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WFAE has been examining North Carolina’s broken mental health system, especially as it affects people in the criminal justice system. This week, we start to look at the impact this system has on others, such as children, who wait for weeks or months in hospital emergency departments because there’s simply no place for them to go. And people who head to emergency rooms in crisis, only to find the average wait for a state psychiatric hospital is more than two weeks.
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North Carolina's jails are on the frontlines of the mental health crisis. Jail staff have to tend to inmates with mental health issues, even though they’re not fully equipped to do so. That can take a high toll on those jails — and the people who work there.
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The Cumberland County School District held its 5th annual feather ceremony for graduating Native American high school seniors.
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Wally has many fans in Pennsylvania and across social media. His owner is enlisting their help, saying Wally was kidnapped, located by a trapper and released into a swamp while vacationing in Georgia.
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The vast majority of violent crimes aren't committed by people living with mental illness. But when people struggling with mental illness are charged with violent crimes, it poses a dilemma. When a defendant receives treatment and improves while awaiting trial in custody, prosecutors must decide whether they'll ask for a prison sentence or allow defendants to be released to the community with no guarantee they'll continue their care.
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The more trauma children endure, the more likely they are to develop a host of medical and social problems, including learning disabilities and addictions. They are also more likely to end up in the juvenile justice system and eventually in jail. In this installment of the series "Fractured," WFAE looks at the intersection of childhood trauma and the justice system.
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WFAE has been exploring the crisis brewing in North Carolina’s mental health system. That includes a shortage of state hospital beds.
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As WFAE has been reporting in our series, “Fractured,” locking up defendants with serious mental illness can make their mental health worse. It’s expensive, and it's often not very effective at reducing crime. If former inmates don’t get treatment when released, they’re likely to get arrested again. But in Miami, Florida, public officials are taking a different approach to the issue — jail diversion.
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A student studying conservation biology at Queens University shares the small wonders he observed studying the wildlife on campus via motion-triggered cameras.
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WFAE's “Fractured” series began with the story of John, a 32-year-old Charlotte man living with severe mental illness and intellectual disabilities. John was arrested more than five years ago and has been in custody ever since — but he’s never had a trial. WFAE caught up with John, where he's still stuck in a system that isn't working well, cycling between the jail and the hospital with no end in sight.