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Jails versus Mental Hospitals: A Social Dilemma

Medical College of Wisconsin, Marquette University, Forensic Unit, Milwaukee County Medical Health Complex, 925 East Wells Street, #316, Milwaukee, WI 53202, U.S.A.

Maurice B. Smith

Milwaukee County Medical Health Complex, 9455 Watertown Plank Road, Wauwatosa, WI 53226, U.S.A.

Frank J. Liska

Milwaukee County Court House, 901 N. 9th Street, Milwaukee, WI 53233, U.S.A.

Psychiatric and sociological thoughts regarding deinstitutionalization of the mentally ill and its impact on the American jail system are offered. The authors analyze national data concerning the census in mental hospitals and jails over a period of several decades. Statistical analyses corroborate the common impression of a relationship between the number of people booked or arrested and in custody, and the total mental health population in psychiatric hospitals in the United States. The analyses reveal the existence of statistically significant negative linear Pearson Product-Moment correlation coefficient relationships between mental health admissions and jail census data. We conclude that the mentally ill have assumed, again, the inappropriate status of criminal offenders, overcrowding the jails without receiving proper psychiatric care.

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