Research/Document Library

Prisons and Jails: Hospitals of Last Resort

Have jails and prisons replaced hospitals for New Yorkers with mental illness? Increasingly, the answer is yes. Deinstitutionalization and the closing of psychiatric hospitals, the rise of managed care, the growth of prisons and jails, and punishment of "quality of life" crimes have contributed to the incarceration of thousands of people with mental illness in New York City and New York State. This paper examines the scope of the problem and recommends strategies which, if implemented, would lead to a far more humane and sensible system. In such a system, seriously mentally ill minor offenders would be diverted to treatment rather than sent to jail, and prisoners requiring mental health services would be able to continue their treatment as they moved between correctional facilities and the community. These strategies have the potential to be safer and cheaper for the community while providing better care for people with mental illness.

Available online

http://www.prisonpolicy.org/

Author(s)

Heather Barr

Date

1999

State

New York

Publisher

Correctional Association of New York and Urban Justice Center