Giving Compass' Take:

· The Marshall Project tells the story of a young man from New Hampshire who suffers from hallucinations and his experience seeking help from the state. According to the authors, New Hampshire is the only state sending the mentally ill to prison because they have no hospitals with secure psychiatric units. 

· How should the justice system approach individuals who suffer from mental illnesses? What programs should be offered to these individuals? 

· Here are some prison reform recommendations suggested by Heartland Alliance. 

Andrew Butler’s hallucinations and paranoia began last summer. When they persisted into the fall, his father agreed to have him civilly committed — involuntarily sent to the state psychiatric hospital to receive treatment. A few months into his stay at New Hampshire Hospital, Butler was transferred.

To a prison.

National advocacy groups say New Hampshire is the only place in the country where the ward for people at risk of hurting themselves or others, called a secure psychiatric unit, is located in a prison.

In other states, psychiatric hospitals have units for people who need closer scrutiny, such as severely suicidal or potentially violent patients. New Hampshire Hospital, which was built in the late 1980s, does not have a secure wing. The secure psychiatric unit at the prison has remained the only option for those high-need patients.

Read the full story about being locked in prison by Taylor Elizabeth Eldridge and Ashley Nerbovig at The Marshall Project.