Doctors’ Orders: Treat, Don’t Incarcerate, Mentally Ill and Addicts
One of the world’s most respected academic journals, The New England Journal of Medicine, recently published a piece offering a fresh perspective on the US policy of incarcerating drug users and the mentally ill. “Medicine and the Epidemic of Incarceration” (pdf) takes a public health approach to an issue typically characterized as a criminal justice issue.
“Deinstitutionalization of the mentally ill and over the past 50 years and severe punishment for drug users starting in the 1970’s have shifted the burden of care for addiction and mental illness to jails and prisons. The largest facilities housing psychiatric patients in the United States are not hospitals but jails.”
It should go without saying that imprisonment exacerbates mental illness, and fails to treat drug addiction.
Public perception of mental illness and addiction may be key to successful reform. “Addiction and mental illness are medical conditions,” writes Josiah D. Rich, Sarah E. Wakeman,and Samuel L. Dickman, which “often lead to behaviors that result in incarceration.” With tens of millions of Americans suffering from addiction and mental illness, the tide may be changing.
Opposition to mass imprisonment has grown to span the ideological spectrum. NAACP President Benjamin Jealous, the American Bar Association, and a range of academics and analysts favor policy alternatives to the current “war on drugs”—ie, the aggressive incarceration of mentally ill or drug addicted nonviolent offenders. Perhaps more surprisingly, so do the American people, libertarians like Grover Norquist, a non-partisan committee appointed by the State of Illinois, and now, prominent members of the medical community. It’s time that our policy makers join this wave of support for new approach to individuals suffering from mental illness and drug addiction.
Chicago Appleseed has been advocating one proven approach to providing treatment for qualified nonviolent offenders: diversion. By linking a large population of offenders with community-based treatment, Cook County will save considerable funds while rectifying an injustice that has disproportionately impacted nonwhite and poor offenders.
We are currently developing a “Diversion Blueprint” for the Cook County Criminal Court, which will provide a straightforward guide for implementing a diversion program based upon proven strategies.