by Mark Bala, ’07 & Amanda Davis, ’06

At least fifteen percent of jail detainees suffer from mental illness. Many detainees in Illinois jails are not screened for illness, do not get good mental health care in jails and are not referred to mental health services upon release. Not only is this inhumane to the detainees, but also the failure to detect and properly treat detainees' mental illness causes preventable recidivism. On behalf of our principal legislative client, the Mental Health Association in Illinois (MHAI),the Mental Health Advocacy Project has been engaged in an effort to reduce the number of persons with mental illnesses in jails and improve mental health services in jails.

As part of this effort, students in the Project drafted and obtained enactment of legislation requiring the Illinois Department of Corrections to promulgate new standards concerning the treatment of persons with mental illness in county jails which took effect in 2004.The new standards mandate the screening of detainees, that guards be trained in suicide prevention, and that jails provide detainees with access to community mental health providers upon release. We are currently obtaining and processing data from 2005jail inspection reports (these reports were mandated by the legislation we drafted) to determine the precise scope of the problem. Thus far we have confirmed that most Illinois jails are not in compliance with the new standards, so we are also considering enforcement strategies. Additionally, we petitioned the Department of Corrections for further rule changes, most recently the statewide adoption of a new mental health screening tool that is both reliable and easy to administer.

The Project is also representing MHAI in a Freedom of Information Act (FOIA)suit to obtain surveys conducted by the Department of Human Services (DHS)and the Illinois Sheriffs' Association (ISA)in order to gather data on the mentally ill in Illinois jails. The ISA is involved because jails in Illinois are under the control of county sheriffs. MHAI requested the documents from DHS after survey data was presented at the 2002 Statewide Forensics Conference. During the course of this litigation, we have learned that the surveys were originally sent out by DHS to all sheriffs. However, DHS, and the ISA learned that the surveys might be available to MHAI under FOIA. Therefore, DHS and ISA agreed to have the same survey sent out by the ISA instead of DHS, since ordinarily a private entity like the ISA is not subject to FOIA requests. When, during the consideration of our Motion for Summary Judgment, the Circuit Court learned of this arrangement, it held that the completed surveys were public documents subject to FOIA even though they are in the possession of a private entity, the ISA. More recently the court ruled that MHAI could stand in the shoes of DHS and file a third-party complaint against the ISA for the return of the surveys. The surveys will give us further information about the mental health services provided in county jails.