PBS Documentary Exposes Problems Facing Inmates with Mental Illnesses upon Release, But Fails to Highlight Proven Solutions

May 6, 2009 - The Frontline documentary, The Released, which first aired on PBS last week, explores the crisis facing hundreds of thousands of inmates with mental illnesses upon reentry into the community as they struggle to find mental health services while also trying to adjust to normal life.

Unfortunately, many of these individuals are unable to get the services they need. As a result, they end up back in prison.

"The realities of psychiatric treatment for those coming out of incarceration is that it is nonexistent or very poor," says Dr. Mike Unger, a psychiatrist with a community outreach team, in the documentary. "This isn't a population that's going to come with their planners and their organizers ... and be compliant with their medications and keep them in that perfect little medication box as they live behind a dumpster somewhere."

"We release people with two weeks' worth of medication. Yet it appears it's taking three months for people to actually get an appointment in the community to continue their services," warns Debbie Nixon-Hughes, former mental health bureau chief of the Ohio Department of Corrections, also in the piece. "And if they don't have the energy and/or the insight to do that, they're going to fall through the cracks and end up back in some kind of criminal activity."

While The Released documents the problems facing former inmates who have mental illnesses, it fails to address proven solutions. This is in stark contrast to the film, The Soloist, which dramatically illustrates the importance of voluntary access to treatment and the effectiveness of supportive housing.

Research initiatives like the Consensus Project, and service programs like the Nathaniel Project and Pathways to Housing, both in New York City, have successfully helped inmates with mental illnesses reintegrate into society by fully integrating individuals into their communities as they receive services to recover. Through the use of supportive housing and Assertive Community Treatment (ACT), among other community-based services, former offenders have a drastically reduced rate of further criminal activity.

 "We know what to do; we're just not doing it. This group needs discharge planning and support before, during, and after release," explains Robert Bernstein, Ph.D., Executive Director of the Bazelon Center for Mental Health Law. "By not providing appropriate mental health services in the most integrated setting possible - the community - we are practically handing them a fully-taxpayer-funded ticket back to prison. We are in desperate need of change at a systemic level."
               
To learn more about the promise that these programs hold, visit:
http://www.bazelon.org/issues/housing/supportive_housing.htm
http://www.bazelon.org/issues/criminalization/dischargeplanning.html
http://www.bazelon.org/issues/criminalization/factsheets/pdfs/re-entry.pdf
http://consensusproject.org/the_report/toc/ch-IV/

Watch the entire The Released Frontline documentary online:
http://www.pbs.org/wgbh/pages/frontline/released/view/


For more information, visit www.bazelon.org or contact Emily McKee, Bazelon Center Director of Communication
at 202-467-5730  x120, emilym@bazelon.org.