Between July 2022 and June 2023, over 800 people awaiting court-ordered psychiatric treatment were jailed in Mississippi. Only one jail meets certification standards, including medication supplies, on-call crisis care, and separate housing free of objects used for self-harm.
But why was jail an option, period?
Sheriffs and guards acknowledged they don’t want to or know how to help people needing psychiatric care. By certification standards, they’re correct. But, considering the demographics of the entire carceral system, they shouldn’t hold power over a significant percentage of incarcerated people at all.
18% of Americans have a mental illness. But that number jumps to 44% in jail and 37% in prison.
25% of people shot and killed by police have a mental illness. And those without treatment are 16 times more likely to be killed compared to those with it.
The data make it clear: resolving the link between mental illness and criminalization will require more than releasing 800 Mississippians from jails.
Justice, autonomy, and liberation for all means questioning the cultural urge to criminalize certain disabilities and behaviors. It means not just refusing incarceration as a solution but interrogating the carcerality behind psychiatric treatment facilities.
And it means instead of asking how to keep the world safe from people in crisis, we ask how we can build a world where people in crisis feel safe.