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The Leonard Lopate Show

Mentally Ill and Incarcerated

Tuesday, June 05, 2007

More than four times as many mentally ill people are in prison and jail than in all state psychiatric hospitals combined. Mary Beth Pfeiffer investigates why so many end up incarcerated in Crazy in America.

Crazy in America is available for purchase at amazon.com


Comments

  • [1] Kathy Troyer from Ramsey, NJ June 05, 2007 - 11:43AM

    Thank you for featuring such important topics as this on your show. As the mother of an adolescent with autism, I've appreciated your attention to the problems and needs of the disabled. I'm interested in knowing what percentage of incarcerated mentally ill are also developmentally disabled? Many of us with DD children, especially those with challenging behaviors, fear for their futures, as institutions close (not a humane option anyway) and community living may not be available or even the most appropriate environment for them. Will they, too, end up in prison? Families alone cannot meet the complex needs of the disabled. It's all about money and vision for the disabled and the mentally ill, and government provides little of either.


  • [2] anonymous from NY, NY June 05, 2007 - 12:40PM

    My brother has been so lucky -- he has been picked up 4 or 5 times by the police, and every time they have brought him to an emergency room, where he was admitted into psych units. Whew!
  • [3] Bill Kimzey from NJ June 06, 2007 - 05:02PM

    A very important and informative segment. I would like to hear about what we can do locally to improve mental health awareness and care. My vision is that going to a therapist becomes just as routine as going to a dentist. No one likes to go to a dentist, but they do. There are plenty of stresses in life, big and small, that may, some time, be eased by talking it over with a professional.
  • [4] Ms Jones from Gud Ol' Boy FLORIDA September 13, 2007 - 02:50AM

    We were not so lucky. Judge D'Emic in N.Y. also has done the right thing.

    http://www.courts.state.ny.us/publications/benchmarks/issue5/mental-health.shtml

    Not like this county, where the rich, white, female connected to a family of a legislator goes free for slamming the brains out of her baby, like O.J. with a civil suit: "Fueled by Alcohol" while the black boy in the white neighborhood is convicted and put away for his lifetime, charges PBL for "non-violence." Trial Tid Bits:

    The judges friend was on the jury.

    The prosecutor became a judge just 2 months after.

    The jury was white. The lies were white too!

This thread is closed.


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