From Warehousing Mentally Ill in Asylums to Jails

After the move to deinstitutionalize people with mental illness and get them out of asylums, no infrastructure was developed to support them in the community. Instead, many end up in jail and entangled up in the criminal justice system. The Wall Street Journal reports on the depth of the problem: "The country's three biggest jail systems—Cook County, in Illinois; Los Angeles County; and New York City—are on the front lines. With more than 11,000 prisoners under treatment on any given day, they represent by far the largest mental-health treatment facilities in the country. By comparison, the three largest state-run mental hospitals have a combined 4,000 beds." "Society was horrified to warehouse people in state hospitals, but we have no problem with warehousing them in jails and prisons," Thomas Dart, sheriff of Cook County, told the WSJ.