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Study: Mentally ill offenders account for 10% of homicides

Thanks to Kristin Houle at Prevention Not Punishment for pointing out this Wall Street Journal op ed ("Compassion, compulsion and the mentally ill," E. Fuller Torey, June 9) discussing new research on how much violent crime by mentally ill people may be attributed to underfunded mental health treatment:"The debacle of deinstitutionalization continues to worsen with each passing year. In 1955, there were 559,000 individuals in America's state mental hospitals. By 2005, there were only 47,000 state hospital beds left in the country, a number that continues to fall. Numerous studies have documented the tragic effects of releasing hundreds of thousands of seriously mentally ill individuals from state hospitals while failing to ensure that they receive treatment...continue to full post

Full post as published by Grits for Breakfast on June 11, 2008 (boomark / email).