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A comment on Seattle Faces Backlash After Easing on Crimes Involving Mental Illness. Parent comment

Re:Seattle Faces Backlash After Easing on Crimes Involving M... by AnimalMuppet on Friday July 12, 2019 @03:46PM (#20423805)
Perhaps one more option: Lower the standard for involuntarily forcing them into mental health treatment.

Look, the standard needs to be fairly high. But don't these people need to be in treatment for long enough that it actually changes things for them? Is anything else going to work?

Or do we say that their right to not be forced into something they don't want supercedes both their need and the need of society?

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Re:Seattle Faces Backlash After Easing on Crimes Involving M... by closetohome on Monday July 15, 2019 @05:45PM (#20445590)
I think that's a good point, and for the most part I'd say I agree. If someone meets the criminal threshold of incarceration, it should be possible to divert them to treatment for at least the same length of time as a prison sentence. Along the same lines, maybe blur the lines between incarceration and treatment a little more. Incarceration should ideally be more therapeutic than punitive.
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