On locking up mentally ill people...

Ms. Froma Harrop urged America to bring back locked mental facilities (Gazette Times, October 5) by citing horrific crimes and public nuisance committed by mentally ill people who “shouldn’t be out and about”; and she rightly pointed out that many of these individuals end up in county jails. But to conclude that the problem can be solved in clean, well-staffed psychiatric hospitals and “just make sure that they are locked” seems rather simplistic and insensitive.

President Kennedy’s Community Mental Health Act of 1963 - closing many psychiatric hospitals, failed not because of its good moral intention, but because America failed to build community centers and staff that would deliver the new compassionate out-patient care model. 

As Ms. Harrop admitted, most mentally ill people are not dangerous. Only 5% of crimes committed in the US are linked to a mental condition, and the diagnosis of mental disorder encompasses a diverse range of illnesses, very few of which need locked psychiatric facilities. And let’s not forget that incarceration itself carries significant devastating effects.

We can better use our resources by having more accessible mental health providers and clinics, and improving social determinants of health to mitigate factors that contribute to mental instability - risks such as family dysfunction, childhood trauma, juvenile delinquency, housing insecurity, poor education, and environmental and racial injustice. The list is long and complex,  and we lack the political will rather than resources to do it right. We can do better, but not by just building facilities to lock people in.

(Submitted on Oct 7, published in the GT on Oct 19, 2023)