Mental Illness in the Criminal Justice System
Written by Jennifer Kwong, Executive Web Administrator/ Creative Assistant
What do the majority of the prison population have in common? Certainly, they have been convicted of a crime and are mostly male. However, what is not so obvious is the alarming prevalence of mental illness in the prison population.
Imagine you are mentally ill. You have been charged with committing a crime for which the penalty is imprisonment. If you are found guilty, you might seek an acquittal by reason of mental illness and then be admitted to a psychiatric institute to receive treatment. Sounds reasonable, no? However, in practice, this defence is successfully raised in only a small minority of cases. The bulk of the evidence suggests that you will face imprisonment.
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