The reporting on the Virginia Tech tragedy has been cringe-worthy for many reasons. The conservative punditry has been worse (especially the bending over backwards to figure out how we can blame Muslims for this one). But of the myriad causes of Cho’s violence cited by people on all sides of the debate, mental illness has been the primary one. And, obviously, that analysis is solid — no one denies that Cho was seriously mentally disturbed, and was not getting the help he needed. But what worries me is where that analysis is going, particularly in conservative circles — where the answer seems to be, “Lock up the crazies. And blame the ACLU if you can’t.”
If you ask me, if we are going to let these crazies run free, not forcing them to be institutionalized, then we need to goddamn well do a better job of protecting the public from them. There’s a reason why they used to be locked up, and it was to protect society. Virginia Tech totally dropped the goddamn ball with this guy; there’s no reason why they should have to educate dangerous people. I know, it’s all about wishy-washy liberal ideals–can’t deny someone with mental illness their “right” to a college education. “Diversity.” My ass. I hope the families of the dead victims sue the hell out of VT for letting this creep anywhere near their kids after all the concerns were raised by students and faculty. I hope they sue the state for letting him go when they had him. I know suing won’t bring their family members back, but maybe it’ll start people thinking about how to deal with lunatics a little better. You can bet if people are faced with multi-million dollar lawsuits, they’ll use their heads.
I’m sick and tired of these crazies and the shit they do to other people. To hell with the simpering ACLU and all these ridiculous liberal idealists who want them to have “rights” like the rest of us without the responsibilities.
Yes, civil liberties be damned — just lock up all the people with mental illnesses!
What Beth conveniently leaves out is the fact that in most states, people who pose an imminent threat to themselves or someone else can be hospitalized against their will. As I understand it, Cho had a court order to be evaluated by a psychiatrist — and it never happened. So that was a failure of the system, not of our laws.
But I think my favorite part of Beth’s post is this: “I’m sick and tired of these crazies and the shit they do to other people. To hell with the simpering ACLU and all these ridiculous liberal idealists who want them to have “rights” like the rest of us without the responsibilities.”
Since when do mentally ill people not have the same responsibilities as the rest of us? If they commit crimes, they’re prosecuted just like “sane” people. And yes, they can plead insanity, but the burden of proof for an insanity defense is pretty high, and it’s a much harder case to make than Law & Order makes it out to be. According to a report to the Minnesota Legislature on the insanity defense:
Insanity pleas and acquittals are relatively uncommon. An eight-state study of 581,000 indictments found 8,979 insanity pleas — a rate of 1.5 percent.
A different study of insanity cases in four states (California, Georgia, Montana, and New York) showed that of 586,000 felony indictments, only 5,300 (0.9%) had a plea of insanity by the defendant.
And of the 5,300 insanity pleas, there were 1,385 acquittals by reason of insanity — 0.23 percent of indictments and 26 percent of insanity pleas. A study of adult defendants represented by the Public Defender’s office in New Jersey found 52 insanity pleas for 32,000 defendants (less than 0.2%) and of the 52 cases, 15 were successful.
So let’s drop the argument that mentally ill people somehow lack the same responsibilities and punishments as “the rest of us” (interesting how that line is drawn, too, as if there’s a large and clear divide between the “sane” and the “mentally ill”). A significant number of incarcerated persons are living with mental illnesses. Very few of those people get the treatment they need. They are routinely mistreated — mentally ill prisoners are routinely held in solitary confinement or on lockdown, typically for 23 hours a day. This kind of cruel and isolating punishment makes their symptoms worse. The situation is so bad that “A 2003 study found that nearly a quarter of the inmates in lockdown were mentally ill. Of those, nearly 45 percent reported that they had tried suicide and nearly a third reported self-mutilation.”
Further, if someone pleads guilty for reasons of insanity and the jury/judge accepts that defense, they don’t necessarily walk free (especially if they’ve committed a violent crime). They’re often hospitalized indefinitely — and are often held in a mental institution for a longer period of time than they would have been criminally incarcerated.
But yes, blame the ACLU for the mentally ill getting off easy.
The mentally ill are not treated well in our society. Mental illness is horribly stigmatized, and posts like Beth’s are part of the reason why many people are hesitant to seek help. Further, it’s not a matter of “some people are sane, others are crazy.” Metal illness is wide-ranging, and is a term that encompasses everything from depression to schizophrenia to obsessive-compulsive disorder. The kind of depression and mental illness that Cho faced was extreme; it does not follow that every other person with depression should be locked up against their will. It does not follow that every schizophrenic should be locked up against their will. It does not follow that every mentally ill person should be locked up against their will — even if they’re obviously ill, and even if their illness makes us uncomfortable.
What mentally ill people do need is treatment and access to medical care. People who don’t have insurance don’t usually have the luxury of seeing a therapist; even if they manage to do that, paying out-of-pocket for medications is not easy. People need to be able to see a therapist without being branded “crazy.” Those who are severely mentally ill and who also lack resources need help and empathy, not scorn. Mental illness needs to be seen as it is — a continuum in which there is no clear line between “mentally ill” and not, and where many (even most) types of mental illness are treatable and manageable. The face of mental illness is the ranting homeless man on the corner, but it’s also a member of your family, a friend, a co-worker. If people like Beth actually want to combat mental illness, they wouldn’t promote locking up any person who showed signs of it — they’d promote a universal health care system that would give all people the medical care they need, and they’d make efforts to de-stigmatize mental illness so that people would actually be receptive to that care.
This is something that I take very personally. A close member of my family is living with an untreated mental illness — untreated largely because mental illness is so stigmatized that she doesn’t want to admit that she has one and needs care. She isn’t violent, and she does not have the kind of illness that is thought to be violence-related. But she is deteriorating. And while I wish — really, really wish — she would take medication, I do not think she needs to be locked up if she doesn’t. She is a person who deserves the basic human right to not have medical care forced on her.* Her mental illness does not render her sub-human. And I don’t think it helps her when people like Beth rant about “locking up the crazies.”
The Virginia Tech shooting was a horrible tragedy, and it certainly did highlight the problem of mental illness in our society. But what it should tell us is that people need greater access to mental health care, and that accessing mental health care must not be loaded with stigma and shame. Stripping people of their civil liberties is not the answer. Empowering them — and indeed, simply making it possible for them — to seek help does not completely solve the problem, but it is a step in the right direction.
*Unless, as is the current standard, she is a threat to herself or someone else.