But, she said, little attention is paid to the increasing numbers of mentally ill going to jail, and providing them with services is never a priority. Pepper noted that nationally there were 550,000 state psychiatric hospital beds in 1955, while last year there were 60,000. But there has been an 800 percent increase in jails and prison cells since 1970, he said. The other speakers at the forum, sponsored by the Mental Health Association in New York State Inc. and other organizations, called for an integrated approach in dealing with mentally ill people who commit crimes, including having doctors who can properly diagnose what may be driving the criminal behavior. This summer the state's Office of Court Administration, for the first time, plans to offer seminars to state judges on how to handle mentally ill defendants who come before them.
Court officials say they are looking at ways to establish such courts.
Sol Wachtler said the state Office of Court Administration has been working with the Law and Psychiatry Institute, which the former judge is affiliated with, to line up experts who can better educate judges about the mental illnesses the people appearing before them may be suffering from. Wachtler said he wants to be one of the first speakers to talk to the judges whom he once presided over as chief judge of the state's top court, the Court of Appeals. It's not all right for judges, because they have to be far more sensitive and knowledgeable than the average citizen. The presentations on mental illness would be made this summer at the annual retreat held for judges by the state Office of Court Administration. The two weeklong sessions will be in Rye, Westchester County, this year.