zlacker

Another major part of the problem is that we no longer institutionalize most of the mentally ill (also a phenomenon starting around 1960-70). Many of them become homeless, and a few commit crimes.

>>yummyf+(OP)
Wait - a "major problem" is that a "few commit crimes"?

I think the real issue is that the US has some socio-economic issues that we've as yet let unresolved: drugs (as mentioned), policing strategy, judicial/legislative strategy, welfare, education, etc. I don't think institutionalization is a major contributor.

>>nickpi+y
Just because a small portion of the mentally ill commit crimes does not mean that a small portion of crimes are committed by the mentally ill.

A quick google search finds a source claiming that about 10-20% of the prison population (a few hundred thousand) are seriously mentally ill:

http://www.psychiatrictimes.com/forensic-psych/content/artic...

>>yummyf+I1
Beyond that, the conditions in some prisoner (esp. California's) can lead to mental illness. Talk to someone who has been in AdSeg, as an example.

>>yummyf+(OP)
America has never had a working mental health infrastructure; we stopped institutionalizing people because American mental institutions in the 40s were about the most horrible things you can imagine:

http://www.npr.org/templates/story/story.php?storyId=1220177...

I think the history of our neglect as a society of the mentally ill has little to tell us about crime and a lot to tell us about the homeless underclass in America.

To digress: I just visited DC again a couple weeks ago. You go in a public bathroom right outside the Washington Monument and there are big signs next to the sinks that say "NO BATHING". I felt ashamed.

>>jberry+25
>there are big signs next to the sinks that say "NO BATHING". I felt ashamed.

Sorry, I'm not clear what you're ashamed of? That there are people that would want to wash in the sinks or that they are not allowed to?

I don't think it would be a fair description of all homeless people to say they belong to an underclass.

>>jberry+25
I think the history of our neglect as a society of the mentally ill has little to tell us about crime

That makes sense if you look at one as related directly to the other or vice versa (aka mostly not), but if you look at both as symptoms of a bigger issue then it becomes readily apparent that they are highly related: Americans don't want to deal with 'undesirables'. Lock em up or make them homeless, whatever, just as long as we don't have to deal with them.

>>pbhjpb+Rk
>Sorry, I'm not clear what you're ashamed of?

It doesn't bother you to be a citizen of a country that has allowed so many people to lose their homes that bathing in a public restroom is now a nuisance frequent enough to warrant official signage?