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Deinstitutionalization and other factors in the criminalization of persons with serious mental illness and how it is being addressed

Published online by Cambridge University Press:  10 October 2019

H. Richard Lamb  and
Linda E. Weinberger Open the ORCID record for Linda E. Weinberger [Opens in a new window]
H. Richard Lamb
Affiliation:
Emeritus of Psychiatry and the Behavioral Sciences, Keck School of Medicine of USC, Los Angeles, California, USA
Linda E. Weinberger*
Affiliation:
Emerita of Clinical Psychiatry and the Behavioral Sciences, Keck School of Medicine of USC, and Chief Psychologist, USC Institute of Psychiatry, Law and Behavioral Sciences, Los Angeles, California, USA
*
*Address correspondence to: Linda E. Weinberger, PhD, USC Institute of Psychiatry, Law, and Behavioral Science, P.O. Box 86125, Los Angeles, CA90086-0125, USA. (Email: leweinbe@usc.edu)
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Abstract

One of the major concerns in present-day psychiatry is the criminalization of persons with serious mental illness (SMI). This trend began in the late 1960s when deinstitutionalization was implemented throughout the United States. The intent was to release patients in state hospitals and place them into the community where they and other persons with SMI would be treated. Although community treatment was effective for many, there was a large minority who did not adapt successfully and who presented challenges in treatment. Consequently, some of these individuals’ mental condition and behavior brought them to the attention of law enforcement personnel, whereupon they would be subsequently arrested and incarcerated. The failure of the mental health system to provide a sufficient range of treatment interventions, including an adequate number of psychiatric inpatient beds, has contributed greatly to persons with SMI entering the criminal justice system. A discussion of the many issues and factors related to the criminalization of persons with SMI as well as how the mental health and criminal justice systems are developing strategies and programs to address them is presented.

Keywords

Criminalizationdeinstitutionalizationtreatmentmentalillness.
Type
Review
Information
CNS Spectrums , Volume 25 , Issue 2 , April 2020 , pp. 173 - 180
Copyright
© Cambridge University Press 2019

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Footnotes

†

Deceased.

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