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Conference attempts to develop better treatment for mentally ill
by Tom Scheck, Minnesota Public Radio
June 30, 2003

Mental health advocates, medical providers and law enforcement say they need to create a better system for caring for the mentally ill. Federal estimates say 15 percent of those incarcerated in the nation's prisons have a severe mental illness. Police departments nationwide say they don't have the proper training to deal with people who have severe mental health problems, even though they're usually the ones who have to deal with a mentally ill person who's causing a disturbance. Criminalization and the mental health system was a topic at a national conference in Minneapolis on Monday. The featured speakers say the medical community, law enforcement and mental health advocates need to focus on the issue or it will cause a greater strain on the criminal justice system.

Minneapolis, Minn. — Minneapolis Police Chief Robert Olson says his police department is discovering the consequences of mental illness all too well. Last year, Minneapolis police shot and killed a machete-wielding Somali man who had mental health problems. Minneapolis police also shot and killed a knife-wielding mentally ill woman in 2000. Olson says police deal with people with mental health problems on a daily basis. He worries that a lack of mental health treatment services is forcing police nationwide to arrest and incarcerate the mentally ill.

"By the time police get involved with someone with mental illness, it's way past where a lot of other people should have been paying attention, frankly, or should have been paying attention. It's quite difficult And we haven't had the luxury in our training to give significant training in the past even thought we're now starting to give more on how to spot this sort of thing and how to deal with it," Olson said.

When a person says 'You do the crime, you do the time,' they're really missing out that we're charging the state a lot more money. Very often they're using a high level of incarceration and a structured setting in a state prison on people who very often who are not going to be your violent or repeat offenders if they just get their medication and are treated adequately. - Dr. Rahn Bailey

Olson spoke to a group of mental health advocates, the medical community and those with mental health problems at the National Alliance for the Mentally Ill conference in Minneapolis.

Olson and others say the medical community, not police and corrections officials, should be treating the mentally ill. But in many cases it isn't happening. David Deutsch of the U.S. Justice Department says the nation's jails are filling with people who need some form of treatment for mental disorders.

"Up to one third of the population in our prisons and jails have mental disorders or need mental health services," according to Deutsch. "That's appalling. This means that in any given day, any day you take in a week, there's more people with mental disorders in our prisons and jails then there are in our psychiatric hospitals in this country."

Advocates for the mentally ill say those problems could be corrected if people with severe mental health problems receive proper medication and treatment.

But that's not easy, says Dr. Rahn Bailey, because there's a strain on the mental health system. The president of the psychiatric section of the National Medical Association says in many instances, people with severe mental health problems don't get adequate treatment and can cause disturbances that may require intervention by law enforcement.

"In all settings that I've worked, in Connecticut, Louisiana and in Texas, you see people who have not been treated adequately, psychiatrically. They got off of their medications or whatever the case may be, and often times they get in a major legal conflict," he said.

Bailey says it's imperative that mental health advocates, health care providers and law enforcement better illustrate the problems caused when people don't receive mental health treatment. He says states spend billions of dollars a year on prosecuting, convicting and locking up people who have severe mental health problems. Bailey says policy makers should spend more money on prevention. He says he believes that would save money down the road.

"When a person says 'You do the crime, you do the time,' they're really missing out that we're charging the state a lot more money. Very often they're using a high level of incarceration and a structured setting in a state prison on people who very often who are not going to be your violent or repeat offenders if they just get their medication and are treated adequately," according to Bailey.

Bailey says he's concerned that the problem could become more severe as many states start implementing cuts to deal with looming deficits.

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