Finding a better way to work with mentally ill people leaving jail and prison needs to be addressed, said Sen. Jim Webb (D-Va.) during a meeting at the Brookings Institution discussing re-entry programs. He also called attention to the failure to distinguish between crime and illness:
"It's not a crime to be mentally ill. It's not a crime to be addicted to drugs. It is a crime to live by violence and to extort money from people who are trying to have a basic way of life, and we need to get back to making those sorts of distinctions."
Webb noted that in the past 25 years, there has been a 13-fold increase in the number of people arrested for substance abuse. He was one of 34 co-sponsors of the "Second Chance Act," which Pres. Bush signed into law earlier this year.
Michael Thomas, a lawyer from Saginaw addressed re-entry programs in Michigan. Transcripts and a video are available.
