US Jails Are Struggling With Role As Makeshift Mental Asylums

[xchrom]

http://www.businessinsider.com/us-jails-are-struggling-with-role-as-makeshift-mental-asylums-2014-7


A U.S. veteran with post-traumatic stress sits in a segregated holding pen at the Cook County Jail after he was arrested on a narcotics charge in Chicago. The Chicago complex, with more than 10,600 inmates, is one of the country's largest single-site jails.

***SNIP

The Chicago jail and many of its 3,300 counterparts across the country have become treatment centers of last resort for people with serious mental illnesses, most arrested for non-violent crimes. And like other jails, it is awash in a tide of booking and releases that make it particularly unsuited for the task.

U.S. jails, most of whose 731,000 inmates are trying to make bail or awaiting trial, hold roughly half the number in prisons. But last year, jails booked in 11.7 million people — 19 times the number of new prison inmates. The revolving door complicates the task of screening for mental illness, managing medications, providing care and ensuring inmate safety.

"Jails are churning people," says Henry J. Steadman, a consultant to government agencies on how courts and correctional facilities deal with people with mental illnesses.

Experts have pointed to rising numbers of inmates with mental illnesses since the 1970s, after states began closing psychiatric hospitals without following through on promises to create and sustain comprehensive community treatment programs.



Read more: http://www.businessinsider.com/us-jails-are-struggling-with-role-as-makeshift-mental-asylums-2014-7#ixzz37RQ9p9oD

[pipoman]

1. Thank you Raygun..

[GoCubsGo]

3. You took the words right out of my mouth.

This has been going on for decades. If we took proper care of the mentally ill, and released all non-violent potheads, we wouldn't have the over-crowded prisons we have.

[KansDem]

19. Believe it or not, I work with someone who believes this whole mess...

...can be attributed to liberals suing government to release mental-health patients. She believes it was done because liberals wanted to "free" those patients held against their will.

Yeah, this is the 21st century...

[raccoon]

2. Off to greatest with you! nt

[msanthrope]

4. Fuck Ronald Reagan for making jail where we cattle-herd the mentally ill. nt

[former9thward]

5. It makes as much sense to blame Reagan as it does to blame Wilson.

There have been quite a few presidents of both parties since Reagan and even more sessions of Congress of both parties. This is a local issue anyway. Federal government does not control jails or mental hospitals.

[packman]

9. You are wrong on this

This issue is "a local issue" that Reagan had a direct hand in destroying:

"President Carter had signed the Mental Health Systems Act, which had proposed to continue the federal community mental health centers program, although with some additional state involvement. Consistent with the report of the Carter Commission, the act also included a provision for federal grants “for projects for the prevention of mental illness and the promotion of positive mental health,” an indication of how little learning had taken place among the Carter Commission members and professionals at NIMH. With President Reagan and the Republicans taking over, the Mental Health Systems Act was discarded before the ink had dried and the CMHC funds were simply block granted to the states. The CMHC program had not only died but been buried as well. An autopsy could have listed the cause of death as naiveté complicated by grandiosity."

Article goes on to point out Reagan and his administration had no intrest in trying to help the local governments, the small communities, the smallest governmental units get funding for mental health issues.

http://www.salon.com/2013/09/29/ronald_reagans_shameful_legacy_violence_the_homeless_mental_illness/

Now it has come back to bite the prison system in the ass. While true the fed's do not control the jails or mental hospitals, Reagan sure didn't do them any favors. Fuck Reagan.

[ieoeja]

13. More generically, Reagan got rid of block grants which funded a LOT of state and local activities.

The balkanization of the United States may end up being Reagan's worst legacy. Though he has so many bad legacies, it would be hard to pick #1.

[former9thward]

21. The Republicans did not take over.

Reagan had Democratic Congresses. Hasn't there been any Democratic Presidents since Reagan? If Reagan could undo something why has no one reversed it?

[ieoeja]

11. The day after his re-election, Reagan told the Secretary of Veterans Affairs ...

... to close all VA mental health facilities. 31 December 1984 at the end of the day, those patients whom they could not place were wheeled out to the sidewalks outside of Hines and lowered to the ground. The wheelchairs were returned to the Center and the doors were locked.

