WaPo Cites ‘Experts’ Who Claim Institutionalizing Mentally Ill Criminals Is ‘Draconian’

The Washington Post cited so-called “experts” in a piece published on Wednesday who argued that institutionalizing criminals with a mental illness is “draconian” and “inhumane.”

Decarlos Brown had previously been convicted on 14 separate charges at the time that he fatally stabbed 23-year-old Ukrainian refugee Iryna Zarutska on a light train in Charlotte, North Carolina, on Aug. 22. The Post attempted to blame the tragic murder on prisons failing to treat Brown’s schizophrenia while he served sentences for his crimes in the article, “Trump blames Democrats for Charlotte stabbing. Records complicate the story.”

“Other criminal justice experts disagreed, saying that permanently confining people who are mentally ill for minor offenses is a ‘draconian’ and inhumane response. There is no evidence that Brown received mental health treatment during his years in prison. A spokesman for the North Carolina Department of Adult Correction said he could not discuss the medical or mental health treatment of any offender,” the Post wrote.

The Post then quoted James E. Coleman Jr., a professor at Duke Law School, who said there is simply no easy solution to preventing violent crime and that locking up mentally ill people is not an option.

“If you were able to lock up mentally ill people and throw away the key, there are all kinds of draconian things that could have been done,” Coleman told the Post. “But I don’t think that anybody has thought that’s what this country’s criminal justice system is about, and there is not one Republican state that does that. What could a Republican have done to prevent a mentally ill person from senselessly stabbing a person on the light-rail train? … I guarantee you, if there was a way to prevent crime that was easy, I can’t imagine there is any police chief in America who would not adopt those policies.”