Current and prior mental health treatment of jail inmates: The use of the jail as an alternative shelter

Changing policies in mental health and welfare are altering the character of urban jail populations. Homeless people, many of them ex-mental-hospital patients, occupy jail space in increasing numbers. They almost never commit violent crimes and seldom commit any real crime. They are given a charge and put in jail as a way to take them off the streets. The way in which official statistics are created and kept makes it difficult to demonstrate the nature and extent of this problem. This paper reports on one way this can be done.