BEST JUSTICE SYSTEM. ENGLAND OR THE USA?

[HairOfTheDog]

Its the same here.

Lots of people with mental health problems are locked up in police cells, they haven't done anything wrong there's just nowhere else to put them!

The logic is at least if they are in a police cells they can't harm themselves its fucking ridiculous.

Both American and British justice systems are flawed for different reasons.

Interesting.

I didn't realize that mentally ill people in the UK were put in jail cells, if psychiatric beds were short, without having committed a crime. Here, they can't be arrested and incarcerated unless they've committed a crime; jail/prison isn't a preventative measure. I think desperate mentally ill persons who recognize their conditions sometimes commit crimes in order to be arrested and get inmate benefits.

It's a sad state of affairs either way (IMO) given how far the medical professionals have come in the last half century or so in terms of recognizing and treating mental illnesses seriously. It's no longer so much about not understanding the illnesses, but too often inaccessibility to treatment.

[Cynical Ninja]

That's the thing, the mentally ill people aren't even under arrest, they just get put in a cell because there's no where else to put them. A ever growing role for police officers is dealing with mentally ill people.

Its a bit depressing dealing with a person with mental health problems sometimes. I and my mentor have intervened before and the police have to be there just in case of course. And I've put my arm around the shoulder of someone obviously suffering and in trouble and told them “we'll take you somewhere safe and look after you” always having the thought at the back of mind “I hope its not a police cell!”

[aussiefriend]

That's interesting, because being mentally ill is not a crime. We have forensic mental health facilities, where if you break the law and commit a crime you don't get a pass and you certainly don't get to come to hospital.