Critical Review On Mental Illness

Mental Illness has been prevalent all throughout our history from Isaac Newton to Abraham Lincoln to Sylvia Plath and so on. These illnesses can be as minor as a slight bipolar disorder or as severe as schizophrenia. In recent years, mental illnesses are becoming more prevalent in our criminal justice systems than anywhere else. Mental illness is becoming an association with crime and based on the information that has been found, this paper will attempt to further define the problem of mental illness within our criminal justice system and offer alternatives or insights as to how to possibly help with this problem.

Authors in this article from the University of California observe and focus on the risks and rates involved in people that have a mental disorder and correlate it with incarceration as well as people with re-incarceration. While performing these studies researchers found an alarming number of people incarcerated had a severe mental illness and substance abuse issues. Much of the knowledge in numbers of people with a mental illness are brought from a correctional view, but researchers here try to also focus on numbers of people in the public mental health system as well.

There are cases in which police officers are found dealing drugs such as bhang or methamphetamines or officers end up shooting mentally ill people they have been called to help restrain. In the latter, case proper training on how to

Mental health and the criminal justice system have long been intertwined. Analyzing and understanding the links between these two subjects demands for a person to go in to depth in the fields of criminology, sociology, psychology, and psychiatry, because there are many points of view on whether or not a person’s criminal behavior is due to their mental health. Some believe that an unstable mental state of mind can highly influence a person’s decision of committing criminal actions. Others believe that mental health and crime are not related and that linking them together is a form of discrimination because it insinuates that those in our society that suffer from poor mental health are most likely to become a criminal due to their

The crisis intervention team (CIT) program is an approach for law enforcement officers to safely respond to individuals who are experiencing a mental health crisis. Since its inception in 1988 in Memphis Tennessee, the program has spread rapidly and has been described as “the most visible pre-booking diversion program in the United States. CIT develops a special team of officers who are meant to serve as first responders to individuals suspected of having a mental illness, are suicidal, or experiencing a mental health crisis. The goal of CIT is to reduce arrests of individuals who would more appropriately be diverted to the community mental health system. It is also meant to improve the safety of officers and civilians and it accomplishes this

The shutdown of state mental hospitals and lack of available financial and institutional resources force mentally ill people to the United States Judicial System for mental health. Every year thousands of people are arrested for various crimes and they are sent to jail. Sixteen percent of these people have some type of mental health problem (Public Broadcasting System , 2001). When we consider that the United States has the largest incarcerated population in the world at 2.2 million, this number is staggering (Anasseril E. Daniel, 2007). This is about 1% of the entire population of the United States. There are many reasons as to why the situation has taken such a bad turn and when the history of the treatment of mental illness is examined one can see how the situation developed into the inhumane disaster it is today.

The recent increase in emergency 9-1-1 calls involving mentally ill persons has heightened the awareness of the Criminal Justice System. Across the nation, law enforcement encounters with mentally ill persons have become more frequent, and the use of deadly force against mentally ill persons has increased. Since the deinstitutionalization of the mental health system, law enforcement officials have been tasked with controlling deviant and sometimes criminal behavior of persons who suffer from mental illness. As a result, law enforcement agencies have implemented crisis intervention training (CIT) and diversion tactics due to the numerous challenges faced when serving the mentally ill. Major deficiencies in the mental health system and State legislations have hindered progressive efforts towards assisting mentally ill persons. With the dramatic consequences associated with untreated mental illness, it is certain that law enforcement officers will experience an encounter requiring knowledge, specialized training, and the ability to build collaborative partnerships.

The scope of Crisis Intervention Teams (CIT) is limited due to the newness of this model being implemented in different police departments across the country. The CIT model is being implemented in over 400 programs with different aspects taken from the original model. (Draine,J.,Ottati,V.,Schaefer,M.Watson,A.2008)Focusing on the how police officers deal with the mentally ill, and the spread of the police based CIT programs.

Law enforcement interactions with the mentally ill community are increasing, due to a number of factors such as cuts on long-term psychiatric beds, improvements in treatments and the philosophy of integration (Adelman, 2003). Which leads to mentally ill people living in the community, which leads to increase crisis and police interaction because of insufficient funding. Existing community-based crisis response services are not well unified and are limited, especially in rural areas. General hospital-based emergency services can also be difficult to access because of bed reductions, and only offer treatment to those only that are seriously ill (e.g. be actively delusional or suicidal). As Eric Macnaughton states in his study BC Early

Crisis Intervention Team (CIT) is a community initiative and training program that has been developed in many U.S. states to help law enforcement officers react appropriately and improve the outcome of law enforcement interactions in situations involving mentally ill or developmentally disabled individuals (CIT Overview). CIT training has many key components such as community collaborations, a 40 hour training program that includes basic information about mental illness and how to recognize the signs, de-escalation training and role play, as well as information about the local mental health system and local laws, plus consumer and family involvement (CIT Overview). The CIT program began in Memphis, Tennessee in 1987 when 27-year-old Joseph Dewayne Robinson was shot and killed during a confrontation with the Memphis Police Department. After the shooting incident the community became outraged and this lead to a new way of doing business for both the police and the mental health community in Memphis (CIT Overview). Based on a collaborative effort a design emerged to help police officers identify and deal with the mentally ill (CIT Overview). In 1988, the Memphis, TN Police Department joined in partnership with the Memphis chapter of the Alliance for the Mentally Ill, mental health providers and two local Universities, the University of Memphis and University of Tennessee at Memphis in organizing, training and implementing a specialized unit (CIT Overview). This unique and

CIT is a specialized training program utilizing mental health and substance abuse experts, legal experts, consumer/family advocates, and experienced CIT officers. They teach law enforcement officers how to de-escalate unpredictable situations involving those with mental health disorders. The training is accomplished through role playing, learning about the likely behavior of

Crisis Intervention Training came from the deadly results between law enforcement and mentally unstable individuals. This training gives them the tools to be able to identify people with various kinds of mental illness. These illnesses include but are not limited to anxiety disorder, mood

Throughout history laws and regulations have formed for society to abide by to avoid a world full of absolute chaos. Ultimately leading to the creation of police officers who would enforce these laws and regulations. However, this is one of the world’s most dangerous and stressful professions. Mainly because police officers are expected to put their lives on the line every single day to protect and serve society. Even though this is the case, becoming a police officer has always been a goal of mine. Edward Conlon book called, “Blue Blood” provides amazing insight on what it’s like to be a police officer. This is because Edward Conlon was previously a police officer and based this book around his personal experiences while he was on the job. Since this book is based around first-hand experience and written as they were happening it made me enjoy the book even more. Mainly because these events weren 't over exaggerated. However, since the book is based around stories within stories, I sometimes found it difficult to follow. This book presented many examples of issues that the police face daily and showed that sometimes these issues aren’t easy to handle. Three specific issues that Edward Conlon faced as a police officer that relates to my issues in policing class is dealing with the mentally ill, using discretion, and police training.

     Linda A. Teplin says that “police involvement with mentally ill persons is grounded in two common law principles: (1) The power and responsibility of the police to protect the safety and

The psychologist 's ' services that the psychologist provide consist of counseling and evaluation more than training and monitoring of police behavior. Counseling is more likely to be a response to excessive force incidents than a preventive step (Scrivner, E, M., 2004).