A ten month WITF investigation found that almost one in three uses of force from twenty five jails during the last three months of 2021 involved a person who was having a mental health crisis or who had a diagnosed mental illness.

Records also show 42 cases where corrections staff noted someone appeared to have a mental health condition but still used force when the person failed to respond to commands.

Brett Sholtis, WITF Health Reporter, joined us on Monday’s Smart Talk to discuss his investigative reports on this issue and solutions to resolve it.

Sholtis said, some of the solutions used to lessen corrections officers’ use of force for prisoners with a mental health condition is by reimaging the jail as a place that prioritizes mental health care, putting psychologists in charge of the jail instead of wardens and classes and programs to prepare prisoners to reenter society.

Sholtis’ reports on this issue, solutions to resolve it, and process in gathering the information can be found here: In Pa. county jails, people with mental illness are routinely met with pepper spray and stun guns | WITF 

Support WITF: https://www.witf.org/support/give-now/

See omnystudio.com/listener for privacy information.