How Oregon ensnares mentally ill people charged with low-level crimes

Money should instead flow to the stepped-down, community-based treatment that mentally ill people have a right to, and which is also less expensive for taxpayers, said advocates including Jason Renaud of the Mental Health Association of Portland and Chris Bouneff of the Oregon chapter of the National Alliance on Mental Illness. Myers, who has worked in Oregon law enforcement for more than 30 years, recalled the state’s formerly vast system of mental hospitals that warehoused the mentally ill in often horrid conditions: Dammasch State Hospital, the Fairview Training Center and other facilities. Courtney acknowledges the state does not give county mental health departments enough money for community-based treatment centers.

Source: www.oregonlive.com