ABSTRACT
Over the past 40 years, the mentally ill have experienced a precipitous transcarceration from psychiatric hospitals to prisons and jails. Deinstitutionalization attempted to give mentally ill patients their rights to pursue treatment in their communities. However, due to lack of accessibility and motivation, this effectively put the mentally ill on the streets, where the increased public interaction and access to addictive substances increased public stigma and criminalized mental illness. The mentally ill are now severely overrepresented in prison and jail populations, facilities that cannot treat them. Museums can play a role in addressing this social issue through attempting to decriminalize mental illness in public attitudes and reframing it as a medical condition.
