This is an archived article that was published on sltrib.com in 2016, and information in the article may be outdated. It is provided only for personal research purposes and may not be reprinted.
With respect to the Jan. 1 Rich Lowry column, "Outsourcing the mentally ill to the police," I must say it's great a conservative like Lowry is just now figuring that out. Another news flash is that institutionalization of the severely mentally ill never went away. I would refer Lowry to the PBS Frontline episode "The New Asylums" that came out in 2005. The severely mentally ill in this country are warehoused — in prison.
It is time to realize that the system we have created is neither humane nor cheap, pleases no one (with the possible exception of private prison CEOs) and has failed to improve our society overall. Our current plan in Utah appears to entail building a bigger prison and staffing it with the least qualified employees possible.
Melissa Hofer
Layton