Fatimah Ali: Two cheers for Mental Health Court

AS judicial systems across the country adjust growing prison budgets by creating more innovative courts, this city is making its own small strides.

When Mayor Nutter and D.A. Lynne Abraham announced the city's new Mental Health Court last week, I cheered the effort to reduce recidivism in crimes committed by the mentally ill.

This innovative court is long overdue in a system saturated with mentally ill offenders who are often released without adequate follow-up care. It's understood that inadequate funding is a huge factor in all political decision-making, especially as huge budget cuts continue in state governments across the country.

But I think the Mental Health Court is actually doing its work a little too far downstream.

The court, presided over by Judge Sheila Woods-Skipper, will start by supervising treatment for 15 nonviolent offenders on their release back into society. But that's a drop in the bucket and doesn't go nearly far enough in making a significant impact on reducing the number of crimes committed by the mentally ill.

A NUMBER OF recent police encounters involving the mentally ill have resulted in their deaths, either because a suspect was off his medication or hadn't ever been diagnosed and placed under a doctor's care. Every time I read about police killing a mentally ill or homeless person, I cringe, because the two social maladies often go hand in hand.

Two years ago, I was researching mental health. After reading a dozen books and interviewing several experts, I was astonished to find out that a large percentage of those in America's prisons are mentally ill, and should have been put under psychiatric care long before their lives spun out in criminality.

Human Rights Watch has reported that the incarceration of the mentally ill has escalated dramatically over the last decade. Government statistics cited in the report say 30 percent of prison inmates suffer from major depression, and 15 percent may have psychotic disorders that become magnified while they're locked up.

There are also three times more people in prison than in the general population with serious mental illnesses like schizophrenia and bipolar disorder who should be in mental institutions. (People with mental illness also battle a systematically failed mental-health system that's dysfunctional throughout the country.)

The book "Crazy: A father's search through America's mental health madness," outlines author Pete Early's frantic search to find treatment for his son, who was diagnosed with mental illness in his 20's and had several psychotic episodes before he was finally arrested.

Early calls the mental-health system "one huge mess" and says it contributes to the growth of our "prison industrial complex." According to his research, at least a million people suffer from seriously debilitating mental illness in America. Three hundred thousand are in prison and half a million are on court-ordered supervision.

The Early research also confirms that, across the board, many of the mentally ill receive inadequate diagnosis and treatment - or neither. And, often, even when they are treated, follow-up is scattered and patients may stop taking their medication.

When this happens, the effects of the illness degrade behavior and sufferers become capable of committing crimes. They can put themselves or others in harm's way, or have bizarre episodes. They are at risk for addiction, homelessness or violence.

Early has called on Congress to reform the entire mental-health system, which he says "fails at every turn."

Here in Philadelphia, the closings of Byberry State Mental Hospital more than a decade ago and, more recently, Eastern Pennsylvania Psychiatric Institute, have undercut treatment for the mentally ill, which impacts every facet of society.

According to the Pennsylvania Office of Mental Health and Substance Abuse Services, Philadelphia in particular has a "highly decentralized mental health system." The most critical concern for all mental-health patients, but particularly those who are impoverished, is getting and maintaining health insurance to pay for their treatment.

CARL BELL, professor of psychiatry at the Illinois School of Medicine, says early intervention is key to successful management of mental illness, which in turn can drastically curtail the revolving cycle of crime.

Philadelphia's Mental Health Court indicates the willingness of local politicians to examine this vicious cycle of crime, which permeates society. Now, we must also take mental health seriously enough to fund early screening, intervention and treatment before a mentally ill person spins out of control and lands in jail. I

Fatimah Ali is a journalist, media consultant and associate member of the Daily News editorial board.