Thursday, June 2, 2011

How California Can Safely Release 33,000 Prisoners

This article is long and based on Mental Health issues in California, however it's worth the read ... regarding the Supreme Court ordering to release 33,000 prisoners.

The author's
(Mary Ann Bernard) solution? Return care of mentally ill prisoners to mental health system and require them to provide the care.

This is interesting, since this is one proposal that Dr. Stephen Hall recently discussed at the 1915(i) waiver meetings around the state of Kentucky.

Kentucky needs to divert funds from other systems such as the Dept. of Corrections and give back to our Community Mental Health systems. In other words, help these individuals receive care from qualified clinicians instead of jailers. This is not possible in Kentucky "without" legislative changes.

The section on page 2 could be helpful in amending the KRS 202(a).

Please share:

http://www.nationalreview.com/articles/268623/how-california-can-safely-release-33000-prisoners-mary-ann-bernard?page=3