Response to Isabel's post

I completely agree with Isabel's post "Caught in the Revolving door". The Texas jail, and prison systems are severely lacking. Not only is the inmate population heavy with the mentally ill, but the number of repeat offenders is discouraging. It is my opinion that the state budget for upholding mental institution and after care is a lot of the reason for the high concentration of mentally ill in jail. The requirements for admittance into those facilities are so strict that many who need care are turned away. A large majority of those turned away are incarcerated for various infractions of the law. Those that are not, are often found under our bridges and at street corners with badly constructed signs, begging for our assistance. In 2009, the Substance Abuse and Mental Health Services Administration, tallied that 25% of the nation's homeless population had a diagnosed mental illness.When widening their findings to all of the United States population, the result was only 6%. Many of these individuals would accept any help offered them, from treatment, to safe shelter. The issue is a lack of successful, state funded outreach programs. I'm not saying that this would instantly solve the issue, just that it would help to significantly cut down on those unstable mentally ill on the streets, and by proxy, in jails and prisons. Texas jails are set up in a way that it is very easy for mentally ill individuals to be incarcerated for anything for vagrancy to public nudity, and once they are in the system, its hard to get away from the "revolving door", and harder still to find steady shelter and a source of income. If we have any hope of fixing our current "system", then we need to start from the ground up. Start outreach programs, and rehabilitation centers for those just getting out of jail who do not have the benefit of family or even a place to live. With the help of these programs and others like it, we stand a chance at being able to see a significant decrease in the number of mentally ill on the streets, and in jail. As well as in those numbers of the mentally sound.