Jailing of Mentally Ill

Your excellent article “Mentally Ill Turn to Crime in a Painful Call For Help” (Aug. 26) calls attention to the role of the criminal justice system with respect to mentally ill persons who commit very minor offenses. An economic analysis of the problem is warranted.

Staggering costs are borne by society in continuously channeling these defendants into congested courts and jails as a result of unavailable treatment elsewhere. The cyclic nature of the problem is dramatized in cases where mentally ill individuals amass up to 100 arrests for disturbing the peace and drinking in public. The financial consequences of such cases on courts, jails and law enforcement are measured in the hundreds of thousands of dollars per defendant.

Resource allocation to regional centers, shelters and workshops for the mentally ill has a correlative impact on what percentage will eventually be infused by default into the more expensive treatment alternative--the criminal justice system.

JUDGE PETER J. MIRICH

Catalina Justice Court