New inmates with a mental illness arrive daily in the Los Angeles County jail system. It now holds more than 5,000 inmates with a mental illness who've had run-ins with the law.
Zoë van Dijk / NPR
WITF Reporter discusses mental health issues in jail and solutions to resolve it
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Aniya Faulcon
Zoë van Dijk / NPR
New inmates with a mental illness arrive daily in the Los Angeles County jail system. It now holds more than 5,000 inmates with a mental illness who've had run-ins with the law.
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Airdate: Monday, October 17, 2022
A ten month WITF investigation found that almost one in three uses of force from twenty five jails during the last three months of 2021 involved a person who was having a mental health crisis or who had a diagnosed mental illness.
Records also show 42 cases where corrections staff noted someone appeared to have a mental health condition but still used force when the person failed to respond to commands.
Brett Sholtis, WITF Health Reporter, joined us on Monday’s Smart Talk to discuss his investigative reports on this issue and solutions to resolve it.
Sholtis said, some of the solutions used to lessen corrections officers’ use of force for prisoners with a mental health condition is reimaging the jail as a place that prioritizes mental health care, putting psychologists in charge of jails instead of wardens and providing classes and programs to prepare prisoners to reenter society.
Sholtis’ investigative reports on this issue, solutions to resolve it, and his process in gathering this information can be found here: In Pa. county jails, people with mental illness are routinely met with pepper spray and stun guns | WITF
