unity mental health worker in their client's defense. Finally, when an inmate with a mental illness goes to court or is released it is rare that anyone will notify his community worker -- although it might be useful for the worker to come to court and essential for the worker to know when the client is being released and returning to the community program. All of these barriers lessen the effectiveness of community mental health programs. By necessitating the duplication of each others' work, these barriers also waste the resources of both community and jail-based mental health programs. They also jeopardize the mental health of inmate patients by interrupting their continuum of care. Incarceration costs inmates their homes; many mentally ill people are homeless at the time of their arrest, but far more are homeless by the time they leave jail or prison. Even people detained for only a few weeks may be evicted during their incarceration; those who are incarcerated for a year or more will inevitably leave prison homeless unless they have family or friends who will take them in. Homelessness is a problem for everyone leaving jail or prison, but people with mental illness are worse equipped than most to take on New York City's daunting housing market or to navigate the city's shelter system. Stable and supportive housing is an essential key to successful reintegration into the community for ex-offenders with mental illness.89 Most city jail inmates with mental illness depend on Social Security or Public Assistance benefits for income, and Medicaid for insurance. The longer the period of incarceration, the more likely it is that these benefits will be terminated; even a short incarceration may lead to loss of benefits. For example, under New York City's Work Experience Program (WEP), Public Assistance recipients are required to report to work assignments in order to maintain their benefits. Missing even a single day of work without a docume...
