Bipolar Today

Healthy State has just published a short interview with author Pete Early. In 2007, he wrote a book called “Crazy: A Father’s Search Through America’s Mental Health Madness“, which followed mentally ill people in the Florida prison system and was nominated for the Pulitzer Prize. He discovered that, as he put it, “We had a system that’s not really a system. It is a mess.” With very few facilities available for people with mental illnesses, they really only interact with the state when they encounter the justice system. Either the offense is minor, and people are dumped back on the street, or they are put in prison, where the rate of people with mental illness is four times higher than it is among the population as a whole. Mr. Earley became interested in mental health advocacy because his son has bipolar disorder, and has had multiple encounters with the law.

Commentary

As I’ve noted before, we see two issues with with respect to mental illness and the criminal justice system. First, if people with mental illnesses are four times more likely to go to prison than people without them, three out of four of mentally ill people in prison wouldn’t be there if they weren’t mentally ill. This represents a serious injustice in terms of how mentally ill people are treated when they encounter the criminal justice system.

Second, people with mental illnesses are simply not getting enough support until they hit the criminal justice system. However, the criminal justice system is inefficient, expensive and ineffective at dealing with mental illness. As Mr. Early noted, “We’ve kind of turned the mental health system into a criminal justice one – and that is wrong.” Having proper care for people with mental illness will save money by keeping them out of the court system. Nonetheless, in both the United States and Canada, there are insufficient resources devoted to mental illness.

Related posts:

1. Iowa Mental Health Court Helps Keep Mentally Ill out of Prison
2. Canadian Psychiatric Association Criticizes Crime Bill
3. Book Traces the Meaning of “Mania”
4. Bipolar Law Professor Writes Book About Stigma and Discrimination
5. Man Imprisoned For Offense While Committed