To the Point
Imprisoning our mentally ill?
American jails and prisons have become hospitals for the mentally ill. A murderer doing 20 years at New York’s Sing Sing prison works with schizophrenics serving 24 months for misdemeanors.
All over America, hospitals for treatment of the mentally ill have been shut down. Tens of thousands with disorders like depression and schizophrenia are being housed in jails and prisons. Mental illness has effectively been criminalized in the United States. But, the justice system is waking up. Incarceration makes mental illness much worse, rather than better; imprisoning sick people costs more taxpayer money than humane, more effective solutions.