"Bedlam" filmmaker Ken Rosenberg on how underfunding led jails to become modern-day asylums

A dire lack of mental healthcare resources in the U.S. stems from decades of deinstitutionalization, which began in the 1950s. Advances in medicine contributed in part to new policies that permitted individuals with serious mental illnesses to live outside asylums, according to documentary filmmaker and psychiatrist Ken Rosenberg, but mentally ill people are now most vulnerable to being cycled into the criminal justice system. "We took people out of the asylums, put them onto the streets, and now put them into the jails," he says. "We made being mentally ill a crime, and we treat them like criminals." The title of Rosenberg's new documentary, "Bedlam," refers to the first-ever mental institution in the world in London, England, whose name became associated with "chaos and craziness." Filmed over five years in Los Angeles, the documentary looks at how the criminal justice system is often the first entry point into mental healthcare for many. "Bedlam" is told through the voices of people with a range of perspectives on the under-resourced mental healthcare system, including Rosenberg — whose sister lived with schizophrenia. "Although I became a psychiatrist to help families like my sister, it took me many years to be prepared to share that story," Rosenberg says. "When you watch the film, you know the person behind the camera, as well as the people in front of the camera."

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