State of Connecticut Office of Policy and Management

Research, Analysis & Evaluation

STATEWIDE MENTAL HEALTH TRAINING

The Research, Analysis & Evaluation Unit will provide federal grant funds to support statewide mental health training to criminal justice professionals.  The Office of Policy and Management has made a commitment to provide this training by reference in the 2007 biennial Comprehensive Plan For the Connecticut Criminal Justice System. 

During the last 35 years, the mental health system has undergone tremendous change.  Each year, ten million people are booked into U.S. jails.  Approximately 5 percent of the U.S. population has a serious mental illness.  The U.S. Department of Justice reported in 1999, however, that about 16 percent of the population in prison or jail has a serious mental illness. Studies indicate that rates of serious mental illness among these individuals are at least three to four times higher than the rates of serious mental illness in the general population.

For more information see the June 2007 Connecticut OLR Research Report PDF to HTML ConverterInmates and Mental Health by Christopher Reinhart, Senior Attorney.

The report is available in Adobe PDF, portal document format.  To view the document either get the Adobe Reader OR use the Adobe PDF Converter.