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.
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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..."
LOL!
Unfortunately, the destruction of our mental hospitals was a collaboration between progressives and conservatives.
Progressives believed the idiotic propaganda of One Flew Over the Cuckoo's Nest and other any-institutionalization books and movies.
Conservatives were generally glad to go along because it saved the government money.
Both claimed the hospitals would be replaced with community programs that would operate more effectively at lower cost. These programs have never been adequately implemented.
ADD, Bi-polar etc describe the BEHAVIORS of a person. The behaviors are what lands the person in jail or often as homeless. Research is clear that these behaviors have physical causes (add is a deficiency in the brain receptors to receive the right amount of chemicals[serotonin] etc so that the person can function more “normally”. It affects the executive function of the brain where decisions are made to not respond to certain stimuli immediately.
Help is available for these folks but as always $ is the key.
Amen!
Amazing that on another somewhat related thread yesterday, I posted the following:
“Re-open the asylums.”
http://www.freerepublic.com/focus/f-news/1877593/posts?page=5#5
Ping to something I think will interest you.
That is interesting!
I’m sorry, how is it that you read this article and thought Colson was saying every mentally ill person is locked up? In fact, though he doesn’t address the aCLU’s misconduct specifically, I’d say it’s clear that he’s saying much of what you’re saying. I mean, what sort of people do you think are committing these minor offenses and getting sent to lockup?
Though I don’t dispute the existence of ADD, I can say that I was deemed drug-worthy (along with four other boys in my kindergarten class) in 1976 and misdiagnosed with ADD as an adult in 1990 or so. Docs are quick to diagnose it and teachers are quick to go for chemical solutions because it makes their lives easier.
LOL!
This is a more complicated top;ic than the posts here indicate.
So this is all the fault of those dirty rotten criminal defense attorneys?. Bull. I sometimes file motions for mental evaluations on clients who are facing prison terms of less than ten years. I’ve raised the insanity defense in misdemeanors too. If I didn’t I’d be committing malpractice and I’d most certainly have a client come back later and claim that he was provided ineffective assistance of counsel because I neglected to file the appropriate motions. I don’t know where you are getting your information, but you’re wrong.
You don’t see insanity defenses in misdemeanor cases very often though. The state will not pay for a mental evaluation in those cases and hardly any of the people out there who are truly insane have any money to pay for the evaluations and to have mental health professionals come and testify on their behalf. Usually though it’s pretty obvious to everyone involve that we are dealing with a crazy person. The prosecutor is likely in those cases to make some sort of offer that does not include jail time but instead includes provisions for seeking mental health help. If that doesn’t work though these folks may very well end up in jail. Judges are usually pretty good about working with the obvious nutcases and will hold off on sending them to jail unless the judge really feels that he has no other options. The folks at the jail sure don’t want to have to deal with these people. A lot of these people are just more of a nuisance than anything else and the judge will basically “Otis” them. It will be more like the town drunk, Otis, on the Andy Griffith show who is always going to jail to sleep it off and then being released. We have a regular cadre of folks like that that we are always seeing in court. We don’t know what to do with them. There is no hospital we can send them to, no free psychiatric care, and of course none of them have any money. Severe mental illness tends to kill earnings potential. There is just a gaping hole in the criminal justice system when it comes to the mentally ill.
As for commitments to mental health facilities arising from “insanity acquittals” being commitments without end, that’s not the way it works in my state for the most part. If it is not dead obvious that the people are particularly dangerous our state hospital will not keep them, especially if they did not commit a serious violent crime. The state hospital doesn’t have the bed space to keep these people. They’re always kicking folks out who really need to be institutionalized. After a few days, a month, most will be put out on the street. Often they just get evaluated and are out the same day, but that’s usually only going to happen in appropriate cases like one I had recently where a woman had been charged with a felony battery for biting and striking a nurse in a hospital when she was in a confused state after a seizure. She should never have been charged in the first place. Only the most dangerous will be kept for any length of time.
“Unfortunately, so are our streets.”
Don’t forget Congress.
Agree 100%.
Many people who walk the streets ranting today (or are locked up in jail with no psych treatment) would be committed by their family members if we had sane (no pun intended) committal procedures. Also, you are nuts yourself if you think this issue is about getting rid of people we don’t want around. These folks need help and can’t or won’t do it themselves.
What a stupid rant you posted.
Really interesting museum. Thir walk through a World War I, trench was amaazing.
Mental hospitals were often misused in the past, as prisons were then and are now. Getting rid of either rather than correcting their misuse is not the answer.
One example of the reason my husband and I don't go on guided tours of anywhere is that we spent the whole day at the IWM!
And the same goes for orphanages.
True. With all the old horror stories about orphanages, I suspect children in them weren’t mistreated as often or as badly as many today are in the “foster care system.”
Just as with the mentally ill, disperse the orphans among the community and we can pretent they aren’t really there and we don’t have an obligation to take care of them.
The foster care system actually makes it easier for orphans to be abused. It just makes it harder to discover the abuse -- until a kid actually turns up dead.
Everything from going to Evening Song at St Martins-in-the Field, to the various crypts.
I found some of the coolest places by going were the tourist don't
Well, when you come back with a witty and eloquent argument like that, how can I disagree?
I absolutely agree with you. We went to Scotland for a week, then London for a week — no plans, just a Blue Guide and a map. We loved going wherever we liked, off the beaten path. We hit some of the touristy spots, but we also wandered around where we didn’t see any other tourists. It was great.
We went to Evensong at St. Paul’s. Since it’s in the City, we were just about the only people in the congregation. The choir was beautiful.
London is the most walker FRiendly city I have ever been in. I was all over the west end and even ventured into the east end to visit MOMP and Imperial War Museum. ( I did take the bus to and from the War Museum.)
It’s harder to commit people today, and I don’t think that’s such a bad thing. What irks me is that at least in my state is that when they do an involuntary commit on a crazy person, odds are the state hospital will release them in a few days. Hardly anyone in my state who is committed that way will spend more than three or four days in the state hospital. They had to have been so bad off that they were a substantial danger to themselves or others to get committed in the first place, and after three or four days their supposed to be just fine? There isn’t even any sort of aftercare program to make sure they are taking their medication, staying out of trouble, etc. It’s really a waste of time to commit them.
Also, at least in my state the county prosecutor is responsible for prosecuting these mental incompetency proceedings. They absolutely won’t do it if there are any criminal charges pending against the person because they don’t want to do anything that might jeopardize their cases. It doesn’t matter how far the people are going off the deep end, even if others are in extreme danger, they’re just not going to file one of these if criminal charges are pending. Anyone can file these cases, but the prosecutor has to represent the state “prosecuting” the involuntary commitment proceedings and if someone else files one when there are criminal charges pending against the crazy person the prosecutors will use their “prosecutorial discretion” to drop the case. By law they are the only ones who can represent the state in these cases and they don’t have to do it if they don’t want to. I can sort of understand where they are coming from n these because they know like everyone else that the guy will be out of the state hospital in three or four days, but some of these people are a real threat to their family members and others and at least in the state hospital they are often able to get people stabilized for at least a while and once in a blue moon they might actually keep folks down there for a month or a month and a half and in extremely rare cases even longer.
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