Mentally Ill and Incarcerated
I helped produce this short documentary piece for Loteria Films in 2014. I developed the story, researching and finding interesting characters. I was field producer for the Behavioral Health Court shoot, including conducting the main interviews of Lorenzo, his mother, Christina, and the court employees. I was one of the DP's and editors for the piece, as well.
The number of mentally ill inmates in US and state prisons has skyrocketed. In California, the mentally ill prison population has almost doubled since 2000. Stanford’s Three Strikes Project recently released a report, “When did prisons become acceptable mental healthcare facilities?”
Alternative courts, designed to deal with the challenges of mentally ill offenders, can be found throughout the United States. San Francisco’s Behavioral Health Court helps rehabilitate such people and connects them with the mental health services they need to stay out of prison.
This is Lorenzo’s story.
