The number of incarcerated individuals in the United States’ jails and prisons with psychiatric disorders has been steadily increasing since the mid-1950s, with the upsurge stemming mostly from the deinstitutionalization movement that gained considerable momentum throughout the nation, particularly within the 1960s (Pittaro, 2015). While well-intended, the movement did not produce the desired expectations. In response to the deinstitutionalization movement, our nation’s jails and prisons have now become “the new psychiatric asylums,” the de facto state psychiatric hospitals, responsible for confining and caring for mentally ill offenders (Pittaro, 2015). As a correctional administrator and professor, I can assure you prisons and jails were never designed nor intended to serve in this capacity. Despite vast improvements made, especially over the last decade, our correctional system is still ill-equipped to adequately provide the resources and care that these men and women deserve.

Today, nearly half the people in US jails, and more than a third of those in US prisons, have been diagnosed with a mental illness, not to mention the prevalence of cooccurring disorders (namely mental illness and addiction), which, by most accounts, increases the likelihood of criminal justice involvement (Yohanna, 2013).

Of course, the deinstitutionalization movement also had several noteworthy successes, one of the most significant outcomes of deinstitutionalization was that it placed the focus on individualized treatment. Deinstitutionalization also led to increased independence and improved quality of life for many individuals who would have typically been institutionalized. Deinstitutionalization has also led to the relocation of many formerly institutionalized individuals to community-based housing, increased socialization, and it is believed to have improved the adaptability to change of many of those formerly institutionalized. These successes highlight the potential benefits of deinstitutionalization when it........

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