Entangled: How People With Serious Mental Illness Get Caught in Misdemeanor Systems

People with serious mental illness (SMI) are prominently and unjustly overrepresented in the criminal legal system. More than one-third—and in some studies more than two-thirds—of those with SMI have a lifetime history of arrest. For the first time, a single volume takes a deep dive into the common behaviors, contexts, and decisions that lead to misdemeanor arrests.

Contributors representing the fields of anthropology, social work, criminology, and psychiatry draw on data from a mixed-method, multisite study (Atlanta, Chicago, New York, and Philadelphia) to examine how people with SMI become entangled in the criminal legal system and how failure to resolve underlying issues—such as underfunded social and mental health service systems and the shortage of affordable housing—plays a role.

Divided into three distinct sections, Entangled: How People With Serious Mental Illness Get Caught in Misdemeanor Systems

• Provides a historical perspective on how social, mental health, and criminal legal system policies have imperiled individuals with SMI and demonstrates the contexts that shape decision-making across misdemeanor systems.• Looks at specific misdemeanor charges that have traditionally been common for people with SMI, including criminal trespass, shoplifting, obstruction and resisting arrest, and misdemeanor assault and battery, with insight into the factors behind such charges.• Reviews necessary reforms and policy advances in the criminal legal system and the mental health crisis response system and advocates for a multisystem approach that emphasizes racial equity.

In each chapter, data-based clinical vignettes illustrate scenarios in which people with SMI have been arrested on misdemeanor charges, heightening the clinical relevance of the information. Key points summarize the main takeaways in every chapter and help readers retain important concepts.

Offering a thorough and nuanced description of current challenges as well as a vision of a better future, Entangled encourages readers to be part of crafting solutions to help individuals with mental illness—especially serious mental illness—embrace a life of recovery, hope, empowerment, and integration.