[Dianna]

Presumably because of the cost, Governor Reagan reversed that policy during his first term as governor.

It happened during Reagan's term but I believe the ACLU was responsible. Hospitalizing people against their will interferred with their civil rights.

[Destro]

I consider people who are alcoholic/druggies to such a degree that they live on the streets as "bums" or "homless" to be mental deficient. In other words a chemical dependency that they have is so severe that it saps their ability to take care of themselves and also causes them to be a health risk to the public (please know I am not talking about people who have a drink or drug problem they fight to control even if they violate the law in buying illegal drugs).

Like I said, we have homeless for 2 reasons. Because (some) civil libertarians think people have a right to be homeless and (some) conservatives don't want to pay for hospice like institutions because it smacks of a Johnsonian Great Society/New Deal socialism (which it is not).

Thus in the friction between these two wrong headed factions a crack develops in the fabric of society in which the mental deficient homeless fall through.

If Reagan was responsible-the ACLU helped. Shame on both of them. Shame on us as a people for allowing this.

My position as you can see is classic conservative in the Christian tradition.

[Scenic Sounds]

It happened during Reagan's term but I believe the ACLU was responsible. Hospitalizing people against their will interferred with their civil rights.

Well, I don't know if the ACLU was supporting him in those days, but it was Governor Reagan who signed the Lanterman-Petris-Short Act, which became effective in January, 1969. Governor Reagan wasn't apologizing in 1971 when he said, "It is the same in mental health where the number of hospitalized mentally ill patients is half what it was four years ago." At least at the time, he believed that, on balance, releasing these people was the right thing to do.