
Abusive, Unrestricted Segregation of Inmates
In the NewsEdward Snowshoe was a 24-year-old prisoner at Edmonton’s maximum security prison when he hanged himself. He had been at Stony Mountain Institution first and was then transferred. His time behind bars included 162 days in segregation; 134...
NY Asks Feds to Probe 2013 Rikers Island Inmate Death
In the NewsNEW YORK — Federal prosecutors should launch a civil rights probe into the 2013 death of a mentally ill Rikers Island inmate who was locked in his cell for six days without care or medication, a state oversight panel concluded in a rev...
Fixing Rikers Island
In the NewsNew York City jails can be fixed. It will take time. It will take money. And the recent investments announced by Mayor Bill de Blasio and the changes requested of the city’s Board of Correction are only a beginning. To read the full...
Penn Ethicists Call for a Return of the Mental Asylum
In the NewsIn a paper that is bound to generate controversy, three University of Pennsylvania bioethicists argue in a medical journal this week for the return of the mental asylum. The nation, they say, has too few inpatient beds for people with se...
After Aurora Shooting, a “New Way of Responding” to Mental Crises
In the NewsIt’s been two and a half years since the Aurora, Colo. theater shooting in which James Holmes allegedly killed 12 people at a screening of The Dark Knight Rises. Jury selection for the 2012 incident is scheduled to start Tuesday. One of ...
Redefining Mental Illness
In the NewsTWO months ago, the British Psychological Society released a remarkable document entitled “Understanding Psychosis and Schizophrenia.” Its authors say that hearing voices and feeling paranoid are common experiences, and are often a r...
A Living Nightmare in America’s Paradise
In the NewsImagine being charged with a crime, going to trial, being found not guilty by reason of insanity, but remaining behind bars for years. You are denied access to a psychiatrist to treat your serious mental illness; you grow more acutely il...
Oklahoma Governor Mary Fallin Sets up Panel to Work on Justice Reform in Oklahoma
DataKeeping the focus on Oklahoma’s overcrowded prisons, Gov. Mary Fallin issued an executive order Wednesday establishing a panel to look for ways to better treat nonviolent offenders with substance abuse problems and mental health...
Glenn, Jessie Close Reveal Family Struggle With Mental Illness
In the NewsFor the first time, on “CBS This Morning,” actress Glenn Close is revealing details about her family’s troubled past. To read the full original article and watch the video interview, click here....
New York City to End Solitary Confinement for Inmates 21 and Under
In the NewsNew York City officials agreed on Tuesday to a plan that would eliminate the use of solitary confinement for all inmates age 21 and under, a move that would place Rikers Island at the forefront of national jail reform efforts. To read...
Officers Charged with Murder
Public SafetyDeclaring that “I have a job to do and I’m doing it,” District Attorney Kari Brandenburg said her office was filing murder charges against two Albuquerque police officers in the shooting of a mentally ill homeless camper in the San...
South Carolina Pays $1.2 Million In Lawsuit Over Mentally Ill Inmate Who Died
In the NewsCOLUMBIA – The state has paid $1.2 million to the estate of an inmate with mental retardation who died in 2008 after being kept naked for 11 days in solitary confinement and developing hypothermia. To read the full original article,...
Mentally Ill Wait In Jails For Treatment Despite Ruling
In the NewsBAINBRIDGE ISLAND, Wash. Karen Hellmuth lived in her small green trailer in the woods for decades, working with clients as an acupuncturist and staying strong by hauling water and heating with wood. The 72-year-old recently spent nearly ...
There is No Police Exception to the Americans With Disabilities Act
Public SafetyMany people recognize the names Eric Garner, Michael Brown, and Tamir Rice, African-American men, and a child, killed by the police. Less well known are the names Milton Hall, James Boyd, Ezell Ford, Kajieme Powell, and Tanisha Anderson....
Pennsylvania Strikes Deal to Keep Mentally Ill Inmates Out of Solitary Confinement
In the NewsAdvocates for the disabled have reached a settlement with the Pennsylvania Corrections Department to place mentally ill prison inmates in special treatment units. Pennsylvania prison inmates diagnosed with serious mental illness will be ...
Police in Oregon Draft Policy for Dealing with Mentally Ill
In the NewsPORTLAND, Ore. — Portland police have drafted a new policy for dealing with mentally ill people that says sometimes it’s OK for an officer to walk away if a confrontation could jeopardize a suspect or other people. To read the...
