The Insanity Offense: How America's Failure to Treat the Seriously Mentally Ill Endangers Its Citizens

"Vital for all working in the mental health field . . . . Fascinating reading for anyone." ―Choice

E. Fuller Torrey, the author of the definitive guides to schizophrenia and manic depression, chronicles a disastrous swing in the balance of civil rights that has resulted in numerous violent episodes and left a vulnerable population of mentally ill people homeless and victimized. Interweaving in-depth accounts of landmark cases in California, Wisconsin, and North Carolina with a history of legislation and changes in the mental health care system, Torrey gives shape to the magnitude of our failure and outlines what needs to be done to reverse this ongoing―and accelerating―disaster. A new epilogue on the 2011 shooting in Tucson, Arizona, brings this tragic story up to date.

• Crazy: A Father's Search Through America's Mental Health Madness
• American Psychosis: How the Federal Government Destroyed the Mental Illness Treatment System
• Better But Not Well: Mental Health Policy in the United States since 1950
• Insane Consequences: How the Mental Health Industry Fails the Mentally Ill
• Insane: America's Criminal Treatment of Mental Illness
• No One Cares About Crazy People: The Chaos and Heartbreak of Mental Health in America
• Ethical Dilemmas and Decisions in Criminal Justice
• Committed: The Battle over Involuntary Psychiatric Care
• Practical Ethics In Public Administration
• An Introduction to Crime Scene Investigation