A monthslong investigation by Spotlight PA and the Pittsburgh Institute for Nonprofit Journalism found that Pennsylvania’s system for determining whether someone is mentally fit to stand trial often traps them in the very place making them worse — jail.

In “A Criminal Solution,” the newsrooms reported that Pennsylvania laws and policies meant to aid people with severe mental health issues and who have been accused of a crime often do just the opposite.

Spotlight PA recently hosted a panel to discuss this broken system. Read the key takeaways from the September conversation.

THE CONTEXT: Repeated incarceration instead of care is common for people with serious mental health issues, said panelist Nev Jones, a researcher and professor of psychology and social work at the University of Pittsburgh. 

“What we see is a very large group of people in American society who are essentially socially abandoned, who end up moving between what has been referred to as the institutional circuit,” Jones said. 

Versions of this path to incarceration exist across the country, Jones said, but some jurisdictions do a better job than Pennsylvania of redirecting people with mental health needs from the criminal justice system.

TTYL GOV: You can now get updates from Gov. Josh Shapiro texted to your phone — and send him messages of your own. 

BURN AND LEARN: Heat is taking its toll on students across the country, including in Sarah Mueller’s high school chemistry class in Pittsburgh.

GOING DUTCH: Former NFL player Marshawn Lynch took a buggy ride in Intercourse for Thursday Night Football and had a really great time.

SEIZED ART: New York investigators have seized three works of art, including one from Pittsburgh's Carnegie Museums, believed to have been stolen from a Jewish collector during the Holocaust.  

WIN SOME, LOSE SOME: Today in questionable rankings — Pennsylvania is bad for college grads, good for "stylish sleepwear."