The author’s heart was clearly in the right place and there were some very solid points…. But they were the just same points, repeated in slightly different ways. Always. Meanwhile, important and related points that seemed like they should have been necessary to round out the discussion and *get* somewhere never made an appearance, or only received a weirdly glancing mention.
Example: the author had two big interrelated points: that individuals with mental health issues (a) do not generally belong in jail/prison (and that jails/prisons are grossly underprepared/inappropriate environments for them), and (b) that America needs comprehensive, properly funded community mental health resources to divert people from the prison system and help them live as healthy, functional members of society. There are ton of examples to support these points – most of which weren’t actually necessary, because the logic was pretty clear after the first couple.
Which brings us to the gaps. Although the author is adamant about institutions, etc. not being something to go back to because of the potential for abuse, nowhere is there an honest discussion about the logistics of the portion of the population dealing with mental illness who cannot live independently. Who simply don’t function at the level necessary to not be in 24/7 care, even with access to community mental health services. Big, government-level studies about mental health, community health care and related best practices get mentioned repeatedly, but only to tell us that nothing they recommended got enacted. Nowhere is any effort made to even briefly explore whether any of those studies suggested the same things on a functional level or what the actual costs of implementation would be compared to what we’re currently doing (expanding prisons). In short, the author definitely wants us to know what we’re doing wrong but doesn’t seem to have been interested in giving us any kind of map for fixing it aside from the broadest of brush strokes… even though a solid body of work on that information already exists in accessible, published form.
Then we have the simply bizarre bits. The author reports, seemingly with no surprise or concern whatsoever, that members of a family or community were appalled and outraged when *they called the police* to deal with someone wielding knives or whom they told the dispatcher had a gun and the cops show up and (gasp) things get violent. The author doesn’t seem to think there’s anything remotely bizarre or unrealistic in people calling the police and somehow (in their own words) expecting them to show up (every time) with a certified, ultra-trained specialist psychologist/psychiatrist at any hour of day or night to reason with/talk down/medically address the person!! Who are these people who think that there are fleets of PhD-level mental health professionals just tagging along in every squad car in America? I get that the family/community needs help, but they don’t call EMTs or crisis centers or pastors or something - they call *the police* … and somehow it is the fault of law enforcement that a person reacts violently to the sight of them and ends up in jail (the only place they usually have to send them) or worse instead of in a hospital? The author can praise training police forces all they want… no law enforcement training is going to correct that kind of misconception and unreasonable expectations (and therefore decisions not grounded in reality) on the other side of the coin!! This is just one example of the kinds of things that popped up that made it very clear that author’s only interest in this subject was through a narrow lens.
Finally, it was absurdly frustrating that the author said not a single peep about the underlying causes of the rising numbers of people with mental illness and/or emotional disorders… again, even though there’s a ton of documentation on it. I'm sure I don't have to tell you that food was one of the first places my brain went. If you really want people to stop unnecesarily ending up in jail, STOP FEEDING PEOPLE CRAP. If you want to reduce mental illness rates, STOP STUFFING FOOD FULL OF FAKE SUGARS AND TOXIC COLORS AND INDUCING IT. Ugh. It just kills me that no one even wants to mention the basic causes for so much that is wrong. We'd rather argue about which ineffectual methods of cleaning the mess (after everyone has suffered so badly) make us look better and more progessive.
Anywho, don't read this book. Read Anatomy of Violence or The Crazymakers instead. Please and thank you.
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