lawless person fairness SYSTEM

Criminal Justice System

Criminal Justice System

Introduction

Local criminal justice systems in the United States have long struggled with the problems associated with mentally ill offenders who come to the attention of police, courts and corrections. In a recent Bureau of Justice Statistics survey (1999), it was estimated that 238,000 mentally ill offenders were incarcerated in American prisons and jails in 1998, representing 16% of all state prison and local jail inmates and 7% of federal prisoners. Moreover, many of those with mental disorders who find themselves in jail also suffer from co-occurring substance abuse. When also taking into account the massive volumes of police contacts with citizens, arrests, and criminal cases processed, the number of mentally ill persons (many with comorbid disorders) dealt with by the criminal justice system on a regular basis is considerable. (Sigurdson, 2000)

Challenges in Criminal Justice System

Mental sickness and the lawless person Justice System

Local justice systems have a long history of dealing with individuals suffering from mental illness or disability. Because of their presence on the streets, the police represent the front line contact between criminal justice and mentally ill or disabled citizens whose behaviors are disturbing to the community. Whether they shoo them away from the locations where they are not desired, put them in contact with assisting services, or arrest them and transport them to the lockup, the police aims are short term and generally involve moving them on to others to deal with their problems. Jails have long served as a repository for persons believed to be mentally disturbed. Many arrested persons who have serious disabilities end up in the local jail, mainly because there is little else to do. Jails cannot control the volume and nature of persons confined; they must accept those legally sent to them. Few jails can boast of adequate resources or the necessary services for handling mentally ill inmates in their care and seek mainly to protect and stabilize such inmates while they are confined. (Newhill & Mulvey, 2002)

Individuals with Psychiatric Disabilities in Criminal Justice

The appearance of individuals with psychiatric disabilities in the criminal justice system has been attributed chiefly to changes in mental health service delivery, in particular the decreased use of state mental hospitals and the passage of more stringent criteria for civil commitment that occurred nearly 40 years ago. It was expected that decreasing use of institutional settings and reduced availability of coercive admission mechanisms as a means of controlling deviance exhibited by persons with mental illness would be offset by an expansion of community-based mental health services and advances in psychotropic medications. (Hartwell, 2008b) However, individuals continue to struggle to find or fit in with accessible mental health services in the chronically underfunded community mental health system. Thus, individuals with complex problems confront barriers to services that may leave them vulnerable to criminal justice violations in the community. Moreover, persons with psychiatric illness, because of their poverty and marginal status, may be at elevated risk for exposure to criminogenic social environments and limited social ...