The Reagan deinstitutionalization of the mentally ill and the incredible increase of crime in the US

[Sarah Ibarruri]

26. Hmm. Must be miserably bad programs. Here's where the mentally disabled is being treated now

A federal judge's objection to what he called the horrific treatment of some mentally ill inmates in California prisons highlights a trend that has been building for decades in the state and across the country: As mental hospitals closed or were scaled back, prisons and county jails have become the de facto housing for many who are mentally ill.

Nationwide, 10 times more seriously mentally ill individuals are in state prisons and jails than in state mental hospitals, the Arlington, Va.-based Treatment Advocacy Center and the National Sheriffs' Association said last week in what it called the first national study of how mentally ill inmates receive treatment.

"Prison and jail officials are being asked to assume responsibility for the nation's most seriously mentally ill individuals, despite the fact that the officials did not sign up to do this job; are not trained to do it; face severe legal restrictions in their ability to provide treatment for such individuals; and yet are held responsible when things go wrong, as they inevitably do under such circumstances," the study said.

http://www.huffingtonpost.com/2014/04/15/prisons-mental-heath_n_5152099.html