Michigan prisons = mental institutions? Are you crazy?
“Lock him up and throw away the key!” You’ll be hearing talk like that, once again, as Bradford Gille gets processed through the justice system. Gille is the man who stabbed 11 people at a Walmart in Traverse City on July 26. His family had been unsuccessfully trying to get help for this mentally challenged man for years. Now he faces 11 charges of assault with intent to murder, as well as one terrorism charge. Even though Gille is obviously struggling with severe mental illness and needs appropriate psychiatric care and hospitalization, there is always the possibility that public clamor and aggressive criminal justice officials might determine that he’s well enough to be tried. Sadly, it’s really the State of Michigan that is to blame, and who’s going to punish the state? Since 1965, we closed 36 hospitals and centers serving adults with mental illness, developmental disabilities, and emotionally disturbed children. Between 1987 and 2003 alone, Mich...