The Ongoing Correctional Chaos in Criminalizing Mental Illness: The Realignment\u27s Effects on California Jails

This note explores the increasing presence of the mentally ill in California county jails, specifically in the Los Angeles County Jail. particularly in the context of California\u27s Realignment legislation. The case igniting this reform in California, Brown v. Plata alleged Eighth Amendment violations in California\u27s prison system based on shortcomings in mental health care and medical care. The Supreme Court attributed the violations and deficiencies in care to overcrowding in the prison population. California legislators responded to the Supreme Court\u27s prison-population reduction mandate with Assembly Bill 109 which redirects inmates to county jail. The mentally ill were largely and ironically left unmentioned in the Realignment discourse, though they were the impetus for the reform. Realignment legislation merely transfers the burden of managing mentally ill inmates from the state to California\u27s counties. This note recommends that mentally ill persons be diverted from the corrections system and placed into community rehabilitation rather than in prison or county jail