Applying Criminal Justice Model to Mental Illness Is a Recipe for Disaster

Date:  08-07-2019 83 percent of people in jail with a mental illness can't access to needed treatment

From The Crime Report: The key to successfully redirecting and removing the seriously mentally ill from the criminal justice system is creating systems and programs that provide the treatment they actually need, according to Judge Steven Leifman, a Miami-Dade County Mental Health Court Judge. It’s the first step in abandoning today’s failed punitive application of rehabilitation, Leifman, a pioneering advocate for alternatives to incarceration (ATI), told a recent forum in New York City. “When you apply a criminal justice model to an illness, you’re getting what you should get—a disaster,” said Liefman. Continue reading >>>