It's taken a while for this particular truth to sink in, but America finally seems to be waking up to it: People with mental illness don't need to be locked up -- they need to be treated. On this edition of our show, we speak with journalist Alisa Roth, whose new book, "Insane," is a well-regarded and quite alarming exposé of the mental health crisis now facing our courts, jails, and prisons. As was noted of this book by The New York Times Book Review: "Chilling.... Roth writes movingly of the human toll of incarceration.... She convincingly diagnoses the glaring inadequacies of mental health treatment in prison but she is not out for scapegoats.... 'Insane' is rife with sharp, brutal details that pull the reader beyond the realms of abstract policy debates." And further, per a starred review in Kirkus Reviews: "A searing exposé about the criminalization of mental illness.... Though the subject matter dictates that much of the book is relentlessly depressing, the author is such a talented information gatherer and fluid stylist that the narrative becomes compulsive reading. An eye-opening book that cries out for change."
"Insane: America's Criminal Treatment of Mental Illness" on ST Medical Monday
