SB 5293 Risk Factors

Women's prevalence of serious

mental illness who are incarcerated
Addressing is more than double that of men⁵

mental health
sentencing 2 in 3 people with co-occurring mental
illness and substance use disorder
alternatives will reenter corrections facilities
To: Washington State Legislators and Department of Health within a year of their release⁵
From: Isabella Hansen, Carmella Crooks, Molly Holmes, Hekimat Mohammed

Health Outcomes
POLICY OVERVIEW
Emotional trauma can occur due
to solitary confinement.⁶
SB 5293 creates the option for defendants with As a result, inmates may engage in
severe mental illness to serve in community
custody and receive mental health treatment in
unsafe attention seeking
lieu of standard sentencing. Clearly outlined behaviors such as bashing their
conditions for alternative sentencing are made heads against the wall and using
with considerations from the court and the victim’s their bedsheets to potentially
opinion. Progress hearings occur on a regular basis
hang themselves.⁷
to monitor the defendant.¹

Social Context
Prison conditions such as crowded
living quarters, lack of privacy,
POLICY ANALYSIs increased risk of victimization, and
exposure to punitive segregation are
strongly correlated with emerging
Social Impact and worsening psychiatric symptoms
Mental health sentencing alternatives reduce (including self-harm).⁸
crime and improve public safety by
addressing root causes of crime.²
Defendants are able to contribute to
community betterment and strengthen
relationships with family and neighborhoods ³
Improve utilization of mental health 25% to 40% of all mentally ill Americans
will be jailed or incarcerated at some
treatment services, particularly for Black and
point in their lives compared to 6.6% of
unisured women ⁴ non-mentally ill Americans.⁹
 Economic Impact POLICY
RECOMMENDATIONS
This policy may increase utilization of taxpayer
dollars Add subsection(proceeding section 1.12) to
Providing psychiatric treatment is approximately 1/10 address people with severe mental illness
who fall outside of the provisions for receiving
the cost of incarcerating a person for one year ¹⁰
MHAS which requires the state to provide
After treatment, women can focus on their them with ongoing access to psychiatric care
career which allows for reduction in taxpayer while in corrections facility
spending ¹¹
SB 5293 may stimulate economy by allowing Revise bill to include collaboration between DOH
and mental health agencies to incentivize
defendants to continue employment, paying treatment providers that would be agreeing to
taxes and consumption take on heavier case loads

Limitations Specify what 'appropriate mental health

training' means for the community
Although bill provides mental health corrections officers and who will be
assigned as point person for leading this
treatment, no mention is made about effort to train officers
who will be covering the cost
Clarification from sponsors on
Bill does not address shortage of whether or not state will be paying for
psychiatrists and therapists in the MH treatments under this alternative
MH sentencing¹
state, yet is asking the state for higher
utilization of these resources¹²

ETHICAL IMPLICATIONS SOCIAL JUSTICE IMPLICATIONS

This policy adheres to the ethic of JUSTICE Relieve conditions of overcrowding which exacerbate
Mentally ill individuals incarcerated have equal
and worsen the conditions of those with mental illness
opportunities to serve their sentence without the regardless of type.¹³
cost of further debilitating their mental health. Mentally ill black people face the brute of this by facing
This policy adheres to the ethic of Non- a higher likelihood of incarceration and facing longer
Maleficence sentences.¹⁴
By offering an alternative program we provide an
Recidivism sets the precedence for even longer
environment to serve a sentence without the cost sentences regardless of the severity even when
of further compromising mental health. directly related to poor control of mental health.¹⁵

References
1. Washington State Legislature. Accessed March 5, 2023. https://app.leg.wa.gov/billsummary?BillNumber=5293&Year=2021&Initiative=false
2. Urahn S. State of Recidivism: The Revolving Door of America’s Prisons.
3. FAMM. Alternatives to Incarceration in a Nutshell. FAMM. Accessed March 5, 2023. https://famm.org/our-work/sentencing-reform/
4. Timko C, Johnson JE, Kurth M, Schonbrun YC, Anderson BJ, Stein MD. Health Services Use Among Jailed Women with Alcohol Use Disorders. J Behav Health Serv Res. 2019;46(1):116-128. doi:10.1007/s11414-018-9634-7
5. Steadman HJ, Osher FC, Robbins PC, Case B, Samuels S. Prevalence of Serious Mental Illness Among Jail Inmates. PS. 2009;60(6):761-765. doi:10.1176/ps.2009.60.6.761
6. Canada K, Barrenger S, Bohrman C, Banks A, Peketi P. Multi-Level Barriers to Prison Mental Health and Physical Health Care for Individuals With Mental Illnesses. Front Psychiatry. 2022;13:777124. doi:10.3389/fpsyt.2022.777124
7. Nigel J. Report Finds Conditions Improved for Mentally Ill Prisoners in Oregon’s Maximum Security Prison. Accessed February 27, 2023. https://www.wweek.com/news/2021/01/11/report-finds-conditions-improved-for-mentally-ill-
prisoners-in-oregons-maximum-security-prison/
8.Bonczar TP. Prevalence of Imprisonment in the U.S. Population, 1974-2001.
9.Olley MC, Nicholls TL, Brink J. Mentally ill individuals in limbo: obstacles and opportunities for providing psychiatric services to corrections inmates with mental illness. Behavioral Sciences & the Law. 2009;27(5):811-831.
doi:10.1002/bsl.899
10. The Cost of Criminalizing Serious Mental Illness | NAMI: National Alliance on Mental Illness. Accessed March 5, 2023. https://www.nami.org/Blogs/NAMI-Blog/March-2021/The-Cost-of-Criminalizing-Serious-Mental-Illness
11. Frankfurter M. Mass Incarceration. American Civil Liberties Union. Accessed March 5, 2023. https://www.aclu.org/issues/smart-justice/mass-incarceration
12.Samarasekera U. Staffing issues affecting care on acute psychiatric wards. The Lancet. 2007;370(9582):119-120. doi:10.1016/S0140-6736(07)61068-X
Frankfurter M. Mass Incarceration. American Civil Liberties Union. Accessed March 5, 2023. https://www.aclu.org/issues/smart-justice/mass-incarceration
13.Turney K, Wildeman C, Schnittker J. As Fathers and Felons: Explaining the Effects of Current and Recent Incarceration on Major Depression. J Health Soc Behav. 2012;53(4):465-481. doi:10.1177/0022146512462400
14. [PDF] Mass Imprisonment and the Life Course: Race and Class Inequality in U.S. Incarceration | Semantic Scholar. Accessed March 5, 2023. https://www.semanticscholar.org/paper/Mass-Imprisonment-and-the-Life-Course%3A-Race-and-
in-Pettit-Western/e90bdba1668af8840823bd62663242baeec8d88d
15.Lamb HR, Weinberger LE. The Shift of Psychiatric Inpatient Care From Hospitals to Jails and Prisons. Journal of the American Academy of Psychiatry and the Law Online. 2005;33(4):529-534.