State ignores mental health care, increases prison and jail costs - penny-wise, pound-foolish

Treatment of the mentally ill is one of the most cost-effective strategies for society as it increases productivity of citizens (income taxes for government); reduces public assistance by preserving family unity as well as keeping the breadearner employed; reduces crime as much shoplifting, drug-addiction, domestic violence, theft, and other violent crimes and assaults are related to mental illness, as well as vastly reduces justice system expenses to the courts, prosecutors, public defenders, jail, prisons, parole agents, etc. There are more mentally ill persons being treated in jails and prisons than in all the mental health facilities in the country combined. 

It is far less expensive to society to treat mental illness including drug-addiction up front as an outpatient than at the back end with  payments to police, courts, prosecutors, public defenders, jails, prisons, parole agents, treatment for medical care caused by neglect, public aid for family members neglected by the mentally ill person, etc.  Would you rather pay $40,000 a year to incarcerate someone PLUS all the above collateral costs or $10,000 per year to provide excellent mental health care as an outpatient? The answer is simple: A BIG YES!  Our politicians are simply stupid.

This article says it all and provides links: http://www.washingtonpost.com/blogs/ezra-klein/post/does-cutting-mental-health-care-increase-the-prison-population/2011/06/02/AGzNdVHH_blog.html?wprss=ezra-klein

Excess Incarceration Rate Leads to More Troubled Children and More Welfare

The huge incarceration rate in Illinois, where we send non-violent drug abusers and thieves to prison at a rate 40 times greater than any civilized country means that we are breaking our economy. The children of the prisoners are a great social burden when parents don't earn an income or care for them. Tax dollars are also lost when prisoners do not work.

It is a much better solution to sentence non-violent offenders to curfews when not at work and community service to pay back what they took from society. Restorative justice is more appropriate. In prison less than 15% of addicts get treatment and there are five times more mentally ill in prison, without appropriate treatment than in all the mental health facilities in the country combined.

It is a much better solution to pay for daily drug addiction treatment, home monitoring, and mental health treatment than to pay $30,000 per year to incarcerate a prisoner, not treat them, and then send them back to a life of crime or untreated mental illness.

We are FOOLS in Illinois and the rest of the country! What a waste of dollars and human potential! Talk to your legislators. Elect only those that pledge to change this disaster. Our phony war of being "tough on crime" is a joke and has not worked. These prisoners, are usually released. If we don't rehabilitate them, we deserve what we get.

For discussion and solutions to the problems see:

http://www.nytimes.com/2009/07/05/us/05prison.html?_r=1

http://drlindashelton.wordpress.com/2009/03/12/help-save-economy-by-saving-billions-with-judicialprison-reform-stop-torture/

http://drlindashelton.wordpress.com/2008/12/21/re-integrating-600000-ex-cons-per-year-and-growing-give-your-suggestions/

http://drlindashelton.wordpress.com/2008/11/30/punishment-and-fairness-comparative-nature-of-punishment/