Current and Prior Mental Health Treatment of Jail Inmates: The Use of the Jail as an Alternative Shelter¹

1 Parts of this paper presented at the Annual Meeting of the Academy of Criminal Justice, Orlando, Florida, March 19, 1986.

²

2 Some of the data used in this paper was obtained as part of a subcontract by the Maryland State Department of Mental Hygiene to the University of Maryland School of Social Work under NIMH Grant (MH 15916-06).

Abstract

Changing policies in mental health and welfare are altering the character of urban jail populations. Iiomeless people, many of them ex-mental-hospital patients, occupy jail space in increasing numbers. They almost never commit violent crimes and seldom commit any real crime. They are given a charge and put in jail as a way to take them off the streets. The way in which official statistics are created and kept makes it difficult to demonstrate the nature and extent of this problem. This paper reports on one way this can be done.

Key Words:

• Jail
• Homeless
• Mental Illness
• Data Quality

Notes

1 Parts of this paper presented at the Annual Meeting of the Academy of Criminal Justice, Orlando, Florida, March 19, 1986.

2 Some of the data used in this paper was obtained as part of a subcontract by the Maryland State Department of Mental Hygiene to the University of Maryland School of Social Work under NIMH Grant (MH 15916-06).