ABSTRACT
In the United States, incarceration has often played a major role in the policy towards poor Americans who have mental health disorders. Fluctuations in incarceration rates among those with mental illnesses have historically been framed by changes in capitalism, transformation in the labor market, and public attitudes towards the poor. In the United States, asylums, rather than jails or prisons, were once the primary form of incarceration. The goal of deinstitutionalization, as mandated by the Community Mental Health Centers Act of 1963 and Community Mental Health Centers Act Amendment of 1965, was to move those with mental illnesses out of state-run hospitals and into the community where they could receive adequate treatment and engage in recovery. Unfortunately, as neoliberal policies have expanded, both globally and in the United States, many poor individuals with mental health problems are finding themselves re-incarcerated in jails and prisons. This chapter will discuss the historical context of incarceration among those with mental illnesses and how the expansion of neoliberal globalism contributes to increased incarceration rates of the poor with psychiatric illnesses today.
