Professor Armstrong Gives Context to NBC News about Orleans Parish Prison's Mental Health Unit
In one of America’s most troubled jails, a mental health unit has managed to thrive
Andrea Armstrong, a legal scholar, MacArthur Fellow and professor at Loyola University, also stressed that Louisiana, by most counts, has the highest rate of incarceration per capita, and also has one of the highest rates of violent crime.
“The math isn’t mathing, right?” Armstrong said. “If incarceration was the thing that made people safe, we would be the safest state in the country.”
Instead, she said solving the mental health and incarceration crisis will require leaders to think differently about safety and to invest in building new mental health hospitals.
“And those resources should not be connected to our criminal justice system. Full stop,” she said. “People who are in crisis need to be evaluated by experts. They need to develop treatment plans. And then and only then, can we start having conversations about the actions and behavior that occurred when they were untreated.”