Criminalization of Mental Illness and Substance Use 

  The criminalization of mental illness and substance use is a social issue that has deep rooted stigma, creates economic inequalities and causes over representation in the criminal justice system. Historically individuals with mental illnesses and substance use have been more likely to encounter law enforcement than healthcare professionals (Dvoskin et al., 2020: Sauer, 2024). This project investigated how the intersecting of stigma, unemployment and health policies contribute to the over representation. Peer-reviewed studies examine the social and institutional context of criminalization, while Indiana data is used to examine that criminalization on a local level. The data used was from a 9 year time period (2009-2019; no 2014) comparing two age ranges who reported having alcohol use disorder in the state of Indiana. Health policy data was also collected to examine if these individuals are likely to have a health insurance that covers mental health or substance use conditions. Findings from this data and the peer-reviewed articles shows that punitive approaches exacerbates stigma in social and structural context. These finding support the need for change in the form of decriminalization and stigma reduction in the forms of community- based treatments and employment programs. Policy changes in what is covered under health insurance to bridge the gap between psychiatric and social support to break the criminalization and stigma cycles to promote wellness and reintegration.