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From Hospitals to Handcuffs: Criminalizing Patients in Crisis
May 2020
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In From Hospitals to Handcuffs, DRW found that hospital calls to police resulted in at least two patients per week being arrested, removed from treatment, and booked into jail. In most of these cases, there was no visible injury to a victim. These arrests lead to sick people stuck in jail for weeks or months, decompensating, with decreased access to needed health care. Many of the criminal cases are ultimately dismissed precisely because the person’s mental health is so compromised.
Criminalization of health-related behaviors does not help patients recover from crisis and it does not reduce rates of workplace violence for health care providers. Health care staff should not have to face stress and potential injury from workplace violence, but there are effective techniques to treat patients with significant behavioral health needs that do not require arrest. From Hospitals to Handcuffs makes multiple recommendations to health care facilities, police, prosecutors, and policymakers, and concludes:
“Every person providing health care and every person who needs it deserves a system that is humane and responsive. No one should fear going to work just as no one should fear that the symptoms that brought them to a hospital will lead instead to jail.”
Media Coverage
May 26, 2020
Seattle Times – “New report: Arrests at Seattle hospitals highlight gaps in mental-health systems”