The tragic intersection of mental illness with our criminal justice system. Making sense with Mark Gale.

Heart Forward Conversations from the Heart

Mark Gale’s credentials for this interview are unparalleled.
He serves as the Criminal Justice Chair of NAMI (National Alliance on Mental Illness) Greater Los Angeles County. Mark also represents NAMI on the Los Angeles County District Attorney’s Criminal Justice Mental Health Advisory Board, serves as a member of the Permanent Steering Committee of the Office of Diversion and Reentry (ODR), the Alternatives to Incarceration Initiative (ATI), and the Men’s Central Jail Closure Workgroup in the pursuit of L.A. County’s Care First, Jail Last strategy. Additionally, he leads the NAMI Crisis Intervention Team (CIT) partnership with law enforcement in Los Angeles County.
In addition to his extensive volunteer and leadership work with NAMI, Mark was one of the four co-hosts/editors of the LPS Reform Rask Force II. This was a four year-long effort to identify important recommendations to reforming our LPS mental health statutes and protocols that were detailed in the report entitled “Separate and Not Equal.”

He is also father of a son with a serious mental illness.
Reports, articles and resources referenced in this interview:

Front page article in L.A. Times on day of interview
'You can't get out': Mentally ill languish in California jails without trial or treatment (msn.com)
October 2021 JFA Institute Report on COVID-19 and Reduced Jail Population Cost Savings Estimate, Men’s Central Jail Closure Fiscal Analysis, and Closure Population Projections
Excellent book, Crazy by Pete Earley.
Article about the new LA County USC Restorative Villages and the individual IMD buildings.
Council of State Governments Stepping Up Initiative

Podcast references in this interview:

Interview with Jackie Lacey re/ the Blueprint for Change in L.A. County.
Interview with Alex Briscoe re/ the complicated public mental health funding paradigm
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