WASHINGTON (Thursday, Oct.
23) – The Senate Judiciary Committee approved a bill authored by
U.S. Sens. Patrick Leahy (D-Vt.) and Mike DeWine (R-Ohio) Thursday
to help provide mentally ill criminal offenders with proper
treatment. In July, Vermont State Senate Majority Leader Sen.
John Campbell (D-Windsor County) testified before the U.S. Senate
Judiciary Committee about the importance of the bill.
The Mentally Ill Offender
Treatment Act of 2003 would authorize $100 million each year in
federal grants to states and municipalities to help them reduce
crime and implement treatment programs for the mentally ill. Many
mentally ill individuals in the criminal justice system do not
receive proper treatment, often preventing them from successfully
re-entering their communities and contributing to further brushes
with the law.
The Senate Judiciary
Committee’s action comes two days after
a study released by Human Rights Watch Tuesday reported that as
many as one in five people in America’s prison system were
mentally ill. Those suffering from mental illness rarely get
proper treatment, the report said.
On July 30, 2003, Vermont Sen. John Campbell testified before the
U.S. Senate Judiciary Committee in support of the Mentally Ill
Offender Treatment and Crime Reduction Act. A member of the
Vermont Senate’s Judiciary Committee, Campbell told the panel how
the bill would encourage legislative efforts underway in Vermont
to break the criminal cycle of mentally ill offenders by providing
more efficient and effective treatment.
“All too often, people with mental illness rotate repeatedly
between the criminal justice system and the streets of our
communities,” said Leahy, ranking Democratic member of the Senate
Judiciary Committee. “This cycle unnecessarily consumes the time
of law enforcement officers instead of those able to help the
offenders get better. Offenders find themselves in prisons or
jails, where little or no appropriate medical care is available to
them. This bill gives state and local governments the tools to
break this cycle, for the good of law enforcement, corrections
officers, the public safety, and mentally ill offenders
themselves.”
A
similar measure has been introduced in the House of
Representatives by Rep. Ted Strickland (D-Ohio).
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