I joined VA Hines Data Processing Center in February 1985. The hatred for that monster was off the charts. Fitting that the asshole should end his life suffering from a mental disease.

[packman]

20. Damn,

This needs to be repeated anytime those talking heads talk about Obama and his handling of the VA. Unbelievable.

[former9thward]

22. I just called the Hines VA Mental Health center up.

708-202-8387. They do not know what you are talking about. I was a state of IL inspector during that time period and I visited Hines several times and I do not know what you are talking about.

[ieoeja]

24. The receptionist at Hines doesn't know the Mental Health center closed in 1984?

Wow! Color me shocked. I mean, surely the receptionist was there 30 years ago.

I. Was. There. It happened. The VA Mental Health inpatient center at Hines was closed the entire time I worked for the VA.

And you defending Reagan? Again, color me shocked. You ALWAYS defend Republicans. And you ALWAYS attack Democrats. How you've managed to survive at DU this long, I don't understand. A cursory search of your username here at DU will find nothing but defenses of Republicans and attacks on Democrats. That is all you ever do.

That, and start spouting lies every time someone talks about anything in this city. That isn't an insult. It is the truth. On occasion a Chicago poster has been lucky enough to have other Chicago area residents happen upon on a discussion of ours. And they always back up the other Chicago poster, never you. I wonder why that is?


Thing is, I actually believe that you were a Chicago Democrat. People not in Chicago don't know what the "Machine" was like. The southside Machine lined up very well with the old Dixiecrats. Racism, bigotry and ignorance was a staple of that. But they were union. Where the Dixiecrats jumped shit to keep the hate on, the Southside Machine followed the money, not their hate.

But inevitably they get old and retire. Once retired, and they're money is secure, all they have is the hate. I've met a lot of older Democrats in this city who absolutely hate and abhor the Democratic Party because of its embrace of diversity.

How's Arizona working out for you? Bet you love the pols down there.

[former9thward]

25. A personal attack rather than link to any of your allegations.

And a post filled with strawmen. I would say you fit the machine much more than I.

[ieoeja]

26. A link to my allegations? Dude, this thread is a link to my allegations.

Your first two posts on this thread are both defenses of Reagan.

Your second post in this thread is an example of you contradicting a Chicago poster. Nobody needs to go any further than this very thread if they want to see examples of you being ... you.



But if anyone does, try that site search at the top. You will find plenty of examples:

Attacking Gandhi (seriously): http://www.democraticunderground.com/1014484339

Defending Sandusky (seriously): http://www.democraticunderground.com/1014484339

Attacking Blacks: http://www.democraticunderground.com/1002680478

Defending Marc Rubio: http://www.democraticunderground.com/1014404089

Don't know why you would want me to provide a list of these. But that is the first few I hit.

[former9thward]

27. You have made serious charges without a thread of evidence.

No link to Reagan demanding VA mental health shutdown. How come the Trib and Sun Times did not cover this? People out on the sidewalks without wheelchairs? Any newspaper would have. I read the Trib and Sun Times cover to cover. How come no story? I always question things on the internet that do not have proof. Asking for evidence bothers some people. You are one of them. And yes I will not let fake stories about Chicago go unanswered.

[Dreamer Tatum]

28. +100000 The knee jerk blaming of one person when 30+ years has passed

is simpleminded and stupid as all fuck.

Did Reagan rig the issue with a nuclear bomb or something?

Why didn't:

Bush I
Clinton
Bush II
Obama I
Obama II

do anything about it?

[former9thward]

29. Be careful. You will be accused of "defending Reagan".

And assorted other crimes...

[Dreamer Tatum]

30. Oh, I know. I don't give a shit anymore.

Reagan flipped a light switch, and even though two Democrats over a cumulative 10+ years in office knew
exactly where the switch was, they preferred to stay in the dark. Period, paragraph, end of story.

[sorefeet]

6. Correction Corporations of America

don't want anything to change. Taxpayer money to make a handful of people filthy rich. When all those billions should go for mental health treatment instead of jail and prison. Tough on crime is just more fear mongering. More mental health treatment the less crime, the less need for a jail cell. It's easy to buy your elected official is another reason for our mental health problem.

