“With roughly one in six inmates suffering from mental illness, the American prison system has evolved into something of a mental institution by default. But mentally ill prison inmates receive little or no help while they’re locked up. Rather, they are usually dumped onto the streets with neither treatment nor medication when their sentences are finished. It should come as no surprise that large numbers quickly end up back behind bars.

For psychotic inmates, psychiatric care is particularly poor. A recent study in New York found that nearly a quarter of the inmates in disciplinary lockdown – confined to small cells for 23 hours a day – were mentally ill. Their symptoms worsened in isolation, and many tried to commit suicide.

Curbing recidivism means treating the mentally ill while they are still in custody. The optimal solution would be to extend public health services right into the jails and prisons, so inmates can begin drug and therapy regimens the moment they walk into custody.

The Mentally Ill Offender Treatment and Crime Reduction Act, which has now been passed by both houses of Congress, falls short of this ideal, but it moves national policy well along in a fruitful direction.” (New York Times editorial)