Mississippi was awarded a grant to help reduce recidivism of substance use and mental health disorders for those who are under community supervision. The Department of Corrections and Department of Mental Health will partner to administer a pilot program, the Second Chance Reentry Program for adults with substance abuse use and mental disorders for 36 months starting in Hinds County.
This $647,461 grant is much needed in the state of Mississippi and the program will hopefully improve the transition back into society by funding much needed training for correctional/law enforcement, individualized treatment plans and track recovery.
Recidivism is the repeated relapse that causes repetition of criminal or antisocial behavior patterns that result in crime.
A survey was conducted in 2014 regarding the treatment of persons with mental illness who are incarcerated in county jails and state prisons. According to that study, the recidivism rate for inmates in a third of the jails surveyed was higher than that of the general inmate population. This means, they are not receiving any form of treatment while incarcerated and are being released back into society with no rehabilitation which, subsequently, continues the cycle of recurrence.
Half the jails in that study reported that only 2% or less of personnel and law enforcement receive training specific to dealing with mental ill inmates.
That is a sad statistic and an even sadder system. Here in Clarke County, when a person gets a mental commitment more times than not, they are forced to sit in the county jail until a bed becomes available in a state mental facility. In some rare cases, once the paperwork is completed for a mental commitment, the family can take the patient back home to wait out the availability of a bed, but in cases where the patient can be violent, it is a dangerous situation for the family.
More and more people are being incarcerated who are in need of mental health treatment and incarcerated into facilities that is staffed with personnel who are not trained to deal with mental illness or substance abuse. Sadly, correctional officers have to deal with a large amount of inmates at one time and lack of empathy for a situation is understandable; but for the family member, they only have one inmate they are concerned about.
That joint report released from the Treatment Advocacy Center concluded that “incarceration has largely replaced hospitalization for thousands of individuals with serious mental illnesses in state prisons and county jails.”
It is not enough of a justification by believing they did the crime, now they can do the time. Some cases need rehabilitation and treatment support services to help the person. Hopefully, this program will be successful and can extend into other counties in Mississippi as well.
Incarceration is not the answer for those who suffer from mental illness. Even if they broke the law, they need some type of rehabilitation to treat them so that reentry back into society is productive for the inmate and they do not become a menace to society.
