Civil commitment and arrests

Purpose of review The aim of this article is to evaluate the social control exerted on persons with severe mental illness by civil commitment and arrest under conditions of increasing limits on mental hospitalization and on resources for community treatment and services. Recent findings Although no accurate count of police encounters with persons with severe mental illness can be made, the literature indicates that police have frequent encounters with persons with severe mental illness, resolve most of those encounters informally, and often resort to arrest. Persons with severe mental illness are more likely to be held in jails and prisons than members of the general population; and those who are detained are more likely to have had psychiatric hospitalization than persons with severe mental illness who are not arrested and jailed. Most of their offenses are minor nuisance and survival crimes or are produced by substance abuse; mental illness plays a contributory but not a sufficient role in offending. Civil commitment, especially outpatient commitment, which provides treatment and services can reduce arrests. Summary Resources need to be provided and programs need to be established to reach out with a full array of needed services as well as psychiatric treatment to persons with severe mental illness so that their symptoms and substance abuse are minimized, their functioning improves, their basic needs of food, clothing and shelter are met, and their higher needs of support, belonging, respect and meaning can be realized. The law can be used to these ends.