The criminalization of adults with mental illness (Part 1)

In Part 1 of "The Criminalization of Adults with Mental Illness," we have identified the major factors contributing to the criminalization of the mentally ill as being deinstitutionalization (and the related underfunded, under-coordinated recommendations of the Joint Commission on Mental Illness in 1961), the sometimes overly restrictive legal protections, and states' implementation of usually underfunded Medicaid managed care programs. Subsequent papers will describe and discuss Tennessee statistics relative to criminalization of the mentally ill (Part 2) and will introduce methods for preventing criminalization of mentally ill adults and the maintenance of mentally ill individuals who have committed minor crimes in their respective communities.