Why We Need To Bring Back Mental Institutions

The fact of the matter is that as uncomfortable as I am with the idea, we need mental institutions to ensure the safety and dignity of not only patients but also the general public. 

A story made headlines of a teacher who was beaten so badly that she has cognitive problems as well as PTSD, and has been unable to return to work since the incident. A boy named Brendan Depa, beat the teacher senseless for taking away his Nintendo. Apparently, whenever anything is taken away from Brendan, according to his mother, you need to bring in a crisis intervention team to prevent the situation from escalating. 

Brendan had previously committed assault three other times, which resulted in his placement at the group home in question. He had been previously diagnosed with autism spectrum disorder, oppositional defiant disorder, intermittent explosive disorder, and attention deficit hyperactivity disorder. 

My question as to this tragedy, is if this young man is unable to have things taken from him without flying into a violent rage, why is he walking around in the general public in the first place?

I saw many comments on X, formerly known as Twitter regarding Brendan Depa along the lines of “you can’t just take something from an autistic person without following the IEP”. Excuse me? If you cannot, as an authority figure (in this case, a teacher) safely take an object away from a student, then it is the student who needs to change, not the teacher.

There are going to be all kinds of times in life when authority figures, rightly or wrongly, ask you to do something, and if you don’t follow the instructions the results can be catastrophic.

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Take the police, as an example. If the cops pulled out a firearm and told Brendan to stop whatever he was doing, would he be able to follow their instructions? Or would it be another tragic situation of someone who is mentally unwell and is shot by police?

That’s exactly what happened to Ivan Mora. He was wielding a knife, threatening people, and was also suffering from schizophrenia. The police told him to please drop the knife, and, after a family member got close enough within stabbing distance he was shot.

Discussions after this shooting began about bringing in a “team” of “social workers” to help the police de-escalate incidents like this involving the mentally unwell. But the funny thing is, we used to have that kind of crisis team who would take the mentally unwell person to a mental institution get them help, and take them to a place where they could get treatment.

I understand that this is controversial, with images of “one flew over the cuckoo's nest” dancing in our heads. But as debates abound over where to place Brendan Depa, can we honestly say that someone with severe disabilities belongs in prison? Do we honestly think that he is going to get the care and rehabilitative services that he needs to be a functioning member of society?

I understand that Brendan Depa needs to be punished for what he’s done, there is no question in my mind, with an IQ of 97, that he understands fully what he did was wrong. But it’s also clear to me that Brendan Depa needs intensive therapy and medication, which is something that the prison system is poorly able to provide.

The criminal justice system is meant to punish people so they do not do the crime again, and it’s also meant to segregate those of us who are the most dangerous (serial killers) from the rest of society. Meanwhile, a mental institution is meant to diagnose and treat mental illness in people so they can live a productive life, and be restored to competency. The idea that blending these two systems together will somehow make them better is absurd. 

A cop is not a social worker, and a social worker is not a cop. We have cops who are killing people by injecting them with sedatives, with no medical training, which is something mental health professionals would do in the past. We have demands to expand mental health services in prison, but then what is the actual difference between prison with mental health services and mental institutions? 

Mental institutions were frequently used, most often by family members, to get loved ones the treatment they needed, before they harmed themselves or others. This option has now essentially been gutted.

If a physician believes a person to be a danger to themselves or others, the person can only be held for 3 days or 72 hours. The doctor can then determine whether or not a longer commitment period is appropriate or necessary, and the process varies state by state and usually involves a lengthy court process.

72 hours is absolutely pointless, considering that most psychiatric medications take weeks to work, and what’s more, that’s if the doctor happened to pick the correct medication for you on the first try. And, the potential that these medications can in fact make someone worse is always a risk. So we didn’t actually “deinstitutionalize” the mentally ill. What we actually did, was simply move them from one locked facility to another.

The bottom line is we need to make it easier for family members to involuntarily commit a patient, and force them to get help, instead of waiting around for a crime to be committed and throwing them in prison. By making this a process in the court system as well as something that only family members could apply for, (cheaply, people can represent themselves) we could avoid the pitfalls of the federal government of simply throwing political dissidents into the institutions indefinitely. Finally, a time limit of three months would be more appropriate for the process of diagnosis, and treatment, as well as trial and error of medication, and would avoid the pitfall of throwing someone in there indefinitely.

If this seems extreme to you, and a violation of individual liberties, might I point out that currently in our society everyone’s rights are consistently being violated by the mentally ill. 

NY City subways have become so unsafe as they are littered with homeless people that the governor instituted the National Guard to check people’s bags.  Parents are forced to check playgrounds for dirty needles before their children can play on the equipment. Children are being shot to death by crazed lunatics in their public schools and in movie theaters.

This is unacceptable, and the general public should not have to live this way and have their rights violated so that this tiny fraction of people can enjoy their “rights” to mental illness. 

Worse still, things have gotten so bad that states have now begun to criminalize homelessness, despite the fact that this population often struggles with mental illness. Mental institutions are designed to medically stabilize individuals so that they can then go to a halfway house, find gainful employment, and then live on their own. They are designed to give people a chance at a meaningful life. 

We should demand the return of mental institutions and involuntary commitment. 

Wrong Speak is a free-expression platform that allows varying viewpoints. All views expressed in this article are the author's own.