Riker’s Inmate Found Dead Despite Suicide-Watch Alert
In the NewsThe warning was sent at 4:45 p.m. on New Year’s Eve: A Rikers Island inmate, distraught over an imminent prison sentence, was threatening to harm himself and was possibly suicidal. According to jail policy, correction officers should i...
Seattle Police Chafe Under New Marching Orders
Public SafetySeattle Police Chafe Under New Marching Orders City Reins in Prosecution for Minor Crimes, Sends Some Offenders to Social Services Instead of Criminal Courts ENLARGE Seattle officers arrested protesters who tried to enter an interstate h...
Massachusetts Bill Bars Extended Confinement of Mentally Ill Inmates
In the NewsSTATE HOUSE, DEC. 29, 2014…..The confinement of inmates diagnosed with a serious mental illness in a segregated unit for more than 30 days would be largely prohibited under a bill lawmakers sent to the governor’s desk on Monday. To...
Denver Boot Camp for the Homeless Aims to Help Mental Illness, Drug Use
Health CareUnder the yellow glow of a streetlamp, about 20 homeless men in shorts and sweatpants rush into a huddle, hands in the air, and shout, “Knuckleheads!” The rallying cry on this chilly December night follows 45 minutes of punishing squats,...
Stepping Up: A National Initiative to Reduce the Number of People with Mental Illnesses in Jails
DataThere was a time when news of jails serving more people with mental illnesses than in-patient treatment facilities in their county was shocking. Now, it is not surprising to hear that counties across the nation routinely provide service...
Darkness Invisible: The Hidden Global Costs of Mental Illness
In the NewsFour years ago, a team of scholars from the Harvard School of Public Health and the World Economic Forum prepared a report on the current and future global economic burden of disease. Science and medicine have made tremendous progress in...
Federal Court in Washington State Rules Long Delays in Mental Health Servies for Individuals in Jail Violate the Consitution
In the NewsDecember 22, 2014 — Today, a federal court ruled that the persistent delays in the provision of court-ordered competency evaluation and restoration services to pre-trial detainees incarcerated in jails violates constitutional due process...
Colorado Gives $3 Million in Case of Inmate Who Died as Guards Laughed
In the NewsThe state Department of Corrections will pay a $3 million settlement to the family of a mentally ill prisoner who died after guards at San Carlos Correctional Facility in Pueblo ignored his seizures. To read the full original article,...
U.S. Plans to Sue New York Over Rikers Island Conditions
In the NewsFederal prosecutors plan to sue New York over widespread civil rights violations in the handling of adolescent inmates at Rikers Island, making clear their dissatisfaction with the city’s progress in reining in brutality by guards and...
Handling, Not Manhandling, the Mentally Ill
In the NewsA Close Look at the L.A. County Jail Settlement Los Angeles County’s ballyhooed settlement of a long-running lawsuit over the abuse and neglect of inmates in its jail isn’t just a big deal for California. The case, the compromise, an...
Colorado Receives $65 Million Mental Health Grant
In the NewsColorado will receive $65 million of federal funds to help bring mental health treatment into primary-care doctors’ offices, part of a plan to make sure more Coloradans receive mental health treatment when they need it. To read...
A Vet and his Demons
In the NewsAdan Castañeda’s lawyer is worried what a jury will think of his client. Castañeda, a 28-year-old former marine sniper whose mental illness bloomed after his return from Iraq, goes on trial January 20. “The evidence that’s admiss...
R.I. Prison Systems Lacks Resources to Care for Mentally Ill Inmates
In the NewsCRANSTON — To reach D-mod, a specialized unit at the High Security Center of the Adult Correctional Institutions, you must pass through a series of steel doors manned by guards inside fortified control booths. You must be escorted by a...
New Efforts to Reduce the Number of People with Mental Disorders in Jails Sets the Stage for Unprecedented Change
DataWASHINGTON, D.C.—Dec. 9, 2014—Congressional leaders committed to improving mental health services and public safety joined the National Association of Counties (NACo) and the Council of State Governments (CSG) Justice Center today ...
