Mississippi does not discriminate against people with mental illness by failing to provide community care and over-relying on institutionalization, the 5th U.S. Circuit Court of Appeals in New Orleans said in a ruling on Wednesday.
The decision reverses a ruling U.S. District Court Judge for the Southern District of Mississippi Carlton W. Reeves issued in 2019, which required the State to make changes to ensure people with mental illnesses have the same protections as other people covered under the Americans With Disabilities Act.
“On paper, Mississippi has a mental health system with an array of appropriate community-based services. In practice, however, the mental health system is hospital-centered and has major gaps in its community care,” the judge wrote in 2019. “The result is a system that excludes adults with SMI from full integration into the communities in which they live and work, in violation of the Americans with Disabilities Act (ADA).”
But a three-judge panel on the 5th Circuit, widely considered the most conservative federal appeals court in the country, reversed the 2019 order, calling it a “novel plan of reconstruction that fails on many levels.” Republican presidents appointed all three judges.
“People with serious mental illness are unfortunately, they’re virtually always at risk of institutionalization. That’s the nature of this very challenging illness,” Mississippi Solicitor General Scott Stewart said during oral argument in the case on Oct. 5, 2022.
Read the 5th Circuit’s Sept. 20, 2023, ruling.
But mental health advocates have long argued that focusing on traditional therapy and institutionalization instead of care that helps people learn to manage their illness and perform day-to-day functions violates the rights of Mississippi residents with mental ilness.
“Mental-health services should be set up to help them do those things, like help them learn how to work and manage their mental illness at the same time,” Families as Allies Director Joy Hogge told this reporter in 2019. “And that also means if that’s really happening, we shouldn’t rely on state hospitals so much.”
Starting in February 2011, the U.S. Department of Justice began an investigation into Mississippi’s mental health system; in December
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