In the aftermath of Uvalde, Power Line's John Hinderaker writes:
The U.S. once had a mental health care system, but it was dismantled after a couple of unusually stupid movies portrayed closing down mental hospitals as a species of liberation. Now the mentally ill are either tossed out onto the streets or remitted to the care of their families, who often are entirely unable to deal with them.
Until this country develops an actual, functioning mental health care system that includes identification and hospitalization of the dangerously mentally ill on a reasonably consistent basis, we will continue to see high crime rates as well as occasional explosions of mass violence by the deranged.
He makes an argument I have made for over a decade. We once warehoused the addicted and the not sane. Now we imprison the most violent, but leave many to live rough on the streets while they self-medicate with illicit drugs. How is that humane?
