According to to the Treatment Advocacy Center more people suffering from mental illness are in jails and prisons than hospitals and mental health facilities.
Using previously unpublished data from 2004 and 2005, TAC found that the mentally ill are three times more likely to be in jail or prison than in hospitals. Broken down by state, Arizona and Nevada top the list with almost ten times as many mentally ill in prison than hospital, proving that the U.S. prison system have become our new mental hospitals of yore.
Some states like North Dakota however, have an equal number of mentally ill in prisons and hospitals.
Another recent study found that at least 16 percent of prison populations suffer from a serious mental illness. Compare that to a 1983 study that found only 6.3 percent of inmates suffer from mental. That means that over the past three decades the percentage of mentally ill in prison has nearly tripled.
This isn’t news to the mental health community which shows that nearly 40 percent of individuals with mental health problems have been incarcerated at some point their lives.
This could be a result of the fact that it is incredibly difficult for a mental health patient to find a bed in a mental health facility. In, 1955 there was one psychiatric bed for every 300 Americans, in 2016 there was one psychiatric bed for every 3,000 Americans. That is is precipitous drop in mental health care availability. To make matters worse, the majority of these beds are filled by court-ordered cases and not truly available for those in need of help.
At Garcia Law we are advocates for those who suffer from mental illness and we will fight for their rights. If you or someone you know is suffering from a mental illness and they have not received the care that they deserve, schedule an appointment with us today. We will do what we can to ensure that the mentally ill are no longer forgotten and pushed aside in America.
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