The stigma for releasing mentally ill criminals back into society has never been favorable and continues that way today. Judges, juries, psychologists, psychiatrists, and all other professionals involved don’t want the blood of a recommitted crime on their hands. To avoid this guilt judges and jurors will often send the mentally ill defendants to prison or a mental state institution with no chance of seeing freedom again. By allowing this to happen we are failing as a society to give fair trials, punishment, and treatment to all. Once the defendant has gone through our court system they have been through great turmoil. The last thing a mentally ill ex-convict should worry about is whether they will be freed after serving their time. After graduating from highly researched and successful reintegration to society programs should these prisoners return back to a safe and law-abiding life.  

The first policy that released and integrated the mentally ill back into society was a major failure and blame has been spread everywhere by the American Psychiatric Association. Politicians, civil libertarian lawyers, and psychiatrists have all been faulted. Throughout history mental illness and the treatment for those with these various illnesses has been ignored or misinformed. In the 1950’s and 1960’s responsibility was laid heavily on drugs to do the work of society. “The records show that the politicians were dogged by the image and financial problems posed by the state hospitals and that the scientific and medical establishment sold Congress and the state legislatures a quick fix for a complicated problem that was bought sight unseen.” (Lyons, 1984). To avoid the financial problems these patients and prisoners were released with no further treatment or schooling on how to live an everyday life. In 1959 California’s state mental hospitals reached their peak of 37,500 patients which fell to 22,000 patients in 1967 after this policy was adopted by the governor. By buying into this quick fix no progress was gained towards understanding and helping the mentally ill stuck in our justice system and our citizens were put into danger. Later the president of the American Psychiatric Association, Dr. John A. Talbott, said, “The psychiatrists involved in the policy making at that time certainly oversold community treatment, and our credibility today is probably damaged because of it.” He said the policies “were based partly on wishful thinking, partly on the enormousness of the problem and the lack of a silver bullet to resolve it, then as now.” 