New York City announced Monday the city's plans to increase public health services in an effort to stem the growing number of mentally ill inmates, allocating $130 million for the project over the course of four years.
From punishment for minor crimes, the new plan will shift focus to treatment, aiming to break the cycle of arrest, incarceration and release troubled individuals in the system are subjected to for incurring quality-of-life offenses. To achieve its goals, the project will be tripling the size of pretrial diversion programs as well as the amount of resources set for transitioning inmates from jail and back into society.
"The jails hold up a mirror to the rest of the criminal-justice system," said Mayor Bill De Blasio's task force in charge of the project, adding that "at every point, the criminal-justice system has become the default for addressing the problems presented by people with behavioral health issues, whether at arrest, arraignment, confinement or in the neighborhood."
For months, De Blasio has pledged to introduce reforms in New York City's jails, dubbing them "de facto mental health facilities." Roughly 11,000 inmates are present at the Rikers Island jail complex every day, with 40 percent of this number diagnosed with mental health problems, up from the 2007 figure of 24 percent.
Out of the 40 percent, a third are seriously mentally ill with conditions like schizophrenia and bipolar disorder. This makes them the likeliest to not only start trouble in jail but become victims of violence as well.
Deaths in Riker helped push New York City's reformation plan, highlighting problems in the system that needs to be addressed outside jails. With the new plan, De Blasio is basically looking to continue policing minor crimes but efforts will be in place to keep as many of the offenders as possible out of Rikers. The challenge then for New York City is whether it can make the two approaches work together while keeping crime rates down.
Community-based drop-off centers are included in the reformation plan, where police officers may bring people taken into custody due to minor crimes. Each center will have beds for short-term stays, detox services and case managers who can refer individuals to existing community programs. The first community-based drop-off center will open in Manhattan in fall 2015 while the second one in an undisclosed borough will begin operations early 2016.
According to Jennifer J. Parish, Urban Justice Center criminal justice advocacy director, the reformation plan is comprehensive and if implemented, it can have a significant impact on society.
