In a previous post, “Guilty until proven innocent, or innocent until proven guilty…”, it was revealed that most people in jail have not been convicted but are guilty only of being too poor to afford bail, with most of their unproven charges being for nonviolent offenses anyway.
Further investigation reveals that these nonviolent people being tossed in cells are not only poor but often mentally ill. Incidentally, I would hypothesize this second revelation is in large part explained by a correlation between mental illness and poverty.
Types of Mental Issues Among State and Federal Inmates
Percent of Inmates Who Have Mental or Mood Issues
What do you think?
What do you think? Are prisons an expensive and ineffective way to deal with mental illness? Why or why not?
Is it possible the politicians and policymakers intentionally choose the more expensive and less effective option because that means more government spending going to the special interests who receive the government spending and then return the funds in the form of campaign contributions? Is it possible that this explains why there are 18,000 children starving to death every single day, why there are millions of working poor in the USA, and why it seems like the policies of government are hurting more than they are helping? Comment now