Shifts in recent decades from institutional care of the mentally ill to community-based treatment has resulted in more persons with mental illness involved with the criminal justice system and being supervised by correctional agencies. It is estimated that 16% of all offenders being supervised by community corrections or confined in prisons and jails (1,252,000 individuals) at the end of 2006 were mentally ill. At midyear 2005, an estimated 1,264,300 prison and jail inmates had a mental health problem. Nearly 74% of state prison inmates and 76% of local jail inmates with mental health problems also met the criterial for substance abuse or dependence.
Implications for Corrections
The growing number of mentally ill in prison, jails, and community corrections presents problems in providing proper treatment and managing their behavioral problems. Corrections is faced with (1) increased costs for managing the mentally ill, (2) needing special housing and other provisions for detaining/incarcerating that population, (3) increasing collaboration with mental health care providers, and (4) exploring changes in policies and practices to develop more appropriate options for treating and managing mentally ill offenders.
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