Prisons are Becoming Asylums: Thanks, "Drug War"

The United States is notorious for locking up people for committing victimless crimes. The country, which only has 5% of the global population, has approximately 25% of the global prison population.

Now a disturbing new report reveals that many jails are being forced to care for inmates with mental illness – a task they are poorly equipped to handle.

In his AP piece titled Overwhelmed US Jails Struggle with Role as Makeshift Asylums, Adam Geller reports that many of the 3,300 jails in the US have become treatment centers for people with serious mental illnesses – most of whom were arrested for non-violent crimes:

U.S. jails, most of whose 731,000 inmates are trying to make bail or awaiting trial, hold roughly half the number in prisons. But last year, jails booked in 11.7 million people — 19 times the number of new prison inmates. The revolving door complicates the task of screening for mental illness, managing medications, providing care and ensuring inmate safety.

Experts have pointed to rising numbers of inmates with mental illnesses since the 1970s, after states began closing psychiatric hospitals without following through on promises to create and sustain comprehensive community treatment programs.

But as the number of those with serious mental illnesses surpasses 20 percent in some jails, many have struggled to keep up, sometimes putting inmates in jeopardy.

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