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"Reducing Mass Incarceration: Lessons from the Deinstitutionalization of Mental Hospitals in the 1960s"

By Douglas A. Berman

The title of this post is the title of this notable new piece available via SSRN from Professor Bernard Harcourt. Here is the abstract: In 1963, President Kennedy outlined a federal program designed to reduce by half the number of persons in custody in mental hospitals.  What followed was the biggest deinstitutionalization this country has ever seen.  The historical record is complex and the contributing factors are several, but one simple fact remains: This country has deinstitutionalized before.  As we think about reducing mass incarceration today, it may be useful to recall some lessons from the past. After tracing the historical background, this essay explores three potential avenues to reduce mass incarceration: First, improving mental health treatment to inmates and exploring the increased use of medication, on a voluntary basis, as an alternative to incarceration; in a similar vein, increasing the use of GPS monitoring and other biometric monitoring, and moving toward the legalization of lesser controlled substances...continue to full post

Full post as published by Sentencing Law and Policy on February 02, 2011 (boomark / email).