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In North Carolina alone, an estimated 11,000 people with serious mental illnesses are admitted to jail each year. Taking into consideration all jails across the nation, that number balloons to a staggering 2 million. Of those 2 million, nearly three-quarters are also struggling with drug and/or alcohol use problems. Once incarcerated, those with mental illnesses tend to stay in jail longer and, upon release, be at a higher risk of recidivism than individuals without mental illnesses.
With jails needing to spend two to three times more money on adults with mental illnesses than those without, this problematic system comes at an enormous cost to the taxpayer. In addition to the monetary costs, there is also a human toll. Typically, jails cannot provide the recovery and treatment services that individuals with mental illnesses need, and incarceration often makes recovery more difficult and recidivism more likely. If this goes unchanged, large numbers of individuals with mental illnesses will continue to cycle through the criminal justice system with little likelihood of recovery.