MENTALLY RETARDED AND ILL JAIL INMATES

The large number of incarcerated men and women with severe mental illness in the Sedgwick County Jail is a threat to the safety to all citizens. The Sedgwick County Jail may be the largest  mental health providers in the entire state!. Yet the jail is not designed or equipped for mentally ill prisoners.

Prison is  hard on mental health in general, because of overcrowding, violence, lack of privacy, lack of meaningful activities, isolation from family and friends, uncertainty about life after prison, and inadequate health services.

The impact of these problems is worse for prisoners whose thinking and emotional responses are impaired by schizophrenia, bipolar disease, major depression, and other serious mental illnesses.

The mentally ill in tje Sedgwick County Jail face inadequate mental health services that leave them undertreated or mistreated.

CITE ARTICLES OF LW