Disability Law Commons^™

Who's Pretending To Care For Him? How The Endless Jail-To-Hospital-To-Street-Repeat Cycle Deprives Persons With Mental Disabilities The Right To Continuity Of Care, Naomi Weinstein, Michael L. Perlin

Articles & Chapters

There is a well-documented “shuttle process” by which individuals committed to psychiatric institutions (having been charged with minor “nuisance”-type criminal offenses) are often stabilized, returned to jail to await trial, and then returned to the hospital following relapse. This shuttling or cycling is bad for many reasons, not least of which is the way that it deprives the cohort of individuals at risk from any meaningful continuity of care. Continuity of care is crucial in order to reduce the rate of incarceration and institutionalization for persons with mental illness. Without this continuity, it is far less likely that any therapeutic …