An experimental court in Arapahoe County focusing on how to handle people with mental illness who have run afoul of the law shows once and for all that there really is a better way to handle those who become criminals because of mental disabilities.
A story this week by Aurora Sentinel reporter Brandon Johansson about the fledgling court makes it clear that warehousing mentally ill people in jails and prisons is an expensive, futile cycle that has saddled taxpayers and helped ruin lives.
The two-year-old court recently held it’s first “graduation” of “convicts.”
While the project at this point has thoughtfully hand-selected those who submit to having a host of lawyers, socials workers and others insert themselves into their lives to get them on track, the lessons learned after the two years the court has been under way are clearly applicable to many situations.
Mental health officials put it best: “What has traditionally been in place hasn’t worked. If someone’s behavior is a direct result of their mental illness, and that mental illness is not being treated, we can’t really expect that their behavior is going to change.”
Despite that undeniable common sense, Colorado courts, jails and prisons have done just the opposite, making no distinction between a mean, despicable thug and a chronically depressed guy who self-medicates with pot or cocaine and ends up in jail for doing just that.
One of the most shocking parts of this story are local law enforcers’ observations that the bulk of those convicted of crimes that stem from mental illness improve dramatically when they’re incarcerated because they get off booze and drugs, sleep regularly, eat regularly and take prescription medications.
State prisons and jails are an expensive place to offer a little structure, where costs push at $30,000 a year for incarceration. Instead, these mental-health court convicts are sent to group homes and have regular, sometimes daily, encounters with parole-officer-like observers. The court lays out strict conditions that force convicts to take better care of themselves. And in almost every case, these “criminals” do get better and stay out of trouble.
With the state budget at the breaking point, doesn’t anyone at the Capitol see the big opportunity here?
But Colorado’s spending habits don’t reflect this reality. State budget cuts have resulted in reduced services statewide, cuts to public school budgets and higher tuition at state colleges, which prospective businesses say makes them wary of choosing Colorado as new home. It will mean more furlough days for state employees, fewer road repairs and deep cuts to a long list of already overtaxed social services.
Recent analyses shows that Colorado spends more per capita on prison costs than any other state. Way more. And way more gets even bigger as state resources dwindle.
The annual survey of state services showed that Colorado spent just under $1 billion for prison and correction programs in 2008, making up a whopping 5.1 percent of state expenditures. The report stated that the average prison expenditure for states was 3.3 percent of revenue.
Colorado warehouses about 24,000 prisoners a year at a cost of almost $30,000 each. And the bottom line gets worse every year. Colorado’s prison population has risen almost 5 percent a year for the past 10 years, double the growth rate of the national average.
Too many of those locked up are nothing more than foolish drug addicts and alcoholics, many of whom become real criminals while being stored in state prisons on the taxpayer’s tab.
The state could realize big, meaningful savings by doing more to treat drug addicts and alcoholics for their problems rather than warehouse them at great expense, and too often turning them into lifelong societal problems.