Major report released on prisons and mental illness

A 215-page report released today by Human Rights Watch described in often troubling detail the influx of individuals with mental illness into U.S. prisons, the difficulties those inmates face, and the struggle of prison officials to respond to their needs.

Download the report here

The report, entitled "Ill-Equipped: U.S. Prisons and Offenders with Mental Illness," received significant media attention, including coverage in the New York Times.

Some policymakers welcomed the continued investigation on the significant problems at the interface of the criminal justice and mental health systems. Reginald Wilkinson, director of the Ohio Department of Rehabilitation and Correction, and a leading contributor to the Consensus Project, said the "mere fact that this report exists is significant. Some people won't like it, and the picture it paints isn't pretty...but getting these facts out there is progress."

Along with in-depth case studies and legal analysis, the report makes recommendations to the U.S. Congress, first and foremost to pass the Mentally Ill Offender Treatment and Crime Reduction Act.

In related news, the Correctional Association of New York released a report concerning punitive segregation of inmates with mental illness in New York prisons. Read more about that report on their Web site or download the report or the executive summary here.