Follow-Up: Mental Health, Race, & the Justice System

There’s a point buried in the piece I published Wednesday that I could have touched on, but didn’t. It felt too speculative to weave into a pretty straight forward regurgitation of data. Today feels like a better space for it.

The data shows that black Americans aren’t afforded the same access to mental health care as white Americans. There also seems to exist an uncomfortably fine line between being in recovery or stuck in the prison system.

Imagine an undiagnosed manic-depressive experiences an episode for the first time. He hallucinates that he is Jesus Christ and holds court in the middle of the street, preaching. That person is putting themselves and others in danger. He is arrested and put in jail for disturbing the peace, but not a criminal. A proper psych evaluation would prove this. With a good lawyer, that psych evaluation would buy time in court and allow him to seek mental health treatment, which would be taken into account come decision time.

Now imagine that manic-depressive can’t post bail, leaving him trapped and without access to mental health care services he--until recently--didn’t know he needed. In court, he’ll have nothing to stand-on, no ability to prove lack of intent, or demonstrate accountability and growth through the treatment of his condition. Even if he manages to post bail, insurance might not cover the cost of mental health services when he gets out. Instead, his condition will likely worsen while in jail. Valuable time is lost in starting treatment; indeed, nobody knows anything is wrong.

Another example: drug use. Imagine a person who turns to illegal drugs to manage her mental illness. Moreover, this person has never had the ability to seek treatment for potential mental illness, so drugs have become her best alternative. In the process, this person develops a dependency on a drug that very well could be making her condition worse. In the process of self-medicating, this person may commit non-violent crimes (such as purchase or possession of an illegal drug). Because of my bias, I would argue that this person is hardly a criminal, but rather, in crisis. There is help available for this person, but the issue becomes getting this person into treatment before they wind up in the prison system on a non-violent offense.

Often, class and privilege can play the biggest role in determining whether someone winds up in the prison system or in a treatment program. But of course, one must also acknowledge the intersection of race and class--and the systemic racism which has created an unequal playing field. While some have the opportunity to pursue and benefit from mental health care services, others can wind up trapped in limbo, stuck with non-violent offenses on their record, wrapped up in the justice system, where it becomes even more difficult to receive adequate care.

If the reader is looking for more sources on this topic, I would suggest two books: Matt Taibbi’s The Divide (2014) and Michelle Alexander’s The New Jim Crow (2010). Full disclosure: it’s been a while since I read either. I don’t recall mental health being explicitly discussed in either book, but it is absolutely on the periphery of interviews and data regarding inequality and injustice in the prison system that serves as the foundation of the content.