Rogers / 3 Senator Henzie

S.R._____

A BILL
To mandate that all convicted felons must go through mental exams upon entering federal prisons, and that all federal
prisons must maintain a special psychiatric wing for these felons, who do not pass, to get treated.
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Be it enacted by the Senate and House of Representatives of the United States of America in Congress assembled,
SECTION 1. SHORT TITLE
This act may be cited as the Criminal Mental Health Awareness Act of 2017.
SECTION 2. FINDINGS
Congress hereby finds and declares that,
1)16% of all inmates could be considered seriously mentally ill.
2)Police are twice as likely to arrest a person with a mental illness.
3)In this report a majority of the prisoners in general population that have mental illness are ignored by all

staff, and those that are treated do not receive the treatment that they need.
4) Prisoners with mental illnesses tend to have more issues with discipline and behavior.
5) We can contribute a large portion of the increase in prisoners to the fact that our country doesnt consider
addiction or mental illness as a medical condition
6) Most mentally ill people are given the treatment needed when placed in jail or prison instead of a mental health
facility.
7) Those people with any mental illness are three times more likely to be incarcerated than hospitalized.
8) Halfway through 2005 around 78,800 Federal prisoners had some form of a mental illness.
9) It has been found that conditions of mentally ill patients worsen when put in solitary confinement.
10) Those who have committed any crime due to mental illness are more likely to commit suicide when in prison
because of the lack of treatment.
SECTION 3. STATUTORY LANGUAGE
A) The Criminal Mental Health Awareness Act of 2017 shall require all convicted felons to get tested for mental
illness once convicted and annually thereafter whilst incarcerated. According to the Bureau of Justice Statistics,
federal prisons are defined as prisons that are controlled by the Federal Bureau of Prisons, and in which all prisoners
are legally responsible to the federal government. Felons diagnosed with a mental illness according to Diagnostic and
Statistical Manual of Mental Disorders, Fourth Edition, shall be treated through medication, counseling, or therapy.
According to the Mayo Clinic, mental illness is defined as a disorder that affects your mood, behavior, and thoughts.
Federal prisoners with mental illnesses shall no longer reside in the general population, and a mental health wing
shall be created. Every federal prison shall be required to have a ratio of one therapist and psychiatrist to every forty
prisoners in the program and shall be able to provide treatment (i.e. counseling, medication, therapy). According to
Merriam-Webster, therapy is defined as the treatment of a mental or physical disorder. This will ensure convicted
felons who have mental illnesses are not deprived of treatment while they serve the time for their crime. However, all
private prisons shall be exempt to this bill. The Bureau of Justice Statistics defines private prisons as prisons that are
under contracts with private corporations leased out by the federal government.
B) The Federal Bureau of Prisons and the National Institute of Corrections shall be responsible for ensuring that all
federal prisons are performing mental exams on all felons after conviction and every year after. These organizations
shall also ensure that a mental health wing has been allocated and it is kept to the standard of all wings in the prison.
All private prisons shall be exempt from the Criminal Mental Health Awareness Act of 2017. Because private
corporations own these prisons, they shall have the ability to choose how they deal with mental illness. In order to
fund this bill, we must cut military spending, and reassign the money to the federal prisons.
C) Federal prisons that do not sanction mental health exams nor maintain a mental health ward will stop receiving
funding from the state and will be fined $10,000 until changes are made. Those federal prisons that do adhere to this
bill will receive additional funding based on the extent of their programs. Prisons that comply with the Criminal
Mental Health Awareness Act of 2017 shall be awarded a base of $1,000 per prisoner annually for every year the
program is maintained and an additional $200 for each therapist and psychiatrist that they employ. This bill is to be
enacted on January 1, 2018.