How Did We Get Here & How Did It Get So Bad?:

  1. A State and a Mental Health Community that never really understood the true costs of "community care"
  2. A Mental Health Advocacy Community even at the University and National Professional level that has been in disastrous denial regarding what has been going on in criminal justice for people with mental illness.
  3. It has really gotten so bad that the most notable advocates for people with mental illness in the criminal justice system are Sheriffs, corrections officials, prosecutors, and judges.                    [Although there are very important unsung heroes such as Coloradan & Orchid Board Member  Barbara Stephenson, long time advocate for mental health needs of Colorado inmates].
  4. States and Mental Health Advocates bear plenty of responsibility for allowing this situation to fester and get so out of control.
  5. It is time to acknowledge reality, follow the law, AND Fix This.

Representative DOJ Olmstead Settlement Agreements

U.S. v. Delaware – 11-CV-591 – (D. Del. 2010)
  1. The fundamental goals of the Agreement are: to ensure that people who are unnecessarily institutionalized, at the Delaware Psychiatric Center or other inpatient psychiatric facilities, can receive the treatment they need in the community; to ensure that when individuals go into mental health crisis, sufficient resources are available in the community so that they do not need to go unnecessarily to psychiatric hospitals or jails; and to ensure that people with mental illness who are living in the community are not forced to enter institutions because of the lack of stable housing and intensive treatment options in the community
U.S. v. Georgia – 10-CV-249 – (N.D. Ga. 2010)
For individuals with mental illness, the agreement provides that Georgia will serve in the community 9,000 individuals with serious and persistent mental illness who are currently served in State Hospitals; frequently readmitted to State Hospitals; frequently seen in emergency rooms; chronically homeless and/or being released from jails or prisons. 
Val's Take
              I think for me the evidence has always seemed so overwhelming -- they (State Officials) are just gonna come to their senses, aren't they?                 
              But they never did.
              Then there was that Behavioral Needs Assessment -- that is truly fascinating because:
  • The company doing it seemed to want to be competent and straight forward;
  • Behavioral Health seemed to want to be competent and straight forward, AND
  • THAT was NOT a competent and straight forward report
  • Most us know (certainly in Behavioral Health and that company) that most people with mental illness who are institutionalized are in jails and prisons.
  • AND yet we think that the criminal justice population is somehow optional in terms of Olmstead - They are not.
Our Initial Document to DOJ