Federal Appeals Court Halts Execution in Texas Murder Case
In the NewsAn appeals court panel in New Orleans on Wednesday stayed the execution of a Texas man, in a case that has gained national attention as a test for issues surrounding the execution of the mentally ill. To read the full original article,...
New York Explains Itself
Policy & Culture ChangeNew York City officials late Monday announced plans to significantly change the way police, medical workers, and prosecutors handle the thousands of mentally ill and drug-addicted people who cycle in and out of the area’s...
Therapists in Blue
Public SafetyNew York City Mayor Bill de Blasio announced on Monday a plan to overhaul how the city’s criminal justice system handles the mentally ill, more than 5,000 of whom are currently housed in city jails. The plan would create two “drop-of...
New York Plan Aims to Divert Mentally Ill People from Jail’s Revolving Door
DataIt is hard to walk the halls of the Criminal Courts Building in Manhattan without encountering stories of crimes committed by people with mental illnesses. On Monday, two separate murder cases were being tried against men who had...
Mayor’s Task Force on Behavioral Health and the Criminal Justice System Action Plan
Health CareTo read New York City Mayor Bill de Blasio’s Action Plan, click here....
New York City Plans Focus on Mental Health in Justice System
DataIn an effort to reduce the growing number of inmates with mental health and substance abuse problems in New York City’s jails, the administration of Mayor Bill de Blasio announced plans on Monday to significantly expand public health s...
Homeless Coalition Provides Healthcare on the Streets of Denver
Health CareFrank Scalise sat in the back of an SUV and examined the frayed and darkened skin on the top of Matt Danczek’s foot as traffic rumbled by. “It looks like that could be frostbite. I think you have done some damage to your skin here,” said...
Mass Imprisonment and Public Health
In the NewsWhen public health authorities talk about an epidemic, they are referring to a disease that can spread rapidly throughout a population, like the flu or tuberculosis. But researchers are increasingly finding the term useful in understandi...
Crazy or Faking It?
In the NewsNearly 30 years ago, the U.S. Supreme Court ruled that mentally ill inmates could not be executed for their crimes unless they were deemed “competent,” a condition that remained vaguely defined for more than two decades. The court tr...
Will Texas Kill an Insane Man?
In the NewsOn Dec. 3, Texas plans to execute an inmate named Scott Panetti, who was convicted in 1995 for murdering his in-laws with a hunting rifle. There is no question that Mr. Panetti committed the murders. There is also no question that he...
Breakdown: A Broken Mental Health System in Colorado
In the NewsDee Fleming tried to protect her son from the voices in his head, the ones that told him he should die. She chased after him the night he ran toward the neighborhood church with a baseball bat in his hand. She worried to the point of exh...
Mayor de Blasio Urges “Culture Change” at Rikers Island
In the NewsMayor Bill de Blasio declared on Thursday that Rikers Island “deeply needs a culture change” and called ending the pervasive violence at the jail complex a top priority of his administration, acknowledging that he had previously...
Marshall Project Kicks Off With Look at Legal Delays
In the NewsThe Marshall Project, a nonprofit news organization focused on the American criminal justice system and led by Bill Keller, a former executive editor of The New York Times, went live this weekend, the latest in a crop of start-ups...
Proposed Smoking Ban on the 16th Street Mall — Letters to the Editor
Public SafetyProtecting public health is certainly not the only, or even the main, motivation behind the proposed smoking ban on the 16th Street Mall. Rather, police would gain another tool of selective enforcement to target, harass and ultimately...
Before Stage Four: An Important Call to Action for the Mental Health of all Coloradans
In the NewsI want you to imagine for a moment what it would be like if Americans treated cancer in a different way than we do now. Imagine that instead of encouraging people to quit smoking and take other steps to prevent cancer, we just sort of cr...
Conflicts in New York City Parks as Homeless Population Rises
Public SafetyIn Harlem River Park in Manhattan, homeless men can be seen sleeping on benches around the basketball courts and sprawled out on a soccer field by day, then hunkering under an overpass at night. In Brooklyn, dog owners in Fort Greene Par...
With Shelters Full, Denver Homeless Seek Refuge From Record Cold
Policy & Culture ChangeWrapped in a puffy jacket and beanie, Ron Ames lounged in a chair on the fourth floor of the downtown Denver Public Library and looked out a window at the swirling snow. A duffel bag full of his possessions sat at his feet. He was glad...
