Insane - America's Criminal Treatment of Mental Illness

I received a DIGITAL Advance Reader Copy of this book from #NetGalley in exchange for an honest review. From the publisher - An urgent exposé of the mental health crisis in our courts, jails, and prisons America has made mental illness a crime. Jails in New York, Los Angeles, and Chicago each house more people with mental illnesses than any hospital. As many as half of all people in America's jails and prisons have a psychiatric disorder. One in four fatal police shootings involves a person with such disorders. In this revelatory book, journalist Alisa Roth goes deep inside the criminal justice system to show how and why it has become a warehouse where inmates are denied proper treatment, abused, and punished in ways that make them sicker. Through intimate stories of people in the system and those trying to fix it, Roth reveals the hidden forces behind this crisis and suggests how a fairer and more humane approach might look. Insane is a galvanizing wake-up call for criminal justice reformers and anyone concerned about the plight of our most vulnerable.

As someone who works and volunteers under the social services umbrella, I see how the criminalization of mental illnesses rips people and their families apart daily. It is not surprising that drug abuse is rampant in prisons as it takes away the pain of the situation temporarily, but then this addiction takes over behind bars. (Locally for me this is a huge issue that has led to many suicides and intentional overdoses at the EDMC in case you feel like Googling it!). Roth provides many thought-out ideas on how to deal with the dilemma and her ideas make wicked sense on paper - getting the legal and justice system to pay attention may be an ordeal, though. Well written, amazingly researched and well presented this book should be an assigned text to anyone in the "ruling" part of the system (and for families of inmates being badly treated!) Can I give it six stars???