Both Now and After: Does COVID-19 Reframe Our Thinking About Reform? Artwork

Mental Illness Is Not a Crime

In this podcast, listeners will hear experts from across the United States discuss how and why we have criminalized mental illness – and what we can do about it. The challenge is steep. In the U.S., more than two million people with a mental health condition are jailed every year. And roughly one in two Americans with a serious mental illness will be arrested. Alisa Roth, the author and journalist, notes that jails and prisons “have become the nation’s de facto mental health care providers.” Listen in to learn more.

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Mental Illness Is Not a Crime

Both Now and After: Does COVID-19 Reframe Our Thinking About Reform?

December 02, 2020 • Sam Savin • Season 1 • Episode 4

Advocates discuss how COVID-19 intersects with efforts to reduce the over-incarceration of the mentally ill. The discussion covers many topics related to COVID-19, including how the pandemic increases the urgency to release some individuals into the community, accelerates telehealth efforts, and raises questions of ongoing reform efforts. The advocates featured include:

Cecilia Livesey, M.D., Chief of Integrated Mental Health Services, Perelman School of Medicine, University of Pennsylvania

Mavis Nimoh, Executive Director, Center for Prisoner Health & Human Rights

Stephanie Welch, Executive Officer at the Council on Criminal Justice and Behavioral
Health, Office of the Secretary, California Department of Corrections and Rehabilitation

Moderated by Adrienne Kennedy, President, NAMI Board of Directors