Review on PBS' New Asylums 2

The use of prisons as the asylums of the 21st century for the mentally ill came about after the State decided freeing the mentally ill from state hospitals and treating them in the community is cheaper than the costs of hospital maintenance, due to union wages rising since 1972.

That's when the first releases were done. From there, the State rented halfway houses from property owners to house mental health clients in an appropriate community setting.

However, a mentally ill person is treated like a possible criminal when his behavior is associated with a crime. Unfortunately, prison is bedlam when it comes to the mentally ill.

This video lacks that information, and appears to start from the second-half of the documentary itself.

Overall, I did not learn if any of the mental health clients improved as the filming progressed. IN the cases of patients who get imprisoned, the likelihood of that is rare since they have been in and out of prison for several years on petty crime charges.

My impression of prison is its use in maintaining stabilization of clients is negligable. The overall impression from this video I got was that criminally charging clients for petty crimes is not conducive to maintaining a stable environment for them.