Nevada Newsletter

Mentally ill people locked up in prison instead of in hospital.
Nevada has the highest amount (9.8 to 1)

At the other extreme, in Nevada (9.8 to 1) there were almost 10 seriously mentally
ill persons in jails and prisons for every one in a hospital. The situation in Arizona (9.3 to 1) was almost as bad as in Nevada, and Texas (7.8 to 1) was not far behind. The other states in the bottom quarter of the rankings were South Carolina (5.1 to 1), Georgia (5.1 to 1), Florida (4.9 to 1), Louisiana (4.6 to 1), Idaho (4.6 to 1), Michigan (4.3 to 1), Colorado (4.1 to 1), Ohio (4.0 to 1), and Utah (4.0 to 1).


In the United States there are more than three times the amount of mentally ill persons in jails and prisons than in hospitals. Looked at by individual states, in North Dakota there are approximately an equal number of mentally ill persons in jails and prisons compared to hospitals.
Recent studies suggest that at least 16 percent of inmates in jails and prisons have a serious mental illness.
These findings are consistent with studies reporting that 40 percent of individuals with serious mental illnesses have been in jail or prison at some time in their lives.
Any state can solve this problem if it has the political will by using assisted outpatient treatment and mental health courts and by holding mental health officials responsible for outcomes. The federal government can solve this problem by conducting surveys to compare the states; attaching the existing federal block grants to better results; and fixing the federal funding system by abolishing the “institutions for mental diseases” (IMD) Medicaid restriction.


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