Works In Progress - September 2003 - The American Justice System And The Mentally Ill

In the United States, people with mental illness are discriminated against and abused in all sections of the criminal justice system. For them, working through the harsh and rigid complexities of America's judicial system is a hopeless and abusive experience. Both police and prison officials, who are ill equipped with knowledge and skills, often behave with neglect or brutality towards mentally ill individuals.

The history of encounters between police and mentally ill people reveals a grim reality. Local police departments, who are often misinformed about mental health issues, are quick to react in harsh and degrading ways. The Department of Justice reported in 1999, that 16% (300,000) of the people incarcerated in the United States have a mental illness. That number is more than four times the population in state mental hospitals. This enormous number is the result of police officers’ eagerness to arrest mentally ill people for minor offenses, or for no offense at all in the case "mercy bookings "- where officers arrest mentally ill people without charging them with anything.

The reasoning behind this illegal police action is that the police are supposedly protecting mentally ill people from themselves and others. Studies have shown that mentally ill individuals are four times more likely to spend time in jail for minor offenses then non-mentally ill individuals. A report done in 1992 revealed that jails in America admitted that 29% of jail population were mentally ill people who were not being charged with any crime. The majority of them were waiting to be transferred. Such arrests are a gross violation of the of Fifth and Eighth Amendments of the United States Constitution, but to grant Constitutional protection to mentally ill individuals is to see them as functioning citizens who have the potential to contribute to their communities; people who deserve respect and dignity. This notion, which could be considered common sense by some, is often hard for law enforcement, judicial officials, and administrative bureaucrats to grasp, much less comprehend and practice.

The abuse toward mentally ill people is not limited to false arrest and excessive punishment. In 2000, Amnesty International released its report on police misconduct in the United States entitled Rights For All. The report cited several "suicide by cop" incidents, where mentally ill individuals who were threatening to kill themselves were killed by the police. For example, in Los Angeles California, February of 1999, Ricardo Close had cut his neck and was threatening to kill himself. His wife called the police in desperation. After the police arrived, Close, in his distraught state, threw a knife at the police. The LA Sheriff’s deputies responded by firing at Close 38 times and killing him.

The underlying societal assumption that the mentally ill are dangerous and unpredictable is often used as a justification for such false arrest and acts of brutality. A modest examination into the relationship between mentally ill individuals and criminal behavior reveals that these assumptions have no basis in reality, and their persistence rests on deep-seated prejudices that are ingrained into several of the institutions which shape people's lives. It has been statistically proven that mentally ill people are no more likely to be a serious endangerment to other people than non-mentally ill people. If anything, mentally ill people are more affected by crime and violent behavior. A news report released by ABC News reveals that 8.2% of the mentally ill population has been victimized by crime, as opposed to the 3.4% of the general population.

Some police departments and public officials have begun to address the issue of police abuse and mentally ill individuals. A survey taken in 1999 showed that 78 out of 194 departments with populations over 100,000 have developed some type of program for working with mentally ill people. Such programs include "Memphis Plans" or Crisis Intervention teams, were officers team up with mental health specialists to work with mentally ill people. Several departments have begun developing special trainings for their officers, to help them become more informed on mental illness issues and better prepared to act appropriately. Some departments have begun to reevaluate protocol and police procedure towards mentally ill people.

Such steps in reforming police departments are necessary, but it remains questionable if they will be able to fully root the problem of police abuse toward mentally ill people. In 1998, the New York Police Department reported responding to 36,000 incidents involving "Emotionally Disturbed Persons," but only 4,000 were handled by the Emergency Service Unit. Even more so, the local case of Kent DeBoer brings the effectiveness of these modest reforms into serious question.

In 2001, Kent Deboer, a mentally ill man in Olympia, Washington, began to behave in an aggressive manner towards his parents in their home, due to a change in his medication. Kent's mother, nervous about her son's behavior, called her son's case worker, who in turn called the police against her wishes. By the time the police arrived, Kent's parents had gotten him to take his medicine and Kent was calming down. The police ordered both of Kent's parents out of their home. The Deboers at first refused, informing the police that Kent was calming down and if they merely waited, he would be fine. Kent's parents claimed that coming into the home would only provoke Kent further and cause him to act up. The police ignored the Deboers, ordered them out of the house, and proceeded to enter the home. Kent, still in a deranged state, chased the police out. Three police officers decided to reenter the home with their guns drawn. The police ended up breaking down the door, tasering Kent with 50,000 volts of electricity while also firing at Kent eight times, hitting him six times. Their justification was that Kent was armed with a knife, which they said he threw it at the officers feet before they opened fire.

Kent managed to survive the incident, but was charged with seven accounts of assault and faces serious medical problems. Two of the officers involved in Kent DeBoer's shooting had worked with him before and were aware of his mental illness. One of the other officers was designated "Officer of the Year."

The Olympia Police Department's protocol discourages officers from using deadly force toward mentally ill individuals, and Chief Michel claims that officers are given tools to help them de-escalate situations. These reforms obviously have shown to have a minor effect, if at all, in discouraging police officers from using abusive and brutal methods towards mentally ill people.

Kent DeBoer's case reveals that changes that police and public officials are taking themselves to adjust departments appear to have a limited effect. To adequately address all the problems that mentally ill people face with the legal system, there needs to be a greater democratization of the police in the United States. Communities need to establish strong delegated civilian review boards which are totally independent of the police and have the power to investigate, subpoena, and prosecute, and whose members are accountable to the public. There should be an alternative court system, where judges are informed mental health issues, and can put mentally ill individuals behavior within its proper context. Such courts should have strong community oversight and input from mental health specialists, social workers, advocates, and mentally ill people themselves. Those judges should also be accountable to the public and the communities they serve. There should also be a greater establishment of "alternative response units," trained social servants who are able to response to situations involving mentally ill people with proper knowledge and sufficient non-violent tools. And finally, there should be a reworking of the idea of policing in general. There needs to be a push to transform police from resembling standing armies in communities to non-violent civil servants who work in the communities where they live, and are recallable and accountable to the people that they serve.

These structural changes are necessary to prevent misconduct, but they are incomplete without a greater consciousness raising among the public about the harsh situation in which mentally ill individuals live. Society needs to start recognizing the mentally ill as a historically suspect class, which has endured systematic oppression, and unjustified trauma, abuse, and neglect. Before we can demand political changes in police departments and the courts, there must be a social change in dispelling the myths that mentally ill people are dangerous, criminal, unpredictable, or prone to violence.

Through these changes we can begin to address the needs of the mentally ill, restructure our institutions to accommodate them, change social perspectives, and correct the long history of abuse that the mentally ill have endured. In time, society will be able to treat mentally ill people as full and competent citizens who have the capability to add to and nurture communities.