Mentally Disabled Offenders: Myths and Misconceptions

On Thursday, March 16th 2006, Cornell Union for Disability Awareness (CUDA) and Cornell Mind Matters co-sponsored a talk titled "Mentally Disabled Offender: Myths and Misconceptions" by Hal Smith. This program is part of CUDA's mission to spread more "awareness" about disabilities -- to help people "dig deeper" and understand that disability is not a one-dimensional topic. Our jointly-sponsored event was featured on the front page of The Cornell Daily Sun.

Some snapshots of facts and figures (source: The Cornell Daily Sun):

- People with mental illnesses are no more violent or no more apt to commit a crime than the general public
- In 2000, 70 percent of prison inmates were diagnosed with mental disorders, and 15 percent with "severe" mental illnesses.
- [A]s people are released from mental institutions, they are not given the proper resources to find jobs and acclimate to society. This leads to higher incarceration rates.

Please click here for more details about this event...