An urgent exposéf the mental health crisis in our courts, jails, and prisons America has made mental illness a crime. Jails in New York, Los Angeles, and Chicago each house more people with mental illnesses than any hospital. As many as half of all people in America's jails and prisons have a psychiatric disorder. One in four fatal police shootings involves a person with such disorders. In this revelatory book, journalist Alisa Roth goes deep inside the criminal justice system to show how and why it has become a warehouse where inmates are denied proper treatment, abused, and punished in ways that make them sicker. Through intimate stories of people in the system and those trying to fix it, Roth reveals the hidden forces behind this crisis and suggests how a fairer and more humane approach might look. Insane is a galvanizing wake-up call for criminal justice reformers and anyone concerned about the plight of our most vulnerable.

Studies indicate that from 20 to 60 percent of the jail population on any given day have mental health problems. But most jails do not identify all inmates in need of help or provide for their proper care. The Law Enforcement Assistance Administration (LEAA) established the National Advisory Commission on Criminal Justice Standards and Goals to formulate national criminal justice standards and goals at the State and local levels. The Commission found a general lack of funding and program innovation at the local level, and it concluded that few local communities, especially in sparsely settled areas, have sufficient resources to resolve jails' problems and provide appropriate health and other services. The Commission recommended that the States assume the responsibility for operating and controlling local jails by 1982. If States did not assume control, it recommended alternative actions which included: (1) adoption of professional, statewide standards for jails, and State inspections to ensure compliance; (2) State supervision of and assistance for training of jail personnel; and (3) State-supervised comprehensive planning to ensure that all appropriate community services agencies were used to provide services for inmates in jails or through community-based alternatives.

Jail Inmates' Mental Health Care Neglected; State and Federal Attention Needed