Old model: We lock up people likely to be violent in places where they do not have access to guns or sharp objects: prisons and mental hospitals
New model: Prisons and mental hospitals are icky, so we make the whole country into a prison/mental hospital
In Virginia, Sen. Craig Deeds was stabbed by his son. They had previously tried to get him committed, but there were no beds locally available. For a normal person, the police would have found a reason to arrest them where they would languish in a local jail for a long time because (in a correctional setting) the patient was no longer a threat to themselves or others. (Hard to hurt yourself with four deputies holding you/placed in a "padded" cell/strapped to a restraint chair.) But Gus Deeds had a powerful and influential father, thus no jail time.
ReplyDeleteBecause of this, a law was passed that checks for beds available throughout the entire Commonwealth of Virginia. (I believe they tried to push this after the Virginia Tech tragedy... Amazing how fast it got moved after a politician was affected.)
I just used Google to make sure I remembered the right information. Oddly enough, I thought Gus Deeds was shot by a responding officer. Apparently Gus Deeds committed suicide. Strange how you remember things one way and they happened another.