Mental illness and the criminal justice system

The rationale for police to intervene in the lives of persons with mental illness (PMI)1 stems from two common law principles: power and authority of police to protect the safety of the community, and the parens patriae doctrine which grants state protection for citizens with disabilities such as the acutely mentally ill (Finn & Stalans, 2002; Lamb, Weinberger, & DeCuir, 2002; Teplin, 2000). [...] Rates of contact are mediated by the extent of victimization experienced by persons with a mental illness, as well as the nature of the behaviour of persons with mental illness and societal reactions to that behaviour. [...] Ruiz and Miller (2004, p. 361) claim that five main catalysts exist that foster physical confrontations between police officers and persons with mental illness: 1. Fear on the part of the person with mental illness …. because it involves placing them in the hands of unfamiliar police officers 2. The reluctance of the person in the mental health crisis to cooperate with or comply with police orders [...] In what follows, I describe some of the major police-led and co-response programs operating in the US, Canada, Australia and the U. K. The majority of the programs selected for discussion can be categorized by the Hails and Borum (2003) typology. [...] In a study of major models of police 17 response, the collaboration between the police and MCU allowed persons with mental illness to be linked to treatment through transport or referral in approximately 75% of the cases with only 5% of incidents resulting in arrest (Steadman et al., 2000).