Dealing with violent mentally ill shouldn't include citizen disarmament

[Gunreference1]

February 13, 2012

Dealing with violent mentally ill shouldn't include citizen disarmament

David Codrea (http://www.examiner.com/gun-rights-in-national/david-codrea)
Gun Rights Examiner


“Summit County Sheriff Drew Alexander plans to announce today that the county jail no longer will accept violent mentally ill and mentally disabled people arrested by area police,” Rick Armon of the Akron Beacon Journal reports (http://www.ohio.com/news/local/sheriff-closes-jail-to-violent-mentally-ill-1.264640).

“The issue erupted publicly” we are informed, “after… the death of an inmate [in] a violent struggle with deputies.”

To read the rest of the story click the link below.

http://www.ohio.com/news/local/sheriff-closes-jail-to-violent-mentally-ill-1.264640

Steve

[LAGC]

We really need to improve the mental health care system in this country.

Simply throwing mentally ill people in jail AFTER they've committed violent crimes isn't helping anyone -- prisons were never meant to be insane asylums, warehousing people who in many cases would be just fine if they had some intervention and were put on psychotropic drugs.

Most of the mass-shooting sprees committed over the last 15 years have been from individuals who have exhibited many red-flags and warning signs, but they were all either ignored, or even if they were reported, the authorities could do nothing because there are no mental health clinics to diagnose and treat people exhibiting certain psychotic delusions.

While I understand the civil libertarian concerns of police not being able to confine someone if they haven't (yet) broken the law, there should be some accommodation made for people who CLEARLY exhibit signs of psychotic behavior. Something like where if at least two close friends or relatives testify and police agree, a person can be hauled down to a mental health clinic for short-term observation.

Most mentally ill people at first don't even know they are sick, and are just ticking time bombs until they have their psychotic breaks, which may or may not be violent. Most mentally ill people are just fine once they've been properly medicated, but its just a matter of getting them in for observation in the first place so they can realize they have a problem that needs fixing.