Frontline Documentary Follows Mentally Ill in and out of Prison

Monday, April 27, 2009
Topics: Politics, Health, Other
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An upcoming PBS documentary about the prevalence of mental illness among the nation's incarcerated citizens focuses on Ohio prisons. Ideastream's Bill Rice reports.

The Frontline documentary, called “The Released” is the five-year follow-up to a previous Frontline program “The New Asylums”, and follows the lives several of Ohio’s seriously mentally ill as they struggle to stay out of prison after serving their sentences.  It’s an attempt to understand and convey to viewers what happens to land so many back behind bars.  Government figures show about half of the 700,000 prisoners who will be released this year have some form of mental illness. 

Recovery Resources, based in Cleveland is one of two highly regarded Ohio facilities spotlighted in the film.  James Rodio, a psychiatrist there, says the corrections system still struggles to understand mental illness. 

Rodio:  “We have people that are trying to adjust to it, mental health courts even that are being set up to recognize tha5t this is a special population, but there’s also some denial and lack of understanding and recognition of mental illness that’s built into the system.”

Rodio spoke on 90.3’s The Sound of Ideas.  Frontline’s documentary “The Released” airs Tuesday night at 10:00 on WVIZ. 

Bill Rice, 90.3