The Intersection between Mental Health and the Criminal Justice System Part I

One thing that becomes more and more obvious from participating in and observing the criminal justice system on a daily basis is that a large number of the people involved have mental health and/or substance abuse issues. The substance abuse issue is sometimes a form of self-medicating for the mental health issue. Often times, these are the people that I see over and over in the court room. Aside from the occasional ordering of mental health treatment as part of probation, if the person is competent enough to make it that far, nothing is really done to address the underlying issues.

Countless resources are consumed by repeat offenders. The Office of Financial Management for the State of Washington put together a study regarding Jail Diversion for People with Mental Illness in 2016. The study was done because Washington was seeing that the incidence of people with mental health issues very prevalent in the criminal justice system. Out of this group of people 70% had at least two arrests in a one-year period, and 67% had between two and five referrals to have their competency restored to even be able to stand trial (usually through forced medication).

The unfortunate truth is that society has given up on many of these people. They have no family or support. They are not able to function as you or I would on a day-to-day basis. Often times they are homeless or living out of homeless shelters. The only resources they obtain are those from charities and the government, such as social security or Medicaid. They have no means of transportation except for their feet or a beaten down bicycle, which may get stolen (or may be stolen itself).

Mental health funding is woefully inadequate and under the current legal schemes there are no good solutions. The law does not favor forcing assistance on someone who does not want it, even if they are not really of sound mind to make decisions in their own interest. The thresholds for civil commitment are also very high, and rightly so, as that would entail holding and housing someone in a mental health institution. However, this leaves the criminal justice system to deal with the fallout when a homeless person with mental health issues steals a sandwich and a 6-pack from the local grocery store.

There are no good solutions currently. Really, a re-working of the system would be required in order to even begin addressing the problem. The question that always occurs to me is where are the families? Occasionally, a parent or sibling will show up and acknowledge that Jimmy is just too much for them to handle and their resources were stretched too thin, so they just gave up. This is where education, and probably the government, should intervene. If programs were available for earlier interventions and were known about and easily accessible, then more families may be able to stay involved. Per the persons in the pre-trial mental health diversions, housing, case management, and work were some of the highest ranked diversion services, and that makes sense.