Imprisoning our mentally ill?
To the Point
KCRW
4.4 • 583 Ratings
🗓️ 21 June 2018
⏱️ 43 minutes
🧾️ Download transcript
Summary
American jails and prisons have become hospitals for the mentally ill. A murderer doing 20 years at New York’s Sing Sing prison works with schizophrenics serving 24 months for misdemeanors. He tells Warren that sick people should be treated outside. The Sheriff in Chicago says it’s not just inhumane but a waste of taxpayers’ money. How did we get here? What can be done?
Transcript
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| 0:00.0 | Hello again, I'm Mormon Alney. It's been 200 years since Dorothea Dix invented mental |
| 0:09.8 | hospitals in the United States. It's been 50 years since we started shutting them down. |
| 0:17.0 | Mental illness, of course, is still very much with us. Diagnosis of mental illness is more |
| 0:21.9 | sophisticated than ever. But at the same time, we have collectively thrown up our hands over |
| 0:27.4 | what to do next. Mental hospitals have been replaced, but not by medical facilities of a different |
| 0:33.2 | and better kind. Instead, sick people end up in jails and prisons. On this podcast, we'll talk about |
| 0:40.4 | what that means and what the alternatives might be. We'll start at one of America's new |
| 0:45.7 | institutions for the mentally ill, Sing Sing Correctional Facility in upstate New York, long called |
| 0:52.0 | Sing Sing State Prison. |
| 0:56.4 | John Lennon is serving a term for murder. |
| 0:58.8 | He is also studying for a college degree. |
| 0:59.6 | He is a writer. |
| 1:04.8 | His story for Esquire magazine is titled This Place is Crazy. |
| 1:06.9 | John, great to have you on our podcast. |
| 1:08.5 | Yes, thank you. |
| 1:12.9 | Tell us, first of all, if you will, from an insider's perspective, |
| 1:18.6 | when did you first realize that you were surrounded by people who were in prison because they were mentally ill? Well, I mean, you kind of got that right away. I think, I mean, it's just |
| 1:26.8 | all around you in prison. I think what it really, like's just all around you in prison. |
| 1:28.5 | I think when it really, like, just dawned on me from a story's perspective was when I was |
| 1:35.8 | in Attica yard. |
| 1:37.5 | And it just, I guess it just dawned on me when I just saw this guy in front of me and I'm |
| 1:42.9 | at the table with these guys, |
... |
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