“Amid growing recognition that large numbers of U.S. jail inmates suffer from mental health problems, three major organizations have gathered teams from 50 places in Washington, D.C., to plan a detailed attack on the problem.
“At least one-fifth of jail inmates had a ‘serious mental illness’ as of 2014, estimated the Virginia-based Treatment Advocacy Center. The organization said there were more mentally ill people in the Los Angeles County Jail, Chicago’s Cook County Jail, or New York’s Rikers Island jail complex than in any U.S. psychiatric hospital.”