Risk Model Seen as Reducing Military Suicides
Policy & Culture ChangeMilitary doctors could reduce suicides among soldiers with psychiatric conditions by using a new screening system that flags those at highest risk of taking their own lives, a new study suggests. To read the full original article,...
Taking on the Stigma of Schizophrenia
Policy & Culture ChangeMichael Hedrick takes on the stigma of schizophrenia. To listen to the Colorado Public Radio program, click here. To read Mr. Hedrick’s New York Times blog, click here....
Denver City Council Approves $1.7 Billion Operating Budget with More Police
In the NewsThe Denver City Council on Monday night signed off on a $1.7 billion operating budget for 2015 that includes money for three police recruit classes, neighborhood-focused public works projects and sheriff’s department reforms. To...
VOA to Build Veterans Service Building in Denver for One-Stop Shop
Health CareA new center to serve veterans is in the works, and the Volunteers of America aims to raise $2 million by New Year’s Day to make its plan a reality. To read the full original article, click here....
A Step Forward on Denver’s Homeless Problem
Health CareDenver’s homeless problem is increasing, there is no doubt about that. It is seen in the booming occupancy in shelters, in the motels filled with families and people on the streets. And it’s why a new homeless center...
Overtime Costs Soar to Record Heights for Denver Sheriff Department
In the NewsThe Denver Sheriff Department is spending about $600,000 a month on overtime, which has already surpassed $6 million so far this year, according to records obtained by The Denver Post. To read the full original article, click here....
Denver Police Department Is Running 6-Month Pilot Program to Evaluate the Use of Body Cameras
In the NewsThe Denver Police Department has started using body cameras on their officers. The DPD’s current 6 month pilot project is part of a grant from Taser International in partnership with a study by Cambridge University, which will be the f...
Solutions Center to Serve Denver Homeless Finds Home in Athmar Park
Health CareDenver has found a home in the Athmar Park neighborhood for a center to serve homeless people, but the facility will not be in the form originally envisioned. What was once pegged as a 24-hour rest and recovery center aimed at providin...
“Housing First” Apartments for Homeless Open in North Boulder
Health CareThe 31 spare, furnished one-bedroom apartments at 1175 Lee Hill Drive in north Boulder represent a chance at a new life for the men and women who will start to move in Tuesday. To read the full original article, click here....
Denver Jail’s Taser Use at Odds with Federal Guidelines, Post Finds
In the NewsIn March, a woman housed in the downtown Denver jail bit her arms and punched herself in the nose until she drew blood. The woman slid to the floor, kicking and biting, as deputies ordered her into a restraint chair. When the woman refus...
World’s Largest Law Enforcement Group Endorses Court-Ordered Outpatient Treatment for At-Risk People with Severe Mental Illness
JusticeThe world’s largest law enforcement organization this week endorsed court-ordered treatment in the community for at-risk individuals with severe mental illness, said the Treatment Advocacy Center. To read the full original article,...
$2.25 Million Settlement for Family of Rikers Inmate Who Died in Hot Cell
In the NewsThe family of a homeless veteran who died this year in a searing hot cell at the Rikers Island jail complex will receive $2.25 million from the City of New York in a settlement the comptroller’s office announced on Friday. To read the...
The Impact of Mental Illness on Law Enforcement Resources
Public SafetyThe Impact of Mental Illness on Law Enforcement Resources By Michael C. Biasotti, Chief of Police, Windsor, New York Published by the Treatment Advocacy Center (December 2011) To read the full article, click here....
The Real World of Depression: Perceptions of the Unseen Epidemic
In the NewsIt’s 8 a.m. Eric wakes up, hits the alarm clock and resets it for a few more minutes of sleep. The alarm goes off again; he gets up. He shuffles to the bathroom and takes a shower. He throws his clothes on, and he’s out the door. He ...
Denver Social Impact Bond Initiative: Supportive Housing
Health CareDenver Social Impact Bond Initiative...
Should a Child Offender Be Treated as an Adult?
In the NewsThe government may recommend he still sit in the back seat of a car, but a 10-year-old boy can be charged as an adult for the homicide of a 90-year-old woman and potentially spend the rest of his life in prison. To read the full...
