F R O M
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S T A T E
A T T O R N E Y
An d re w H. Wa r re n - St at e At t o r n ey fo r t h e T h i r t e e n t h Ju d i c i a l Ci rc u i t
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Defendants with a serious mental illness remain
incarcerated longer than other defendants, yet they
require more resources. The reality is that society spends
so much money prosecuting and incarcerating the
mentally ill that it is almost criminal.
The entire construct of treating mental illness
primarily through the criminal justice system is fitting a
square peg into a round hole. Still, within the system, the
goals for handling many mentally ill defendants — most
of whom are in the system for non-violent and lower-
level offenses — should be: (1) minimize incarceration;
(2) connect them with mental health providers; and (3)
focus on the treatment needed to avoid recidivism.
Last year, our community established a mental health
court, which was a tremendous and necessary first step
for improving how we handle mentally ill defendants.
But, the capacity of any mental health court is limited
compared to the need. More importantly, the critical
stage of dealing with mentally ill community members
occurs before they end up in the courtroom.
SEPT - OCT 2018
|
HCBA LAWYER
Our local criminal justice stakeholders know that we
cannot arrest and prosecute our way out of this problem.
Instead, we are studying the successful interventions of
cities like Miami that embrace a public health approach
to mental illness, using the criminal justice system to
facilitate access to treatment. No one wants an attorney
providing medical treatment, but prosecutors can help
connect mentally ill offenders to clinicians to receive
treatment, which improves outcomes, reduces recidivism,
and promotes public safety.
Edward P. Mulvey & Carol A. Schubert, 2017. “Mentally
Ill Individuals in Jails and Prisons,” 46 Crime & Justice 1, 231
(2017), available at https://www.journals.uchicago.edu/doi/
10.1086/688461
2 Id.
3 Id.
4 E. Torrey Fuller et al., More Mentally Ill Persons Are
In Jails and Prisons Than Hospitals: A Survey of the States.
Treatment Advocacy Center & National Sheriffs’ Association,
(2010), available at http://www.treatmentadvocac5center.org/
storage/documents/final_jails_v_hospitals_study.pdf
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