HelpStatewide Coalition Marks Minority Mental Health Awareness Month with Panel on Racial Disparities in Mental Health Care and the Criminal Legal System
(Brooklyn, NY) – In recognition of Minority Mental Health Awareness Month, Assemblymember Phara Souffrant Forrest hosted a panel with experts in the field of social justice and mental health to unravel the complex nexus between mental health in America and the criminalization of Black and Brown people. This is especially relevant in light of President Trump’s recent regressive Executive Order on mental health, which relies on failed stereotypes and strategies of the past to deal with mental illness. They discussed American history’s long weaponization of mental healthcare against Black and Brown people, from using it to support the enslavement of African Americans to casting fear against civil rights protesters. The war on drugs that followed was used as a means to close mental institutions to Black and Brown people and lock them up. One expert noted that with all the efforts to harm Black and Brown people, 2025 feels like 1968.
There was also discussion that within the Black and Brown community, there are barriers to receiving mental health care. These include a pervasive sense of stigma and a deep-seated erosion of trust in institutions due to historical abuses. There’s also a severe lack of culturally responsive care. Roughly 5% of psychologists are Hispanic and 4% are Black.
This structural racism, coupled with the existing barriers to accessing adequate care, funnels Black and Brown Americans into the criminal legal system. Consequently, many are forced to seek mental healthcare within correctional facilities, environments that are inherently ill-equipped to address the complex mental health challenges people present.
To address these critical issues, Assemblymember Souffrant Forrest is championing the Treatment Court Expansion Act (S4547/A4869). This crucial legislation would establish mental health courts across New York State, diverting individuals experiencing mental health crises to appropriate community-based treatment instead of punitive incarceration. By prioritizing healing for the underlying causes of criminal legal involvement, the Treatment Court Expansion Act represents a vital step toward achieving true racial equity in our justice system.
“As we commemorate the end of Minority Mental Health Awareness month, it’s important to me to bring awareness to the ways in which our society’s approach to mental health diagnosis and treatment has failed black people. I’ve seen it in my work as a nurse, where I worked up close with patients in crisis, and in my work as a legislator, where I’ve learned about the impacts of mass incarceration around the state..” said Assemblymember Phara Souffrant Forrest, lead Assembly sponsor of the bill. “It’s one of the many reasons why I’m proud to sponsor the Treatment Court Expansion Act, which seeks to expand alternatives to incarceration for people with mental illness in our criminal justice system, who are disproportionately people of color.”
“We stand with our trusted partners in challenging systemic racism in our mental health care system,” said Maggie G. Mortali, CEO of NAMI-NYC, helping families and individuals affected by mental illness for over 40 years. “We have advocated for peers not police in crisis response. We have urged the closure of Rikers. We have called for mental health courts to be expanded statewide and to connect people to treatment instead of jail.”
“The Treatment Court Expansion Act (TCEA) is a crucial step towards achieving racial equity in our criminal legal system,” said Pastor Ibrahim Ayu, Chairman of The Justice Reforms Committee for NAACP Brooklyn, an organization dedicated to fighting racial injustice by building Black political, social, and economic power. “For too long, the mental health system has demonstrably failed the Black community, contributing to the tragic reality that a disproportionate number of our people, struggling with mental illness, languish behind bars instead of receiving the treatment they desperately need. TCEA offers a vital opportunity to rectify this profound injustice.”
“My work in HIV/AIDS dates back to 1980s, and then, as now, that viral pandemic impacted incarcerated populations with particular challenges for those struggling with substance abuse disorders and mental health challenges,” said Dr. Robert Fullilove, Professor of Sociomedical Sciences and Associate Dean for Community and Minority Affairs at Columbia University’s Mailman School of Public Health, “Then as now, we have failed to bring the resources that must be deployed in order confront these challenges. It is not because we lack the tools to respond; rather, what we lack is the political will and determination to attack these problems successfully. The Treatment Court Expansion Act is a step in the right direction, and it merits all the support and attention we can muster for its passage.”
“Black people with mental illness are incarcerated at overwhelming rates, the result of both racism and mental health stigma throughout our criminal legal system,” said Jonathan McLean, CEO of CASES. “Systemic actions like the passing the Treatment Court Expansion Act are necessary to address these harms. Instead of jailing people, we can provide comprehensive alternatives that offer people the treatment and support they need in their communities.”
“When something horrific happens, we want answers. And too often, ‘mental illness’ becomes the easy explanation, even when it’s incomplete, inaccurate, or weaponized to justify force or fear. We owe ourselves more than easy answers, we owe ourselves truth, compassion, and the courage to sit in complexity,” said Dr. Claire Green-Forde, LCSW, CEO & Founder of Dr. Claire SPEAKS! LLC., “Most people living with mental health conditions are not violent. Many are struggling to survive systems that fail to care. And until we tell that full story, we will keep mistaking symptoms for identity, and harm for justice.”