Beyond CIT: Tuscon’s Mental Health Support Team Lets Officers More Effectively Help the Mentally Ill
Public SafetyGuns may not kill people, but when the mentally ill do, it can—and has—resulted in mass slaughter. As social service providers struggle to meet the demand for psychiatric rehabilitation programs, many police agencies are finding them...
A Plan to Cut Costs and Crime: End Hurdle to Job After Prison
EducationWASHINGTON — James White had steeled himself for the moment. But when he got to the question on the job application — Have you ever been convicted of a crime? — he shifted nervously in his seat. If he checked the “yes” box, he ...
Mental Health Staffers Will Aid Jeffco Sheriff’s Deputies With Cases
In the NewsThe Jefferson County Center for Mental Health has a new presence within the Jeffco Sheriff’s Office thanks to a pilot project launched by the county and funded by a justice assistance grant. To read the full original article,...
Halting Schizophrenia Before It Starts
In the NewsThe important thing is that Meghan knew something was wrong. To read the full original article, click here....
Mental Health Issues Put 34,500 on New York’s No Guns List
In the NewsA newly created database of New Yorkers deemed too mentally unstable to carry firearms has grown to roughly 34,500 names, a previously undisclosed figure that has raised concerns among some mental health advocates that too many people...
Rikers Jail Costs Soared Despite Fewer Inmates, Comproller Finds
In the NewsEven though the inmate population at Riker’s Island has fallen to its lowest level in decades, the amount of money spent to run New York City jails soared to a record $1.1 billion in 2014, according to a new report by the city...
Jurors Award $4.65 Million in Denver Jail Abuse Death of Marvin Booker
In the NewsA federal jury on Tuesday awarded a record $4.65 million to the family of a homeless street preacher who died during a struggle with deputies in Denver’s downtown jail while trying to retrieve his shoes. To read the full original...
Colorado mental health hotline ramping up services
In the NewsOfficials with the state’s new mental health hotline say about a third of the people calling have an immediate safety issue. To read the full original article, click here....
From a Father’s Anguish Comes a Plan to Help Mentally Ill Inmates
In the NewsBy his count, Francis J. Greenburger has bult or owned more than 20,000 apartments over the past 50 years. To read the full original article, click here....
First Of Its Kind Homeless-Care Facility Opens In Denver
Health CareThere is only one like it in the entire country, and it’s located on the corner of Stout and 22 streets in downtown Denver. To read full original article, click here....
Partners In Justice- “Training for Law Enforcement Officers on People with Intellectual Disabilities”
Public SafetyLETraining. ...
Blueprint for Success: The Bexar County Model Toolkit
Public SafetyBlueprint for Success: The Bexar County Model Toolkit How to Set up a Jail Diversion Program in Your Community By Leon Evans To read the full report, click here....
Prison Dogs Are Tension-Relievers For Colorado’s Mentally Ill Inmates
In the NewsThe mentally ill inmate has long been a recluse in his cell, refusing to utter a word to anyone or go anywhere near a therapy session. But lately, the man has been coming out of his cell — and his shell — with little or no prodding. ...
Boulder County Agencies Prep To Deal With Rise In Suicide Threats
In the NewsBoulder County law enforcement officials are facing more mental health-related incidents, such as suicide threats, and are training to deal with them. To read the original article, click here....
Mental Health Cops Help Reweave Social Safety Net In San Antonio
In the NewsIt’s almost 4 p.m. And police officers Ernest Stevens and Ned Bandoscke have been driving around town in their unmarked black SUV since early this morning. To read the full original article, click here....
Dealing with mental illness and thoughts of suicide
In the NewsSuicide is the seventh leading cause of death in Colorado, according to the Centers for Disease Control. It’s the second leading cause of death for people between the ages of 10 and 34 years old. Lance Powers says he was almost part of...
Mental Health and Suicide Prevention Resources
In the NewsIf you’re struggling with a mental or emotional problem, getting into trouble with drugs or alcohol, having family or relationship problems, or problems at work or school, there are organizations that can offer immediate help. To...
Why Denver is trucking its homeless to the middle of nowhere
Health CareLAS ANIMAS, Colo. — The first time Jason Cline smoked crack was in rehab. He was 15, there by court order after he was caught using meth. There were other firsts, too. To read the full original article, click here....
