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The New Asylums

May 9, 2005—Tomorrow night, PBS’s Frontline program turns the national spotlight on a disturbing trend: How, each year, thousands of Americans with mental illnesses cycle in out of the criminal and juvenile justice system, punished for the mental health system’s failure to provide crucial services and supports that can help them lead more successful lives in the community.

Before you see the show, do something to help solve the problem.

The nation’s jails and prisons have become the new asylums for many people with mental illnesses, needlessly exposing them to punitive, traumatic and often dangerous environments, diverting criminal justice resources and squandering hundreds of millions of tax dollars.

Last year, lawmakers and the President took an important step toward addressing this disturbing trend. “The Mentally Ill Offender Treatment and Crime Reduction Act” (P.L. 108-414) was sponsored by Senator Mike DeWine (R-OH) and Representative Ted Strickland (D-OH) and signed by President Bush. The law authorizes $50 million in federal funds for grants to states to support pre- and post-booking interventions, including crisis intervention teams and law enforcement training, mental health courts and other court-based approaches, and re-entry and transitional programs.

Without funding, this important initiative isn’t going anywhere. Hundreds of thousands of Americans with mental illnesses will likely remain in the nation’s new asylums.

The Bazelon Center and our partners in the Campaign for Mental Health Reform need your help to secure funding for federal efforts to stop the dangerous, expensive and inappropriate warehousing of people with mental illnesses in our nation’s jails and prisons.

"The Mentally Ill Offender Treatment and Crime Reduction Act” (PDF File) Frontline: The New Asylums, Tues. May 10 at 9:00 PM EST The Campaign for Mental Health Reform The Bazelon Center's Criminal and Juvenile Justice Issues Page

Take action Now!

Next week, the House Subcommittee will begin work on the Justice-Commerce appropriations bill, which would provide funding for the programs authorized by “The Mentally Ill Offender Treatment and Crime Reduction Act.” The Senate subcommittee will likely meet on the bill before the end of May.

If your Representative or one of your Senators is a member of one of these committees (see the House and Senate lists below “Fast Facts” to find out), please take a moment to contact her/him and urge him/her to support full funding for “The Mentally Ill Offender Treatment and Crime Reduction Act.” You can find out who represents you in Congress at: http://www.congress.org.

What You Can Do...

• Make the Call! Call the Capitol switchboard now at 202-224-3121 to be connected to your Senator or Representative’s office. Once you’ve been connected, ask to speak with the legislative assistant working on the Department of Justice appropriations bill.

• Be an E-Advocate! Use our electronic advocacy system at democracyinaction.org to send a message to your Member of Congress urging her/him to support full funding for the “The Mentally Ill Offender Treatment and Crime Reduction Act:”

• Host a Watch Party! Help spread awareness about the criminalization of people with mental illnesses. Invite friends, family members, co-workers, neighbors and others over to watch “The New Asylums,” then discuss what they can do to promote alternatives to the current senseless warehousing of Americans with mental illnesses in the nation’s jails and prisons (They can start by taking action above). The program airs at 9:00 PM EST tomorrow night, Tuesday, May 10. Check local listings.

Fast Facts

• Sixteen percent of all adult inmates in state prisons and jails and 7 percent in federal prisons have a mental illness, according to a landmark 1999 Department of Justice (DOJ) report.

• Seventy percent of people with mental illnesses in jails are there for non-violent offenses, according to DOJ. Nearly half the inmates with a mental illness in state or federal prison in the United States are incarcerated for committing a nonviolent crime

• Programs that provide intensive community-based services to individuals with mental illness who have been involved with the criminal justice system are cost-effective. For example, the Thresholds program in Chicago generated jail and hospital cost savings of almost $19,000 per person over two years.

House Appropriations Committee, Subcommittee on Science, State, Justice, and Commerce and Related Agencies

Frank R. Wolf, VA (R - Chairman)

Charles H. Taylor, NC (R)

Mark Steven Kirk, IL (R)

Dave Weldon, FL (R - Vice Chair)

Virgil Goode, VA (R)

Ray LaHood, IL (R)

John Abney Culberson, TX (R)

Rodney Alexander, LA (R)

Alan B. Mollohan, WV (D - Ranking Member)

Jose E. Serrano, NY (D)

Robert E. "Bud" Cramer, Jr., AL (D)

Patrick J. Kennedy, RI (D)

Chaka Fattah, PA (D)

Senate Appropriations Subcommittee on Commerce, Justice and Science

Richard Shelby (R-AL), Chair

Judd Gregg (R-NH)

Ted Stevens (R-AK)

Pete Domenici (R-NM)

Mitch McConnell (R-KY)

Kay Bailey Hutchison (R-TX)

Sam Brownback (R-KS)

Christopher Bond (R-MO)

Barbara Mikulski (D-MD), Ranking Member

Daniel Inouye (D-HI)

Patrick Leahy (D-VT)

Herbert Kohl (D-WI)

Patty Murray (D-WA)

Tom Harkin (D-IA)

Richard Durbin (D-IL)

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