What if a mentally ill person commits a crime?
A. You know, again, I think that if a mentally ill person commits a crime, and there’s public safety issues at stake, and it’s a really serious offense, and no alternative to incarceration, for example, is appropriate, then that’s why we have forensic hospitals. But the criminalization of the mentally ill has really not been about that. It’s been about using jails as alternative hospitals. And so, to lose sight of the tragedy and the shame of that, I think, would be a mistake.
