By Barbara Mayer, Sedona Resident
(August 24, 2014)
Dear Editor:
It is now 2014. A rather long way from the Dark Ages. Our species has now reached a point where compassion and intelligent caring of our mentally ill can be treated with a host of different therapies. We also now have brilliant and dedicated professionals ready to serve and help heal our mentally ill sisters and brothers.
Build another jail to blindly warehouse those who should be in a humane facility instead? You can’t be serious. And if you are, we’re taking a very sad step backward from where a compassionate human race is supposed to be.
Please, no money for another jail to warehouse our mentally ill. We must be better than that.
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2 Comments
Ms. Mayer, I was at the Aug. 12 City of Cottonwood council meeting at which the sheriff gave the presentation on the need of a new jail.
Nothing was mentioned about the mentally ill. Instead the focus was on dangerous criminal, repeat offenders that currently there is not enough room to accommodate. The question arose about tents like in Maricopa county. Well, those are for 2 or 3 day stays for non violent offenders.
Also, there are not enough accommodations for juveniles.
Yavapai County is in crisis with more demand due to violent and drug related criminals. There is an increase. Besides the few cells in Yavapai county there are a few upstairs in a building in Prescott. The property has been purchased in a good area in Prescott away from neighborhoods.
The citizens need to approve this facility to help the sheriff’s department do their job to protect citizens. I believe if you would check with the sheriff you would find there are many agencies that are assisting the mentally ill and they do try to use those.
Barbara speaks of our shameful times, long ago. In years past, a person with a mental illness was confined – locked up in chains – in prison. Suffering and rotting away till death provided relief.
Then we became “enlightened,” and tried new and better treatments – meds and mental health professionals. Often, with treatment, including proper meds, the individual could return to society as a functional “normal” individual.
Building more jails instead of hospitals or crises centers or half-way houses — indicate we have gone backwards, regressed to the Dark Ages, as Barbara notes.
As a society, we have been hit with real issues relating to the treatment of those who suffer from mental health issues.. There are fewer beds available for those with mental issues, causing ever-increasing suffering for those with disabilities, and those who interact with them – or try to.
The lack of funding leading to the lack of appropriately available mental health care facilities, and crisis centers, is key in not providing humane treatment for those who suffer from mental health issues.
We have made sure that those with mental health problems have nowhere to go. And then, when they do act out, we are making sure they get put in jail or, just as likely, get shot and put in the morgue. A new definition of compassionate conservatism…..
We are better than that, I pray. We really, really do need more money for mental service, instead of jails…