It's easy to portray these people as monsters or otherworldly, and I think we need to remember they're real people who are just not getting the treatment they need. Your purchase helps support NPR programming. The children are our future and they deserve better.Close overlay Buy Featured Book Title Insane Subtitle America's Criminal Treatment of Mental Illness Author Alisa Roth What would be better is if we start building infrastructure and planning for a more equitable way for society to exist without gamification in some system of illness that eliminates us like a satanic game of musical chairs. The DSM might be adjusted to rename bipolar disorder to simply “woke” and our government can simply hand out more money and pills, as our government is known to do. Today anyone who cares to look, can see that millions of people are taking to the streets and doing together exactly what individuals do in order to be considered bi-polar. What hadn’t happened yet when this book was published is a pandemic. That our criminal justice system not only exacerbates illnesses, it creates mental illness in both the inmates and the correctional service providers. However we do know systematically how poorly we are dealing with the realities that we face.

We do not know how to solve mental illness or absolutely put an end to criminal activity at this time. The most important read for judges and juries. There needs to be education for law enforcement, corrections officers, and a complete change in laws protecting people from themselves and the system. Conditions are so bad and restrictions so tight that professional volunteers can't even try to help. This book clearly helps us understand what a colossal failure the criminal justice system is for those with mental health problems. More books could be written on the topic and far more investigation done on the topic. After this book the experienced professional will have a far better understanding of what's real, but it will take a lot more to fully understand. Also, there are those who try to pull the wool over the eyes and fake mental illness. They frequently don't understand confused or unstable mental health problems and treat people as being resistant. Law enforcement is there to stop criminals, not babysit sick people. We see this in the real world all the time. It's easy to see how people would turn to substance use to get over the horrors and trauma experienced by those misunderstood and locked up- if they survive solitary confident with their lives or their eyeballs.

This is required reading for a Master of Social Work class related to intersections of mental health, trauma and addiction. This book was easy to keep listening to because of the interesting and almost unbelievable stories suffered by those who are locked up, and very difficult to listen to for the same reasons.

Insane by alisa roth