Today in my research of how persons with mental illnesses are being jailed I learned the number of men and women with major mental illnesses taken to the Milwaukee County Jail and House of Corrections is increasing. Private contractors who oversee the mental health care of persons in the county system say that about 400 of 960 men and women in the County Jail are seriously ill with brain illnesses. I also learned that in the Wisconsin correctional system, with the highest rate of African American young men incarcerated in the US, has about 35% of the 17,000 – 20,000 persons incarcerated at one time with a severe mental illnesses.

The greatest number of ill persons imprisoned come from the city of Milwaukee. The stigma of mental illnesses is rampart in the city of Milwaukee and contributes to aggravate the problem. Although no one is ‘mentally ill’ as a person with cancer is not ‘cancerous’ the media and public refuse to look on mental illness as just another illness but as something morally wrong with the person. Any type of ill or injured person can receive care in the Emergency Room of a hospital except ones with brain illnesses we call mental illnesses.

When I tell most people about how we treat persons with illnesses by placing them in jail or prison, the worst type of treatment for such a person, they seem to understand. However, despite all the understanding, talk and good will the jail and prison system continues to swallow up ill persons. Most groups that lack human and civil rights raise up to demand equal treatment. I doubt if that will ever happen with persons with mental illnesses. Often they do not realize they are ill and, if they do, cannot except the stigma that comes with this illness.

Knowing the outcome of such treatment having been with my deceased son during his struggle with this illness I feel very sad that it is still happening. Now Milwaukee County wants to close the limited facility that deals with ill persons in crisis. This will mean more ill persons in jail and prison.

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