The Mentally Insane and the Law Enforcement

During the course of my internship with a local Georgia police department I have observed in numerous times law enforcement encounters with mentally insane or demented individuals. These individuals pose a challenge for police officers and they are often a threat for the officers and their community. This is due to the fact that these individuals oftentimes do not behave rationally; they are very unpredictable and violent, thus posing a danger for themselves and the individuals around them. Society deals with the most violent of these individuals by confining them in mental institutions where they are treated for their conditions. Many violent mentally ill people end are released back in the communities or are not even committed to a mental facility. Often it is the job of police officers to deal with these individuals, but the officers are usually untrained to handle these special individuals and the result is that mentally ill individuals flood the jails and prisons of the nation, without proper treatment and care.

Mental illnesses are defined as “any disease or condition affecting the brain that influences the way a person thinks, feels, behaves and/or relates to others and to his or her surroundings. Although the symptoms of mental illness can range from mild to severe and are different depending on the type of mental illness, a person with an untreated mental illness often is unable to cope with life’s daily routines and demands”.  Mental illnesses are a whole category of mental diseases and conditions, and books such as the “Psychologists’ Desk Reference” list dozens of mental conditions known as mental illnesses (Koocher et al, 3). Ranging from stuttering and mild delusions to schizophrenia and paranoia, this broad spectrum of mental conditions represents a challenging diagnosis, even for trained psychiatrists and psychologists. Often times the diagnosis and treatment of a condition differs from one medical doctor to the next and therefore consistent guidelines are hard to enforce, even in the medical field.

Society deals with individuals suffering from mental illnesses by usually confining them and placing them under treatment for their conditions. Patients with mild symptoms undergo therapy with psychologists, while the most severe mentally ill patients are confined to mental institutions, also known as asylums, and given constant medication. One of the problems that arise with diagnosing and treating mental illness is their prevalence. The National Institute of Mental Health states that one in four adults in the U.S. suffer from a diagnosed mental disorder any given year. This means that roughly 57 million people in this country suffer from these illnesses, although only about 6 percent of the population suffers from a serious mental disorder. These staggering numbers of individuals place a great strain on the mental health system of the nation. Sometimes mental institutions run out of room to house patients and many times they end up back on the street, unsupervised, and a potential threat for the people around them. More often, however, state governments try to reduce health spending by closing mental facilities, replacing them with cheaper community health services. Linda A. Teplin, a professor of psychiatry at Northwestern University Medical School cites other reasons for which mentally ill persons are more free to roam the streets of our communities: deinstitutionalizations in the 1960’s, cutbacks in federal funding for psychiatric programs, and changes in laws that have allowed mental patients to enjoy more rights (Teplin, 9).

Once they are back on the streets it is the job of law enforcement agencies to deal with these individuals that often cause crime and violence. Because police officers and other law enforcement personnel are not trained to diagnose or handle mentally ill persons, these individuals often end up in jails, their condition misinterpreted as purposely evil when they are in fact just suffering from a disorder. Society is not very tolerant when it comes to the type of behaviors that mentally ill persons exhibit and therefore it is very likely that the peacekeepers and guardians of society, the police, will be called on to stop mentally ill individuals from interfering with the community. When encountering a person suffering from a mental disorder a police officer has several options: to resolve the matter informally with the consent of the person, to hospitalize the individual with or without his/her consent for the purpose of a mental evaluation and treatment, or to cite and/or arrest the individual for his/her behavior just like for any other sane person. The problem arises in the fact that most police officers are not trained in mental diseases and often these illnesses exhibit violent and disorderly symptoms that can be deemed to be threatening by an officer and can result to a mentally ill person being arrested (Teplin, 9). Besides the obvious problem of diagnosis, studies conducted show that police officers are inclined not to take individuals to mental hospitals. A 1980 study showed that in 72 percent of cases involving mentally ill suspects the matter was handled informally, 16 percent of suspects were arrested, and only 12 percent were transported to a hospital (Teplin, 9). According to Paula M. Ditton, in 1998 an estimated 16 percent of inmates in the jails and the prisons of the nation were mentally ill. Also an estimated 16 percent of people on probation were mentally ill (Ditton, 1).

The fact that a large number of mentally ill individuals end up in the correctional system is concerning because prisons and jails are not equipped to efficiently diagnose and treat these individuals. Many mental patients are incorrectly labeled as criminals and have to suffer years behind bars for action they probably were not fully liable for. After these individuals serve their sentences they are set back on the streets and in communities, with little or no prior treatment, which can cause a significant danger for the community. In mental institutions these patients would not be released without prior treatment, and if their condition had not improved. Once back on the street it is up to the police to, once again, handle these persons. Therefore once they are labeled as criminals, mentally ill persons become trapped in the criminal justice system.

One solution for resolving this problem is to more effectively train police officers to recognize and handle such individuals. Law enforcement agencies need to cooperate with the mental health system to ensure proper handling of mentally ill persons. The mental health system should provide effective alternatives to mental incarceration, with community services, and other such programs. More government attention is needed in this matter, and only through increased funding and study can the issue of mental illness in our communities be resolved.

References

Ditton, Paula M. 1999. Mental Health and Treatment of Inmates and Probationers.

Washington, D.C.: U.S. Department of Justice, Bureau of Justice Statistics.

Koocher, Gerald P., Norcross, John C. and Hill, Sam S. 2005. Psychologists’ Desk Reference.New York, NY: OxfordUniversity Press.

MedicineNet.com. 2012. Mental Illness Basics.San Clemente, CA: WebMD, LLC. http://www.medicinenet.com/mental_illness/article.htm

National Institute of Mental Health (NIMH). 2008. The Numbers Count: Mental Disorders in America.Washington, DC: National Institutes of Health. http://www.nimh.nih.gov/health/publications/the-numbers-count-mental-disorders-in-america/index.shtml

Teplin, Linda A. 2000. “Keeping the Peace: Police Discretion and Mentally Ill Persons”. National Institute of Justice Journal.Washington, DC: US Department of Justice. 07/2000: Pg. 8-15.