Mentally ill increasing strain on US prison system

[Gerald]

The county jail in Virginia Beach granted the BBC access to report on the difficulties of dealing with mentally ill inmates

Treating mental illness is always a challenge, but in the US, after decades of declining funding for mental health care, the burden is increasingly falling on the prison system. The BBC was granted access to a local jail in the state of Virginia to see first-hand how staff and inmates are coping.

In Virginia Beach, a city on America's east coast, 260 of the roughly 1,400 inmates in the county jail are being treated for mental illnesses.

The local sheriff, Ken Stolle, told the BBC that most weeks, he has more inmates in his jail suffering from mental illnesses than the state's system has beds.

http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/world-us-canada-12532538

Note: 22 February 2011 Last updated at 23:15 GMT

[Gerald]

No man becomes overwhelmed by the well to creep in.

[NeonSamurai]

This is a problem in a lot of countries where the process of deinstitutionalization happened for the mental health system. Some people with mental illness cannot survive in the community, and often end up as homeless (where some figures put 70-80% of the population having serious mental illness).

Deinstitutionalization isn't necessarily a bad thing, but you do still need some mental care facilities for those that cannot function outside. Problem is the slack in the system is being taken up by both regular hospitals and prisons.

[Gerald]

Exactly, and it's not just in the U.S. which the article refers to

[Platapus]

We could do more for the mentally ill in this country. But it always seems to be on the bottom of the list.

[Gerald]

Politicians consider it low priority

[Platapus]

Originally Posted by Vendor

Politicians consider it low priority

One would think they would want to take care of their own.

(rimshot)

[Armistead]

Originally Posted by Vendor

Politicians consider it low priority

Yep, no profit in it and no voting power.

[Gerald]

Originally Posted by Armistead

Yep, no profit in it and no voting power.

Quite right, unfortunately.

[bookworm_020]

Same story here in Australia. I get to see plenty of nut cases as a train driver and also see the mayhem they cause. Another reason why I never want to be a police officer!

[Platapus]

And then some person with a long history of mental illness commits some horrible crime like shooting up a Chucky Cheeze and all of a sudden people ask "how could this have happened" "how come no one knew about this guy"

Sheesh.