Senate Passes Leahy Bill To Reduce Crime
By Treating Mentally Ill Offenders

…bipartisan measure would help shut revolving door that shuttles mentally ill inmates
in and out of America’s jails instead of providing necessary treatment

WASHINGTON (Tuesday, Oct. 28) – The U.S. Senate has approved a bill authored by U.S. Sens. Patrick Leahy (D-Vt.) and Mike DeWine (R-Ohio) that would help reduce crime by arming law enforcement and corrections officials with the tools they need to treat mentally ill offenders.

The Mentally Ill Offender Treatment Act of 2003 (S. 1194), approved Monday night by the Senate, would authorize $100 million a year over two years 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 fail to get proper treatment, often preventing them from successfully re-entering their communities and increasing the likelihood that they will re-offend.

The Senate unanimously passed the bill days after the measure won the full support of the  Senate Judiciary Committee, on which Leahy is the ranking Democratic member. The passage of the bill comes a week after Human Rights Watch released a study showing that as many as one in five people in America’s prison system are mentally ill.  Those suffering from mental illness rarely get proper treatment, according to the report, which also included a recommendation to Congress that it pass the Leahy-DeWine bill.  

Vermont Sen. John Campbell testified before the committee in July in support of the bill, detailing how the federal grants would help Vermont’s police, mental health and corrections officials. A member of the Vermont Senate’s Judiciary Committee, Campbell said passage of the bill would also encourage legislative efforts underway in Vermont to break the criminal cycle of mentally ill offenders by providing more efficient and effective treatment. 

“This is an area where government spending can not only do good but can also save money in the long run.  A dollar spent today to get mentally ill offenders effective medical care can save many dollars in law enforcement costs in the long run,” said Leahy, a former prosecutor. “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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