This guide is designed for anyone who has a loved one with a mental illness in the New York State (NYS) prison system. In 2001 Heather Barr authored "When a Person with Mental Illness is Arrested: How to Help, a handbook for family, friends, peer advocates, and community mental health workers." Introducing the handbook, she wrote that it should not need to exist because it should be unusual for a person with mental illness to encounter the criminal justice system. Tragically, almost ten years later, people with mental illness are not only still being arrested, but at a time when the overall prison population is shrinking, the percentage of people with mental illness in NYS prisons is increasing.
Published By
Funded By
- Open Society Institute
- Jacob and Valeria Langeloth Foundation
- National Alliance on Mental Illness-- New York State
Copyright
- Copyright 2010 by Mental Health Project at the Urban Justice Center. All rights reserved.