Releasing mental health care from prison
Prisons are the most heavily used mental health treatment facilities in the U.S. And treatment there costs more than 10 times as much as on the outside.
With the implementation of the Affordable Care Act and the continuation of Kendra's Law, drug diversion courts and new initiatives based on Housing First principles, there is hope for increased access to appropriate services for those in need. A likely consequence will be a reduction in the number of mentally ill people in prison— an outcome that would be both economically advantageous and morally appropriate.
Andrea Segal, MS, is a research associate with the Scattergood Program for Applied Ethics of Behavioral Health Care in the University of Pennsylvania Perelman School of Medicine's Department of Medical Ethics & Health Policy. Dominic Sisti, Ph.D., directs the program and is an assistant professor at Penn.
Read more about The Public's Health.