[Brigid]

7. Once upon a time . . .

There was a facility here in Indianapolis called Central State Hospital. It was a mental hospital that had once been considered one of the best of its kind in the country, but scandals concerning patient abuse and a crumbling physical plant led to its closure in 1994, after 146 years. Inadequate funding was the real culprit. The question of where the patients were supposed to go was never adequately answered. Soon, obviously mentally ill people were to be seen wandering the streets here and there downtown, muttering to themselves and seeking refuge in the bus shelters. It wasn't hard to figure out where they came from. After a while, they began disappearing, one by one. Most of them probably wound up on the Marion County Jail. I doubt that many of them are still alive.

[lexx21]

16. We have a similar issue here in NC...

Dorothea Dix hospital was closed down here in Raleigh. It was our main mental hospital for many decades.

The hospital was inspected by JACO and given three years to fix the issues found there. Since the hospital was a state hospital, they didn't get the funding needed to sort out the issues found. That was a three year span of knowing that something had to be done and the opportunity to fix it. When the hospital finally closed real estate hawks wanted to raze the place and build luxury condos there. There were various land grab schemes because the land, being in the middle of Raleigh, was very valuable. I really believe that this is what led to it's closure due to lack of funding. Bleed it dry and then sell the land for a fortune.

Instead of fixing the facility, a new facility was built in Butner which experts said did not have enough beds for the number of patients. Likewise walking around downtown Raleigh or Durham, you find the mentally ill roaming the streets instead of in care where they need to be. Just the other day there was a guy outside of my building (work) who was screaming at someone who wasn't there. The guy was indigent, so I knew he didn't have a phone. He was one of the many who would normally have been in a mental facility 30 years ago. Now he is on a path to jail.

[KansDem]

17. "...muttering to themselves and seeking refuge in the bus shelters."

Don't forget the public library. It provides them with a place to live for the day.

[raouldukelives]

8. Can't make a profit from helping the least among us.

Only by torturing and imprisoning them. Thanks to Chicago economics, Reagan and Wall St investors who don't care where the funds come from, just that they come.

[Orsino]

10. Just as the schools are being turned into daycare. n/t

[EEO]

15. That is one of the primary reasons I , as a certified teacher, have lost interest in education.

The "not my kid's fault" parents who take no interest in the education of their children until they get a failing grade and/or they are disciplined by the administration are also an issue. There are some great parents who legitimately care about the future for their children, but they are not the rule.

[MsLeopard]

18. And the school to prison pipeline

fits right in with the scheme to make money off of people's suffering. It's disgusting.

[CrispyQ]

31. This. ^^^

Everything for profit is killing every good & beautiful thing on this planet.

[jwirr]

12. I got to visit with my brother and his wife this week and both have bipolar. We were talking about

if the institutions should be reopened. I saw two of my family members in one of those abusive institutions back before they closed them down. It was not a pretty picture but then the one in this op isn't either.

My brother who has had to be placed in treatment several times said nothing but his wife wants something that can serve as a facility for treatment because there are not enough doctors or beds available in the area they live in. It is hard to find one with an opening when they are needed. Plus the hospitals that take emergency cases can only let them stay for a short time due to insurance rules.

My specialty is not mental illness except on a family basis but I do know what replaced the institutions for the developmentally disabled. At first there was regional facilities that were smaller than an institution and used both inhouse doctors and area doctors to work with their clients. Later those clients who could were placed in foster homes with 5-6 people and lived in the community. From there some of the clients actually were able to live independently in the community.

It seems to me that something like this is still needed for the mentally ill. In MN they are starting to develop this kind of system but the going is slow because of the resistance in communities, lack of money to facilitate the change and in some cases resistance from clients who do not want to work with the system. This change should work with the prison systems to get more appropriate placement for mentally ill prisoners because the prison has become the new institution.

[Sunlei]

14. No veteran with a mental illnesss!,

Should be isolated in a freaking dog kennel!!!

Our department of defense authorised trillions on their stupid wars.

For-profit prisons suck up millions of our federal funds.

Some states sign thirty-year contracts with for-profit prisons and pay them millions in taxpayer money.

Prisons are paid to care for prisoners to take care of their healthcare needs.

