Personally, I would classify Charles Manson as bad, and John Hinkley
as deranged, not necessarily bad, drug users as sick, and a good
portion of those in jail as mentally defective. Each classification
requires different treatment, but none deserve to be abused.

Larry, let's talk turkey here. This problem was entirely created by
liberal (what a stupid, inaccurate name!) politicians who -- in the
name of "personal rights" -- have made it completely impossible to
commit someone to a mental hospital against their will.

Because it would be a violation of their personal "rights" to send
them to a place where they can get the help they so desperately need,
they are placed in "out-patient care" -- with no enforcement or
repercussions if they don't show up for treatment.

And, of course, they don't show up. Nor do they take their meds,
which make them feel worse, not better.

So, what happens to these people? They fall through the cracks of
society. After years of drug or alcohol abuse, they are so damaged
that they are incapable of holding a job. Their abuse also triggers
long bouts of deep depression, when they are completely unable to
function in society.

With no real help available (again, thanks to the "liberal"
politicians, who have closed all the mental hospitals) they have two
very real, very awful choices: Starve, or steal. We all know what
their activity of choice is -- you or I would make the same choice.

They then end up in prison, mixed in with the truly awful, truly
violent criminals. It's a horrible, awful, terribly unfair system that
has been ENTIRELY created by well-meaning people just like YOU, who
thought that the minor abuses then taking place in the mental
hospitals merited their complete and utter elimination.

Blaming this on "Bush" or the "Religious Right" is so completely
illogical, and so completely ludicrous, that I just had to speak up.
This problem is just one of many stemming from Lyndon Johnson's "Great
Society", which wreaked havoc on so much of our nation -- all done
with the best of intentions by naive, inexperienced -- no, let's say
it like it is -- STUPID people.

Why/how do I know all this? Because I've got a 57-year old drug and
alcohol-dependent sister who has spent much of her adult life in and
out of "treatment programs", and is now facing prison time for repeat
drunken driving.

She's lost her home, her career, her husband, her son, and everything
she held dear, thanks to her illness. Over the years our family has
tried on multiple occasions to get her the help she so desperately
needed, to no avail.

Under the system folks like you created, her "rights" as a mentally
ill person have guaranteed her a life of living hell. Because she
can't be committed, no help is possible until she demands it -- and
waiting for a mentally ill person to recognize that they need help can
be a long wait, indeed.
--
Jay Honeck
Iowa City, IA
Pathfinder N56993
www.AlexisParkInn.com
"Your Aviation Destination"




The only real fix for prisoner on prisoner crime is to work them so hard
that when they are not working they sleep.

Perhaps.

The real fix is to purge the jails of those inmates who are
incarcerated for victimless crimes, so that there would be adequate
penal facilities to separate the violent criminals from the general
inmate population and it would free prison personnel to enforce the
laws. But that's not going to happen as long as the religious right
is in power, Congress is corrupt, and the general population is so
uneducated and apathetic as to be unconcerned with injustice.