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Take Note: Crisis Intervention Training Helps Keep Mentally Ill Out Of Jail

Tracy Small (far right) with one of her graduating CIT classes from 2012.

According to the Treatment Advocacy Center, more individuals with mental illness are in America’s jails and prisons than in residential mental health care facilities.  Many are  there for nonviolent offenses.  Why is the criminal justice system becoming our de facto mental health care provider?  And how can we improve the outcomes when law enforcement and other first responders encounter individuals with mental illness who are in crisis?  Tracy Small answers those questions and more.  She's program coordinator of the Crisis Intervention Team, or CIT, for the Centre Region.

Patty Satalia was a senior producer/host for WPSU-TV and FM from 1987 to 2017. Prior to joining Penn State Public Broadcasting, she worked in commercial television in Pittsburgh, first as a film editor and fill-in capsule news anchor for WPGH-TV, and later, for WPTT-TV as public affairs director and co-host of the talk-show, People, Places and Things.
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