We don’t know how to handle mental illness in this country. We don’t offer proper treatment for those that need it and we all too easily eliminate those that do something destructive because of their illness. Take the recent case of Scott Panetti, a Texas man who murdered his in-laws:
After he was arrested and charged with the killings, Panetti, who has a history of severe mental illness, represented himself at his capital trial wearing a purple cowboy suit. He called himself “Sarge” and subpoenaed Jesus, among other notables. He lost, of course. The jury found him guilty and sentenced him to death.
And here’s the thing. We’re not saying you shouldn’t be held responsible for a crime you commit, but is sentencing him to death really the best option? Of course, at least this guy got a trial. Not everyone is so lucky.
Team Blackness also discussed the pumpkin riots in New Hampshire, how you can own your very own Hoverboard, and is Des Moine the next Brooklyn?
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Violet
Not sure we ever have. It has got worse since Reagan, though. And better in some ways as the medication advancements have come during that time period. But fewer people have access to treatment and we have no way of dealing with mentally ill people who might become or are dangerous. It’s a mess.
KG
@Violet: it’s gotten worse/better since he Burger Court ruled unanimously that the government can’t lock up mentally ill people against their will. That was in 1975. it was the right ruling, especially given our history with treatment of mental illnesses, but it probably has also made treatment much more difficult.
Anoniminous
Reagan destroyed mental health services, such as they were, by removing Federal government programs on order to “allow” local communities to create their own systems based on local conditions and needs. Which sounds all caring and responsible until the fact most local communities have neither the qualifications or money to do the job is tacked-on. The practical result of this imposition of Conservative
dumbfuckeryPublic Policies was when the mental health clinics were closed all the patients were – literally – thrown out on the street.Tenar Darell
@Violet: Not just Reagan, yesterday’s debate in Massachusetts was partially based on what Charlie Baker did when he shut down state mental hospitals and privatized some of these same services in Massachusetts. The hospitals were bad, but the community based programs which were supposed to replace them never got the level of resources to keep waiting times down.
nevermoor
Longtime lurker here with a FYWP comment: is there a way to keep the actual radio-widget from passing through to RSS readers? For whatever reason, it crashes Chrome for me every time when my RSS reader tries to load these entries (though they work fine here).
gene108
@Anoniminous:
The problem is more than Reagan. Well meaning people in the mental health community concluded that warehousing folks and zapping them full of Thorizine might not be the best way to actually treat a person, with an illness.
Right-wingers decided to “agree” with these folks, but where the rubber hits the road and community based housing desperately needed funding to get off the ground, the right-wingers slashed funding.
It is a bit like what’s happened with charter schools. 25 years ago, charter school advocates were generally well intentioned people, who wanted to create small scale samples of how new teaching methods could be evaluated in an actual school setting, i.e. the charter the school. They did not expect their agenda to be hijacked by greedy business people and then morph into something utterly different than their original vision.
Somehow there’s a certain set of well intentioned people, who do not realize what others will do for money and power and who get run over, when the greedy pricks start agreeing with them.
Elizabelle
Wow. I wonder if even Rick Perry (in his “smart glasses”) will realize how wrong and awful it would be to execute Scott Panetti. He’s still smarting from the Cameron Todd Willingham misapplication of justice.
Calling Frontline again.
And it’s sad when one has a better chance when Frontline gets involved than when the Roberts Court rules (second coming of Roger B. Taney and Dred Scott).
Thanks for highlighting this case, Elon. I’d not heard a thing about it.
Elizabelle
@gene108:
Good point, Gene, about charter schools and their misuse.
Quaker in a Basement
He subpoenaed Jesus?
Who served process?
Paul in KY
@gene108: The other problem was that some quite sane people had been committed against their will by family members to keep them out of inheritance situations, etc.