Support funding for mental health services across the United States

It is imperative that we make a grand investment in mental health treatment that includes proven medications, psychotherapy, improved screening techniques, and peer support services. Warehousing people with mental illness in jails and taxpayers bankrolling those that default into emergency hospitals is more costly than investing in quality, accessible outpatient and inpatient care. The moral thread is that mental illness is a disability, and many states are making strong efforts to de-couple criminality from mental illness through criminal diversion treatment programs. Less than 1/3 of those with serious mental illness get psychiatric treatment in local jails (Dept. of Justice, 2002). Those that psychologically decay behind bars are more likely to become permanent fixtures in the system