tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-8107037609455779557.post4397045608625623314..comments2024-02-28T05:56:28.293-08:00Comments on California Correctional Crisis: Mentally Ill Jail Inmates in San FranciscoHadar Aviramhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/15200780666976305749noreply@blogger.comBlogger4125tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-8107037609455779557.post-81884494059958377392010-03-22T15:26:16.290-07:002010-03-22T15:26:16.290-07:00That would be a very good thing, provided that peo...That would be a very good thing, provided that people still seek the sort of treatment they need.Hadar Aviramhttps://www.blogger.com/profile/15200780666976305749noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-8107037609455779557.post-68031464305227005162010-03-22T14:49:07.068-07:002010-03-22T14:49:07.068-07:00Well, for better or worse and whatever the politic...Well, for better or worse and whatever the political fallout, it looks like we will have a new healthcare bill that, for one thing, will mandate covering non-dependent children to age 26. Most people who are going to have psychiatric or substance abuse problems will start showing signs before they are 26. It might provide an avenue for some sort of preventative care that would cut costs in the long run. It's possible, at least.Tomhttps://www.blogger.com/profile/08067759626108987472noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-8107037609455779557.post-48355993898570580932010-03-22T12:11:14.120-07:002010-03-22T12:11:14.120-07:00One of the sad truisms of correctional policy is t...One of the sad truisms of correctional policy is that hindsight is always 20/20. We're now bemoaning the big decarcerations and deinstitutionalizations of the 1980s, which 1960s writers like Szasz and Kesey would see as a welcome development. But as you say, Tom, the devil's in the details. Had there actually been a good infrastructure of community mental health this would not be such a problem.Hadar Aviramhttps://www.blogger.com/profile/15200780666976305749noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-8107037609455779557.post-38838548574599553452010-03-22T10:00:21.216-07:002010-03-22T10:00:21.216-07:00This has been an ongoing issue ever since deinstit...This has been an ongoing issue ever since deinstitutionalization in the 1960s, and, of course, we here in California are the inheritors of the rest of the country's homeless. I wonder if it would be easier and cheaper to intervene earlier (as in, before someone has decompensated living on the street and taking drugs far enough that they wind up in a criminal court), but I guess that raises all the old civil liberties and ethical problems we had before that led to deinstitutionalization (see, e.g.: "One Flew Over the Cuckoo's Nest", the work of Foucault, R.D. Laing, and Thomas Szasz). Of course, deinstitutionalization was <i>supposed</i> to be accompanied by a big push for "community mental health", which would presumably have stemmed some of the problem...Tomhttps://www.blogger.com/profile/08067759626108987472noreply@blogger.com