Mental Illness and Justice System

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How are individuals with mental illness approached by law enforcement? Taking calls for service for individuals with serious mental health issues and drug misuse consist of a small portion of police calls, but nevertheless consistent (AMelissa et al., 2018). Dealing with people with serious mental health issues represents roughly about 6-7% of all community contacts (AMelissa et al., 2018). Providing services to the mental health community continues to have exertions on resolution strategies throughout the U.S., while law enforcement tries to create stability between the safety of the public and connections to mental health treatment (AMelissa et al., 2018). Additionally, among the complexities that law enforcement agencies create for assessing people with serious mental health problems is that substance abuse and mental health problems share similar symptoms (Koziarski et al., 2021). Verification of this difficultness can be located in almost each hospital ER where professionally trained psychiatrists oftentimes mistake indications of mental health problems as if they were substance abuse (Koziarski et al., 2021). In this essay we will look at the moral dilemmas between mental illness and the criminal justice system, the costs that are associated with it, and programs that may alleviate the problem.

Moral Dilemmas in Law Enforcement and Mental Illness

The beginning works of criminalization is well provided with examinations in which people with serious mental issues (PSMI) are arrested for demonstrating indications of mental illness (Lurigio, 2011). These encounters between police and people with serious mental issues are often escalated to a more consequential means of breaking the law (Lurigio, 2011). Moreover, there has been no record obtained from studies that have suggested that law enforcement were prejudiced towards people with serious mental issues or purposefully treated them cruelly or disdainfully (Lurigio, 2011). It is merely the opposite, law enforcement occasionally exercised arrest in order to acquire assistance for people suffering from serious mental health issues (Lurigio, 2011). Further, law enforcement would conduct a ‘mercy-hooking’ where they ensure the person who was suffering from a mental illness crisis could acquire what is called ‘three hots and a cot’ in which the person would have three warm meals and a place to sleep (Lurigio, 2011). There are a lot of police jurisdictions where people with serious mental health issues are arrested for the mere fact of being provided with a safe environment until a treatment bed would become accessible (Lurigio, 2011). These types of measures comprise moral dilemmas on what steps to take so that the person experiencing a mental health issue is treated fairly (Lurigio, 2011). Majority of people with serious mental issues who get arrested and normally charged as well as convicted with felonies and processed through the criminal justice system, are the reason for behaving criminally rather than being criminalized (Lurigio, 2011). Common discussions on people with mental issues that are criminalized rarely address the levels of criminality and mental health issues exist at the same time within the same people (Lurigio, 2011).

Alleviating Programs

Majority of law enforcement agencies depend on the traditional law enforcement perspective to mental health linked occurrences with no special intervening (AMelissa et al., 2018). However, this type of approach is coming to a change (AMelissa et al., 2018). According to the National Council for Behavioral Health, a great amount of 10,000 law enforcement officials have been trained in Mental Health First Aid (AMelissa et al., 2018). Moreover, when attempting to increase law enforcement response to people with serious mental issues, these law enforcement agencies have embraced crisis intervention teams, or recently developed the co-responder model (AMelissa et al., 2018). Although there is a sufficient amount of research for crisis intervention teams, there is not much about the co-responder model (AMelissa et al., 2018). Furthermore, there is a shortage of examination and writings accessible assessing the co-responder and the results of it (AMelissa et al., 2018). Additionally, in 2015, there were only 11 peer-reviewed reports that entailed examinations of a combined law enforcement mental health response (AMelissa et al., 2018). The co-responder model was developed in California as early as the 1990s (AMelissa et al., 2018). The first program that paired a police officer with a trained doctor in mental health was the Los Angeles Systemwide Mental Health Assessment Response Team through the Los Angeles Department of Mental Health (AMelissa et al., 2018). What is the co-responder approach? The co-responder approach usually includes a peace officer and a specialist in mental health, in which together they respond to calls for service that are dealing with individuals with mental health issues in crisis (AMelissa et al., 2018). The goal of the co-responder model is designed for both the law enforcement officer and the doctor to bring each of their designated skills to the call, which successfully decreases the necessity for the individual to be sent to the hospital and the need for emergency medical services as well as enhancing divergence of individuals with serious mental issues from the criminal justice system to the mental health system while simultaneously putting a stop to injuries to law enforcement officers and people with mental health issues and increasing interactivity between these two categories (AMelissa et al., 2018).

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Mental Illness and Justice System

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