Obviously the for-profit system is not working.

This treatment is unconstitutional,we humans have basic human rights.

[n2doc]

23. another report in the NYT on this

http://www.democraticunderground.com/10025238297

[gwheezie]

32. I've worked in the mental health system in a variety of settings for 40 years

Treatment was never well funded however I remember what happened while Reagan was president. The hellholes were shut down and the community was supposed to get funding, it never happened. The little bit of money that floated to the community was no nearly enough to take care of the mentally ill.
I've also worked in the VA system post vietnam, it was a hellhole. I worked on a forensics unit, it was a hellhole. I worked in a few private settings, good care if your insurance covered it or you had the cash on hand to pay up front. The problem with the serious chronic mentally ill is they don't keep insurance and they lose their support system over time. They wind up uninsured or on mcaid/mcare. Currently I work in a community hospital that has involuntary patients bought in by the police, depending on what cop you run into you could go to jail or come here. Last night we filled every bed. We took patients from 100 miles away until we were full. Last night there were no beds by morning for people without good insurance. I suspect when the police couldn't get them to a hospital, they went to a jail. We cannot get anyone into a state hospital here, we discharge patients to hellhole group homes with little supervision after about 5 days. The more savvy patients manage to get themselves hooked up with one of the rare spots in an intensive outpatient program but most of my patients do not have the where with all to manage it. Groups like NAMI and Friends and Families of the Mentally Ill can be a good resource but very few of my patients that are over 25 still have family who will advocate for them, schizophrenia burns out families.
We filled our beds last night, we got at least 10 more calls from all over the state after we filled our beds last night. I don't know where those people wound up. We are one of the few hospitals that will take anyone no matter if they can pay because it is our mission. We take people that require 1 to 1 care when other hospitals won't take them. We also wind up with some very dangerous people because like I said you can wind up being taken here or to jail depending on which cop you run into. One of my coworkers got a beat down last week, she's still out on sick leave.
I'm a little burnt out today, I was the only nurse. I had a 67 year old female tech working with me, I started with 15 patients and we filled all our beds by the time I left this morning. I'm 64 and female. I've never had a beat down happen to me. I think I have pretty good instincts. The police bring in people in shackles, take the shackles off and leave. I think part of the danger is the psychosis at times because folks can't reason things out but most of the time it's because they been on the street, put out of a shelter or group home, robbed or beat up,lost all they have which is not much, cops bothering them and get held in an er until they can be transported and sometimes it's a 4 hour ride in shackles and they're hallucinating the devil and demons. By the time they get to me, all I can try to do is give them some juice and safety and treat them like a human but it's hard for some of them to believe they are safe.
I used to run a day program for the chronic mentally ill, once a week we took a trip to the library, I got them library cards, I figured since they hang out there they should be able to get on the internet and find out more about their illness, their meds and who can help them. The program closed because the healthcare system I worked for then did not make enough money from mcare reimbursements.
A year or so ago, we got a call they were bringing in a guy who tried to take several cops down, they told us he had to be tasered several times, so we were dreading this. Thankfully his mom called before he arrived and was crying hysterically, her son was a tbi from Iraq and was having flashbacks, he was fighting for his life, she begged me to treat him right, she said I want you to know who my son is. When he arrived on the unit, in shackles with 6 cops. I walked up to him and said "thank you for your service" He broke down. I told him I was going to help him but I didn't want him to hurt me, I told the big guys to back off and get out of his face and told the cops to take the shackles off. For fuck's sake, he was a tbi war vet and was being treated like a criminal. Anyway, I never had a problem from him. The young fellas gave me a rap name,the young fellas come in over and over, they say "hey grammawheezie, when you goin to retire" I tell them, when you start taking your meds. It's heartbreaking, heartbreaking. My brother is bipolar, he still has a family standing behind him. Most of my patients have no one, not family, not the healthcare system, not the legal system. I think about them and say, my god you gotta be tough to live with this, this would bring some folks who look down on them to their knees. I still shed a tear over that young vet. He's got a tough mom.Standing up for him and making s realize he was a human being.
This system is fucked up. It wasn't better before Reagan but Reagan fucked it up even worse and no one seems to want to put any money into treating the chronic mentally ill.