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Getting The Mentally Ill Misdemeanant Out Of Jail., James R. Walker
Getting The Mentally Ill Misdemeanant Out Of Jail., James R. Walker
The Scholar: St. Mary's Law Review on Race and Social Justice
This Comment advocates for the release of jailed persons arrested for nonviolent crimes due to the symptomology associated with their mental illnesses. Mentally ill misdemeanants suffer from severe and persistent mental disorders, usually either a psychotic or mood disorder, without symptoms or a diagnosis of a personality disorder. Due to the increase in arrests of individuals with mental illnesses, jail and prison populations are drastically increasing. These institutions have turned into modern mental hospitals or asylums. Criminalization of the mentally ill occurs because increasing numbers of mentally ill persons who commit minor crimes are subject to more frequent arrests. The …