Abstract
While it might be expected that the mentally ill are treated similarly throughout the criminal justice system irrespective of race, the cases I have reviewed suggest otherwise. By focusing on the triage function performed by police in their street-level encounters, this project provides insight into the intersecting factors at work in police encounters with the mentally ill.
Ultimately, this Article calls for renewed attention to the ways in which police exercise their discretion, as it appears that they do so in markedly different ways depending upon the race of the person deemed mentally ill.
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About the Author
Dean Camille Nelson has long been an outstanding member of the legal community. Prior to her appointment as Dean of the University of Hawaiʻi at Mānoa, William S. Richardson School of Law in 2020, Dean Nelson served as Dean of American University Washington College of Law (“WCL”) and as Dean of Suffolk University Law School in Boston. She was also a Professor of Law at the Maurice A. Deane School of Law at Hofstra University, a Dean’s Scholar in Residence and Visiting Professor of Law at Washington University in St. Louis School of Law, and a Professor of Law at Saint Louis University School of Law, where she was recognized as both Professor of the Year and with a university Faculty Excellence Award. She has taught Contracts, Torts, Criminal Law, Comparative Criminal Law, Transnational Law, Critical Race Theory, Criminal Procedure, and Professional Responsibility at several law schools, including the University of Ottawa, Seattle University School of Law, Université Paris Dauphine, and the University of Puerto Rico. She is an elected member of the American Law Institute. Before entering academia, Dean Nelson was a litigator at McCarthy Tétrault (a large Canadian law firm) and clerked for Justice Frank Iacobucci of the Supreme Court of Canada, the nation’s highest court.
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