the correlation between mental illness and incarceration is truly frightening. starting in the 1970s, the numbers for mental hospitalization plummeted while the incarceration rate of people with mental health issues skyrocketed. it shouldn t be the responsibility of justice system actors anyway to be the primary, the first responder for people with mental illness, for people who are self-medicating with alcohol or drugs. because of depression or trauma or all this kind of stuff. it shouldn t be the criminal justice system. but that s what we ve got. so a lot of the work around reform is how do we make that system better at spotting those folks and finding alternatives to get them out. there are good people inside of the jail system. i know that seems like an oxymoron to some people. there are individuals that are in bad situations. one of my best friends from high school tommy, tommy spent his whole life in and out of the county jail. he never got any treatment. i didn t unders
skyrocketed. it shouldn t be the responsibility of justice system actors anyway to be the primary, the first responder for people with mental illness, for people who are self-medicating with alcohol or drugs. because of depression or trauma or all this kind of stuff. it shouldn t be the criminal justice system. but that s what we ve got. so a lot of the work around reform is how do we make that system better at spotting those folks and finding alternatives to get them out. there are good people inside of the jail system. i know that seems like an oxymoron to some people. there are individuals that are in bad situations. one of my best friends from high school tommy, tommy spent his whole life in and out of the county jail. he never got any treatment. i didn t understand how that could happen. i wonder how many other tommys there are. you re right. there s a lot of tommys there are. they should not be spending time inside our institutions. they need to be in hospitals where help