Woman arrested 396 times finally gets treatment

[Savannahw]

I agree that she has done some awful things. I think the problem is why would you send her to jail? She obviously has mental issues. Why wouldn't you want someone like that to go to a mental institution? (There is no nice way to say mental institution. It all comes out sounding awful.) She needs help and she doesn't need to be on the streets. She won't find any help in jail and she will most likely get out again.

[FlyingNarwhal]

Here's my issue with the mental institution. She has been known to game the system multiple times. So I'm not even positive that she is actually mentally unstable, that could just be what she is saying so she doesn't have to spend the time in prison, but in an institution instead. Frankly, it's the little boy that cried wolf, I wouldn't trust her. Plus she is most likely going to get out of the crazy house within the same time frame that she would get out of prison.

This is sadly one of those people that will forever be a burden upon society, and considering that she has shown no respect for others as well as no care for her actions I would have no problem locking her up for the rest of her life.

[Savannahw]

I don't agree that she is crazy because she says so. I think she is crazy because her actions prove her to be. I don't have a problem with locking her up for a ridiculous amount of time. I just don't think jail is the right place.

[HAL9000]

She can be both mentally unstable and know how to play within the system. Just because she knows how to do as such does not mean she is not unstable. Obviously something is wrong with her mentally else she wouldn't feel the urge to commit all of those crimes as stated earlier.

[Minimalist]

I think the problem is why would you send her to jail? She obviously has mental issues.

What mental institutions?

http://www.pbs.org/wgbh/pages/frontline/...cerpt.html

Deinstitutionalization is the name given to the policy of moving severely mentally ill people out of large state institutions and then closing part or all of those institutions; it has been a major contributing factor to the mental illness crisis. (The term also describes a similar process for mentally retarded people, but the focus of this book is exclusively on severe mental illnesses.)

Crazy people are either thrown in jail or dumped on the streets. Such is health care in 'murrica!

Oh, and make sure there are plenty of guns around for them, too.

[Psykhronic]

There are still some mental institution type places where you can be held for a long time up to life - but there are not enough of them.

[Mystical]

My issue is that she costs the judicial system money, the cops money, people she's robbing money, and of course the medical system money. Imagine how many times she was sent to the drunk tank and the ER? Fucking too many times to count. Well, guess they did count. Anyways the system should not allow such a drain to its resources like that. Treatment or jail. That should be the option after ohhh the 3rd arrest? 396 is too much by 393.

[Minimalist]

Part of the problem with that report is that it is based on a book written in 1997. The Recession of Dubya played havoc with state budgets and guess which state turns up in the top rank of states which slashed their mental health care programs? Right. Illinois.

http://www.motherjones.com/mojo/2013/04/...ntally-ill

Illinois ($590.7 million in 2009 to $403.7 million in 2012, $-31.7 percent): Illinois has more mentally ill people living in nursing homes than any other state. In 2010, the state settled a class-action civil rights lawsuit, agreeing to help 5,000 of them transition into community programs within five years. As of July 2012, only 45 people had moved.

[Doubting Thomas]

Maybe she just hasn't heard the Good News of Jayzuz.

[Minimalist]