Posted on 08/07/2007 12:20:01 PM PDT by Mr. Silverback
In the 16th century, London’s mentally ill were often kept at Bethlem Royal Hospital. The conditions inside the hospital were notoriously poor. Patients were often chained to the floor and the noise was so great that Bethlem was more likely to drive a man crazy than to cure him.
The conditions were so infamous that the nickname locals gave the hospital—Bedlam—has come to mean any scene of great confusion.
Unfortunately five hundred years later, we’re still treating the mentally ill more like prisoners than patients.
Fifty years ago, more than 550 thousand people were institutionalized in public mental hospitals. Today, only between 60 and 70 thousand are, despite a two-thirds increase in the country’s population.
Since there’s no evidence that the incidence of mental illness has dropped precipitously, the mentally ill who previously had been institutionalized had to have gone somewhere.
While some are being treated successfully in their communities, at homes and groups homes, but for many that “somewhere” is behind bars.
This last part shouldn’t come as a surprise. Five years ago, the Washington Post told the story of “Leon,” a one-time honor student, who had 17 years in and out of jail on various drug-related charges. It was only after several suicide attempts, including drinking a “bleach-and-Ajax cocktail,” that Leon was diagnosed with bipolar disorder.
Leon’s story was a microcosm of a larger problem: “Prisons and jails are increasingly substituting as mental hospitals.” As one advocate for the mentally-ill told the Post, “a lot of people with mental illness are charged with minor crimes as a way to get them off the streets.” In effect, they are behind bars for “being sick.”
Fast forward five years and little, if anything, has changed. A few weeks ago, another piece in the Post discussed the same problem. Psychiatrist Marcia Kraft Goin told readers something that should shock and outrage them: “The Los Angeles County Jail houses the largest psychiatric population in the country.”
As with the earlier Post piece, the conclusion was inescapable: “People with [untreated] mental illnesses often end up with symptoms and behaviors that result in jail time.”
You don’t have to be a “bleeding heart” to understand that this is an injustice—any kind of heart will do. Not only are the mentally ill not getting the help they need, they are as lambs to the slaughter in our crowded and violent prisons. They are being victimized twice over.
They’re not the only ones being victimized. At a time when most state prisons are unlawfully overcrowded, there are better uses for prison beds than as makeshift mental hospitals. As Goin wrote, “treating” mental illness as a criminal justice problem costs “more than treating patients appropriately in their community.”
As part of its ministry to prisoners and their families, Prison Fellowship supports community-based alternatives to incarceration. Not only because it makes “financial sense” but because it’s what Christ would have done. In Matthew 25 he called the ill and the prisoner his “brothers” and he expects us to offer them something more than bedlam.
If anyone wants on or off my Chuck Colson/BreakPoint Ping List, please notify me here or by freepmail.
BreakPoint/Chuck Colson Ping!
If anyone wants on or off my Chuck Colson/BreakPoint Ping List, please notify me here or by freepmail.
Unfortunately, so are our streets.
How is that? We don't lock them up anymore. Which, IMO, is a mistake ...
Unfortunately so is congress.
Bring back the Institutions and watch the 1. Homeless rate drop,2. Crime rate drop, 3. Cities begin to heal.
Um...did you read the article? The L.A. County Jail has the largest psychiatic population in America.
There were several consequences for this change in the law. First, "imminently dangerous to themselves or others" is a fairly high standard; not every crazy qualifies. In fact, only a small part qualify. Most people who are crazy can't cope with life but are not dangerous. These people commit minor offense after minor offense, cycling into and out of jail and mental health centers never actually getting better and always being a problem.
The second consequence is that since people who were crazy but not dangerous had no place to go; BOOM the homeless problem (homelessness has other co-parents: the elimination of marginal housing through universal housing codes and the warranty of habitibility and the legalization of public drunkenness being high on the list). State hospitals which had housed the crazy nut jobs turned all these poor people out without any hope of their being able to cope.
Progressives care not for the consequences of their policies. You can predict the bad results with 100 percent accuacy and it will be as nothing. The critics of the mental health reforms of the 60s and 70s foresaw what has resulted today and were cast aside in the fever of the moment. Naysayers of the progressive agenda today have the same experience and no lessons are ever learned.
We do lock them up; in jail and not hospitals. The "why" of it is interesting.
