What does DTK need?

[ijmorlan]

On the other hand, many of these crimes are crimes and are serious, even if not individually then in their overall effect on the city. So the mental health supports cannot be seen as an optional thing that is available to people if they want it; if somebody is regularly caught committing petty crimes, and it is judged to be a consequence of mental health problems, they need to be forced to participate in appropriate treatment. If they won’t, then that is tough for them: their right to whatever doesn’t trump the rights of the rest of us.

I agree with almost all you're saying here. I will point out that mental health treatment is hard at the best of times and forcing people to participate in treatment is likely not going to get any good results at all. What's the solution? I don't know, sorry.

I don’t like the concept of forced treatment either. I just think it’s better than prison. Instead of repeatedly punishing people who are in many cases incapable of learning from the punishment, keep them where they have the best chance of surviving their problems without repeatedly harming others; and give them the possibility of obtaining treatment.