As Congress embarks on a rethinking of the criminal-justice system, jails and prisons are confronting myriad problems in dealing with the mentally ill.
CHICAGO — Nneka Jones Tapia, who runs Chicago’s sprawling Cook County Jail, has an indelible childhood memory of police officers pounding on the aluminum walls of the family’s double-wide trailer home in North Carolina, rifling through cupboards and drawers, and arresting her father on charges of selling marijuana.
Jones Tapia, then 8, had to call her mother home from work.
In the next several years, other relatives, including two brothers, and a number of friends also spent time in jail.