Most minor offenses (stealing, minor assault, etc.) have a set term in jail; i.e. 30 days to six months. A commitment to a mental health facility as a result of a criminal offense (not guilty by reason of mental diease or defect) is a committment without end. Criminal defense attorneys, regardless of the evidence of mental illness present, will not present a mental illness defense for minor offenses. Consequently, people who are bughouse crazy will go to jail or prison with their attorneys knowledge of their crazyness unless the offense is has a term of ten years or more.
Therefore, the jails fill with nuts and crazys and the revolving door spins like a windmill as they go in and get let out.
Actually that is the whole premise of this article. The mentally ill are still being locked up - after they commit a crime. If you believe the BS about ADHD and Bipolar disorder. Most of it is simply antisocial behavior that psychiatrists have put a label on.
“How is that? We don’t lock them up anymore. Which, IMO, is a mistake ...”
Silly comment. There are many different kind and degrees of mental illness. The overwhelming majority of people with mental illness pose no threat to society but you seem unable to differentiate between them and guys like the VT killer. Were we to follow your foolish idea we’d have tens of millions of Americans locked up at a tremendous financial and social cost. Thankfully you are not in charge.
“If you believe the BS about ADHD and Bipolar disorder. Most of it is simply antisocial behavior that psychiatrists have put a label on.
“
I’m sure these opinions are based on extensive study of the issue and a deep seeded knowledge of various types of mental illness.
“Actually that is the whole premise of this article. The mentally ill are still being locked up - after they commit a crime. If you believe the BS about ADHD and Bipolar disorder. Most of it is simply antisocial behavior that psychiatrists have put a label on.”
Afraid you’re wrong, FRiend. Having had ADD all my life, I can tell you it’s real. I don’t have the hyperactivity component, but unless you learn coping skills, it can be problems. Not a single, major problem, but lots of minor ones. Lots of business people have it, btw. With the right coping skills, it can be really useful. Without them, it can be pretty bad. Stimulants help. Unless you use too much, or too strong.
Bipolar disorder is real, too. They used to call people with bipolar disorder “moody.” Many artists and poets fit the profile nicely. Many of them also self-medicate with alcohol or hard drugs. Some can more or less cope, but have a bad time sometimes. Some are train-wrecks waiting to happen. There are apparently a lot of different causes, as none of the medications work for everyone. Some of them are downright dangerous, too.
CJ - I've got ADD and it's plenty real. I function pretty well without meds but they defintely help a lot - I just don't like taking any medicine long term. Had it been properly diagnosed and treated when I was a kid then I'd be a doctor now instead of a computer geek. It's real, it can be observed and can be effectively treated.
“Unfortunately, so are our streets.”
Yes they are. And both the mentally ill on the streets and the general public are not safe with that situaton.
The Imperial War Museum now stands where Bedlam once stood.
Uhh, Chuck...since the ACLU sued in the 1980's and won, many of those mentally ill are living on the streets and represent the majority of the homeless. Let us be clear, in the view of liberal judges and ACLU lawyers, the mentally ill have a right to panhandle on the streets, eat out of dumpsters, live in parks and shanty towns, and generally make the problem of homelessness look larger than it is, rather than live decent lives as inpatients in a public mental institutions.
There is a growing body of thought in the medical literature that ADD is over-diagnosed and over-treated if it’s actually present. I don’t dispute that some people do indeed have it. I actually have studied the literature and I am qualified to render an opinion on the matter.
Bipolar is the old manic/depressive. That mental illness is no newer “invention” (not that I think ADD is, although it may be overdiagnosed). I don’t think ADD is something that one would need to go to jail over anyway.
It might be. Sometimes what is diagnosed as ADD/ADHD is simply normal little boy behavior that parents and teachers can't cope with.
But I know I've got it. I have the attention span of a ferret. In fact, that's my nickname at work. An old boss described me as "a ferret on speed" and the name stuck.
They used to have a sign outside my door that said something like "Please do not taunt the ferret. Please do not touch the ferret. Please do not feed or antagonize the ferret. Do not be alarmed if the ferret runs up your pants..."
Disclaimer: Opinions posted on Free Republic are those of the individual posters and do not necessarily represent the opinion of Free Republic or its management. All materials posted herein are protected by copyright law and the exemption for fair use of copyrighted works.