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| Chicago transitional center, program for mentally disabled prison inmates helps them learn coping skills |
| By news-sentinel.com- Ellie Bogue |
| Published: 06/29/2015 |
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Editor's note: After a recent look at how the Allen County Jail deals with inmates with mental illness, which is only to see that they receive medication, The News-Sentinel took a look at a Chicago program to reduce the number of inmates with mental illness returning to jail. Sam has a nice smile. Broad shouldered and solid, his gray jail jumpsuit covers broad shoulders. His expression, determined. For the first time he has hope for his future. Since 1983 his behavior has repeatedly bounced him in and out of Chicago's Cook County jail. But the last time he entered the system something different happened. He was assessed during intake as having a mental illness and substance abuse problems. This put him in the mental health cell block at the Cook County Jail where within the last year Sheriff Thomas Dart has started a new program. Dart, who recently spoke in Indianapolis at a National Alliance on Mental Illness conference for the Indiana Department of Correction, told the audience he was tired of having repeat offenders with minor offenses being bounced back into his jail time after time. He wanted to stop it. Jails and prisons have become the 21st-century's solution of where to warehouse the mentally ill, and a jail, Dart told the crowd, is nowhere to treat them. Read More. |
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