jail serving as home for mentally ill (Tx. is saving money on the deal)

[donsu]

http://galvestondailynews.com/story.lasso?ewcd=761358e5a4b674a9


-snip-

As of last week, the University of Texas Medical Branch’s psychiatric ward had 20 beds for mentally ill adults, plus 10 beds for children. Officials were in the process of adding eight adult beds. The only other facility in the county equipped with beds for mental patients, the county jail, has 56.

“Our jails essentially have become our mental hospitals by default,” said Michael Fuller, an associate professor in psychiatry and behavioral science at the medical branch.

Since 2001, state funding for mental health programs in Galveston County has decreased, while the number of people treated has risen.

On Sept. 1, the Texas Department of Mental Health and Mental Retardation ceased to exist. Mental health fell under the auspices of the state’s Department of Health Services, as part of a legislative effort to reduce bureaucracy and streamline services.

-snip-
---------------------------

Gov. Perry said that the above move would save $1 billon off the state's budget


watching america change

[xultar]

1. They lost one n/t

[rkc3]

2. Why not just execute them? Think of the money saved with that.

Stupid fuckers.

[imenja]

3. they do

Texas has executed mentally ill and mentally handicapped prisoners.
It's all so horrifying it's difficult to find words to express my outrage.

[anti-fundie]

4. Is this in addition to the one already in Crawford, Texas?

[Kansas Wyatt]

5. So when SHRUB is finally removed....

This is where they will put him?

[madrchsod]

6. this is nothing new across america

it`s been happening since the late 60`s early 70`s. i live a few blocks from a "state school" that used to be for the "mentally and psyically retarded". the state dumped thousands of people on the streets and transformed the former "schools" to prisons. it`s the humane thing to do now isn`t it. if you ever run across the film of what the nazi doctors taught the german students about the handicapped be sure to watch it and think about what has been and what is going on now.

[Southpaw Bookworm]

7. Definitely not new

In fact, I've heard criminal justice researchers refer to juvenile detention centers as "mental health facilities for the poor" because the vast majority of kids there had at leasts one mental disorder according to DSM standards. A middle-class or white kid acts up, and they're considered a troubled youth who needs our help. A poor or brown kid -- they enter the adjudication system, often ending up housed with adult felons. It's no different than in the 1930s and 40s when families with too many kids to handle sent their "incorrigible" sons to the boys' charity home.