Treatment of the Mentally Ill

We appreciated the well-balanced articles by staff writer Hector Tobar (Part A, Aug. 26 and 28) on the use of the Los Angeles County Jail “. . . as a hospital of last resort for thousands of mentally ill people.”

However, the article by David Glidden (Opinion, Sept. 1) most offensively refers to mentally ill people several times as “crazies.” Such insensitive labeling supports stigma, ignores the latest research indicating severe mental illnesses as no-fault brain diseases and imposes increased suffering on these already suffering disabled people and their families.

DOLORES ENCINAS, President, Los Angeles County, Alliance for the Mentally Ill