Issue

The growing numbers of people with mental illness in jail, in prison, on probation, or on parole has become one of the most pressing problems facing corrections administrators.

• Approximately five percent of the US population has a serious mental illness.^[1]


• The US Department of Justice reports, however, that about 16 percent of the population in prison or jail has a mental illness.^[2]


• The Los Angeles County Jail (California), the Cook County Jail (Chicago), and Rikers Island (New York City) each hold more people with mental illness on any given day than any psychiatric facility in the United States.^[3]


• In Orange County, Florida, an inmate identified as having a mental illness stays an average of 51 days, compared with an average stay of 26 days for all other inmates.^[4]


• 72 percent of people with mental illness were re-arrested within 36 months of release from the jail in Lucas County, Ohio.^[5]

Response

In 2003, CSG requested proposals from jurisdictions to receive technical assistance that would facilitate collaboration between corrections (i.e., jail, prison, and community corrections) and mental health agencies. CSG received more than 60 applications for the technical assistance project, and 13 sites were selected. The list of sites selected for this initial phase of technical assistance can be found here.

Over the course of that year, CSG staff and its consultants conducted conference calls with a team of corrections and mental health leaders representing their respective jurisdictions and conducted technical assistance site visits. Through these visits, CSG staff and its consultants gauged the level of collaboration in each site and gained an understanding of the issues that sites would address with additional technical assistance. As a result, four sites have been selected as learning sites and will receive intensive technical assistance: Kansas; Rhode Island; Orange County, FL; and Philadelphia, PA.

Current Status

Each of the four learning sites has a different focus for the second year of technical assistance.

Kansas	Analyze and replicate a discharge planning program for offenders with serious and persistent mental illness and develop a process by which prison and behavioral healthcare databases can be synchronized system-wide.
Rhode Island	Design an enhanced ACT program geared toward offenders with serious mental illness who have had contacts with both the prison and behavioral healthcare system.
Orange County, FL	Collect and analyze data from jail and community mental health centers to track outcomes for offenders with major mental illness referred to a diversion program.
Philadelphia, PA	Identify and analyze jail and behavioral healthcare data to track outcomes for shared target population and assess impact of reentry programs to which target population is referred.

To view the Year 1 request for proposals, click here.