By C1 Staff
HARRISBURG – An analysis completed by PennLive states that about 28 percent of the 87,756 inmates in the state prison system have a mental illness.
The news source reported that about a third of those inmates have a “serious mental illness,” such as schizophrenia or bipolar disorder.
The state shuttered its only mental health hospital in 2006, promising that those with mental illness wouldn’t end up on the street. Savings from the closure of the hospital were supposed to go to caseworkers and other programs to help the region’s mentally ill live successfully in the community.
But now PennLive’s findings state that the number of mentally ill found in the state’s prison system outnumber those outside correctional facilities.
For more information on how PennLive arrived at their result, check out the full article here.