What are the issues?
In 1996 national estimates (BJS, July 1999) reported 283,800 mentally ill people in jails and prisons (with 16% being in local jails)
In 2005 the same national group estimates 1,255,700 mentally ill people in jails and prisons (64% of them being in local jails)
One contributing factor to above statistic is steadily decreasing # of state psychiatric hospital beds