Hello,
According to Human Rights Watch, the amount of mentally ill inmates is estimated to be 1.25 million. As many as one in five of the 2.1 million Americans in jail and prison are seriously mentally ill, far outnumbering the number of mentally ill who are in mental hospitals, according to the comprehensive study.
NY York Times
Click on the underlined links to learn more.
U.S. Department of Justice Bureau of Justice Statistics
Counting the Mentally Ill in Jails and Prisons
I will see what else I can find. I have also asked a law enforcement expert to view this.
After an exhaustive search the with seven search engines, the most up to date statistics on this subject according to the NY Times is the data presented by Human Rights Watch. This organization has the private funding and resources to present such statistics as this is their mission statement, to provide the public with unbiased data on some of the most pressing and disturbing issues in not only the social services of the US, but other government and private sectors.
Besides answering medical questions, I am also a JA legal expert. Having consulted with a Just Answer law enforcement/legal expert, he also has agreed with my answer .
Although I reside in CA, I have a family member that is a well know political figure on the east coast. I sent him an e-mail to ask his opinion on this subject. He has informed me that you should contact former Senator Mike DeWine and Govenor Ted Strickland of Ohio as in the past and currently, they have been worked on promoting federal legislation that would fund a pilot court program to direct mentally ill prisoners to treatment facilities instead of jail. The deinstitutionalization of the severely mentally ill in the 1960's created a mental illness crisis in the US by discharging people from hospitals without ensuring that they receive medication and rehabilitation services in the community. As a result the mentally ill have no place to go for treatment and support. Instead, they turn up in prisons where they are virtually devoid of dignity and lack adequate treatment and understanding, in addition to suffering from mental illness suffer from the unjust social system as well. This is a subject that is wrought with controversy and one the government has not fully addressed.
As you are from Hawaii, you should also contact the offices of Governor XXXXX XXngle, the state oif Hawaii Department of Safety, other Hawaii state officials and also the same agencies across the USA.
You could also try contacting each of the Federal Prisions by regions for information on their individual prision populations.
Research Analyst
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