Nneka Jones Tapia has been appointed director of Chicago's Cook County Jail. She has a mandate to reduce the
rising numbers of mentally ill people in prison for nonviolent crimes.
Nneka Jones Tapia’s appointment as executive director comes as Cook County and Illinois are experiencing deep cuts to mental health services. The first round of cuts came in 2012 under Democratic Mayor Rahm Emanuel, who closed six of the city's free mental health clinics. Now Republican Gov. Bruce Rauner, who took office in January, has targeted social services for cuts to help fix a budget shortfall. Those potential trims include $82 million to the state's Division of Mental Health and the elimination of programs for homeless youth, The Chicago Sun-Times reports.
Emanuel's cuts have coincided with an increase in mentally ill inmates at the Cook County Jail, often for crimes like trespassing and disorderly conduct. Jones Tapia said there's evidence of a link between the two.
Here are some of the cuts Governor Bruce Rauner wants to
make, according to the Chicago Sun Times.
Medicaid:
• $1.5 billion reduction to Health and Family Services budget, including elimination of Specialized Mental Health Rehabilitation facilities.
Human Services:
• Division of alcohol and substance abuse – $27.5 million reduction
• Division of mental health — $82 million reduction
• Elimination of Best Buddies, Project Autism, Arc of Illinois, Homeless youth services, Immigration Integration Services, Illinois Welcoming centers
• $23 million reduction to Early Intervention Program
Public Health:
• $19 million reduction from 2015
There are more obvious things to cut like pensions, public transportation, higher education, youth services, group insurance costs and local government but don't worry, Governor Bruce wants to do that too. Chicago's Emanuel has defined the closings "consolidation" and has pointed to increasing numbers of
patients and access to better care. But as the numbers show, these "consolidations" are similar to the way that charter schools and standardized testing metrics work—you disenfranchise entire swaths of high-risk and poor citizens, they go to jail, you spend tax money on jail, and then you can cherry-pick good numbers from "consolidated" statistics.
Unfortunately, in the end you are putting more and more people into jails that should not be there. A couple of weeks ago Human Rights Watch called the United States' prison practices, concerning the mentally ill to be "Callous and Cruel." Those sentiments are clearly echoed in Tapia's statement:
She said 2,000 to 3,000 prisoners at Cook County report or display signs of mental illness. In a press release announcing her appointment, county officials said the jail is the "largest mental health institution in the country."
“Detention in jails should be reserved for violent and dangerous offenders, not poor, sick and nonviolent individuals who need treatment,” Jones Tapia said in a statement.
The plan now is to open mental health clinics connected to the criminal justice system. So while this is a better step than not having mental health clinics, it's a very perverse way of running a society. Instead of trying to ensure that members of our society with mental health issues get the help they need so they don't run afoul of the law, we will wait until they do, charge them, maybe help them—and still have to pay out the same!