Overcoming biases against people with mental illness and offenders with mental illness

People with mental illness and offenders with mental illness are among the most maligned groups in society. Biases against these groups fuel stigmatization, which is a principal barrier to seeking treatment, and those with serious and untreated mental illness are more likely to have contact with the criminal justice system. In fact, there are so many people with mental illness in the criminal justice system in the United States that this system has become the de facto provider of mental health services. As a result, it has become necessary to include education on issues relevant to people with mental illness and offenders with mental illness in criminal justice curricula. This chapter reports on efforts to overcome student biases against people with mental illness and offenders with mental illness in the classroom setting. Results reveal that at the conclusion of an elective course on offenders with mental illness, students had significantly more positive perceptions of both people with mental illness and offenders with mental illness than they did at the beginning. These results are encouraging. It has become the job of criminal justice faculty to effectively educate the next generation of practitioners and academics to be prepared for and to devise ways to overcome the many challenges offenders with mental illness pose to the criminal justice system (and vice versa) and more positive attitudes toward people with mental illness and offenders with mental illness are a crucial first part of this process