Student California Baptist University Rancho Cucamonga, California, United States
Overview: The over criminalization of mental illness, the elimination of psychiatric hospitals, and the lack of mental health services have been major contributors to incarceration of the mentally ill. The Mental Health Diversion Program is a viable alternative to incarceration for the mentally ill population provided under penal code 1001.36.Proposal text: Mental illness has become a huge pandemic that has moved through our local and national criminal justice system as two million adults with serious mental illness are admitted into jails every year. Of those two million individuals almost three quarters have a co-occurring substance use disorder. Such numbers are a direct reflection and consequence of the deinstitutionalization of the 1960’s. At which time 559,000 individuals in the United States were in state hospitals. Now the jails and prisons have become psychiatric hospitals. There is a critical need for alternatives regarding mental illness and the need to shift the responsibility of untreated mental illness out of the criminal justice system. This systematic problem has detrimental consequences as mentally ill inmates are being beaten, victimized or experiencing suicidal ideation due to their circumstances in jail. Generally, the mental health community as well as criminal justice personnel believes the primary focus placed on the incarcerated mentally ill population should be the stabilization of their mental illness, the maintenance of their triggers and the enhancement of their independent functioning. As common practice, people with mental illness are detained longer while awaiting trial at a higher rate than those who do not suffer from mental illness. Therefore, the development and utilization of the Mental Health Diversion Program is so very essential to divert the mentally ill out of incarceration and into community-based services. The Mental Health Diversion Program is a viable alternative to incarceration for the mentally ill population provided under penal code 1001.36. The Mental Health Diversion Program allows individuals to receive mental health services and rehabilitation interventions in lieu of prosecution. If an individual completes their treatment successfully within two years, the criminal charges will be dismissed and the record of arrest will be sealed. The Mental Health Diversion Program was developed as a reaction to the rising numbers of adults with mental illness in the jails and the high rates of reoffending. The Mental Health Diversion Program has become a common strategy to connect the mentally ill system involved population with community-based treatment instead of incarceration. Adults with severe mental illness are over represented in the criminal justice system, and the traditional criminal justice procedures have not led to a minimization of recidivism. In fact, there were no visible improvements regarding drug use minimization and mental health functioning. Therefore, prosecutors are turning toward community-based alternatives to standard prosecution for system involved individuals.