California Revises Policy on Mentally Ill Inmates
In the NewsCalifornia’s Department of Corrections and Rehabilitation has introduced new policies for the use of force against mentally ill prisoners that are among the most detailed in the nation. To read the original full article, click here....
Iacobucci report calls for a “zero deaths” police culture (Toronto)
In the NewsOne year after Sammy Yatim’s death, 84 recommendations spell out changes in training and equipping of police to better deal with people in crisis; Chief Bill Blair promises to act. To read the full original article, click here....
Jails in U.S. Struggle with Role as Asylums
In the NewsThe Chicago jail and many of its 3,300 counterparts across the country have become treatment centers of last resort for people with serious mental illnesses, most arrested for nonviolent crimes. And like other jails, it is awash in a...
Rikers: Where Mental Illness Meets Brutality in Jail
In the NewsAfter being arrested on a misdemeanor charge following a family dispute last year, Jose Bautista was unable to post $250 bail and ended up in a jail cell on Rikers Island. To read the full original article, click here....
Colorado Sheriffs Keep Popping up in Spotlight
In the NewsJust before Weld County Sheriff John Cooke took office nearly 12 years ago, his predecessor had strong words about the power that goes with being the top law enforcement officer in the county. To read the full original article, click here....
Recalibrating Justice: A Review of 2013 State Sentencing and Corrections Trends
JusticeRecalibrating Justice: A Review of 2013 State Sentencing and Corrections Trends (July 2014) By Ram Subramanian, Rebecka Moreno, and Sharyn Broomhead To read the full report, click here....
City Council Approves Denver’s $3.4M Plan for Marijuana Tax Proceeds
In the NewsThe City Council signed off Monday night on Mayor Michael Hancock’s plan to buttress marijuana enforcement staffing using new tax proceeds. The $3.4 million plan will add 21 full-time employees and a part-time worker — all geared t...
Mental Health Crisis Hotline Ready to go Statewide in August
In the NewsIn just a matter of weeks, the approximately 100 calls received every day at a local crisis center — everything from people who feel suicidal to those who are grieving or stressed — are expected to jump to about 500 daily. Metro Cr...
Mayor Hancock Announces Plans to Connect Hundreds of Homeless to Supportive Housing
Health CareDENVER – Mayor Michael B. Hancock today at the Clinton Global Initiative announced Denver’s plan to connect hundreds of chronically homeless individuals with supportive housing and intensive case management by engaging in...
Odds Of Abuse And Mistreatment Add Up Over Children’s Lives
EducationChildren who are maltreated are much more likely to have physical and mental health problems later on. They face a higher risk of suicide and of getting in trouble with the law. But there’s a big gap between the number of people who say...
The Divide Over Involuntary Mental Health Treatment
In the NewsThe attacks near the University of California, Santa Barbara, are renewing focus on programs aimed at requiring treatment for people who are mentally ill as a way to prevent mass shootings and other violence. In California, a 2002 law ...
Criminal Justice System and ASDs
Public SafetyA number of people with autism spectrum disorders (ASDs) are involved in the Criminal Justice System (CJS) as either victims, witnesses or offenders. To read more, click here....
Today’s Heroin Addict Is Young, White And Suburban
Public SafetyHeroin was once the scourge of the urban poor, but today the typical user is a young, white suburbanite, a study finds. And the path to addiction usually starts with prescription painkillers. A survey of 9,000 patients at treatment cente...
New Series Reveals ‘The Cost of Not Caring’ for Americans with Mental Illness
DataMental health funding has suffered cuts and negligence in recent decades, leaving hundreds of thousands of Americans on the streets, behind bars, in homeless shelters, or simply isolated and miserable. With their new series “The Cost o...
NAMI Promotes Expansion of CITs During Congressional Hearing
Public SafetyAn excerpt from Mental Health Weekly CIT Expansion, Mental Health Weekly Vol 24 # 18...
Burlington PD Refine Response to Mental Health Crises
In the NewsBurlington’s police chief and a woman whose husband was shot in November by police during a mental health crisis presented an improved protocol for police responses in similar situations. Police Chief Michael Schirling and Barbara Br...
The Mentally Ill Mostly Go to Jail, Not Psych Hospitals
In the NewsIn 44 states and the District of Columbia, at least one prison or jail holds more people with serious mental illnesses than the largest state psychiatric hospital, according to a report released Tuesday by the Treatment Advocacy Center...