Are Jails & Prisons The New Asylums? A Look At The Numbers

This has been a year with lots of debate about the concept of the “asylum.” Sparked by the article, Improving Long-term Psychiatric Care – Bring Back the Asylum", by Dominic A. Sisti, Ph.D., Andrea G. Segal, MS and Ezekiel J. Emanuel, MD, Ph.D. and appearing in the January 20 edition of The Journal of the American Medical Association. Their premise – re-create long-term hospitalization through public hospitals because persons with both severe and treatment-resistant psychotic disorders, who are unsafe for community-based treatments, are being forced into a cycle from prison, to homelessness, to acute hospitalization . . .