During mental health crises, what’s needed is help, not jail
Here’s a riddle: How can you end up in jail if you haven’t been charged with, and aren’t even suspected of, a crime?
The answer, at least in Colorado: You’re experiencing a mental health crisis.
Under state law, you can be taken into custody for treatment and evaluation if you have a mental illness that appears to make you “gravely disabled” or an “imminent danger” to yourself or others. But if there is no appropriate facility available, you can be held— for up to 24 hours— in jail.
That’s not only expensive, it’s often counterproductive. Far from mitigating a crisis, jail can exacerbate it. Fortunately, the law is about to change. Gov. John Hickenlooper signed a bill this month to end the use of jail for mental health holds. Colorado is one of only half a dozen states that allow this practice, and Senate Bill 207 will remove us from this dubious list.
Under the new law, Colorado’s mental health system will be responsible for addressing such emergencies. The law directs additional resources to a network of walk-in centers and mobile units, equipping some with telehealth technology and encouraging collaboration with first responders.
The legislation enjoys support from a bipartisan coalition of lawmakers. SB 207 emerged from a task force that mental Health Colorado recommended and the governor created last year— a group that included mental health professionals, hospital administrators, and law enforcement officials. The consensus: Incarceration is a poor substitute for clinical services.
To be clear, the new law is no panacea. We need to do far more not only to respond to mental health crises but also to avoid such crises in the first place. That means enhancing prevention and early intervention, ensuring coverage for mental health and substance use disorders, and expanding the ranks of providers.
It also means changing our attitudes and our behavior toward people with mental illness. According to the Colorado Health Access Survey, nearly 30 percent of Coloradans who did not get the mental health care they needed said they were concerned about what would happen if someone found out, and more than 40 percent said they did not feel comfortable talking about “personal problems” even with a health professional.
Mental health and substance use disorders are medical conditions, not personal problems. Yet prejudice and fear still lead too many of us to dismiss mental illness as a character flaw or a figment of the imagination.
We ought to accord people with mental illness the dignity and respect they deserve. SB 207 represents an important step— but just one step— in that direction.