Mentally Ill Can Be Helped By Institutions

* Judge Tully Seymour hit the nail on the head in talking about attempts to confine (yes, I know that is a bad word) people who are gravely disabled (“Juries Hamstrung on Confining Mentally Ill,” Orange County Voices, Dec. 3).

His example of the man living under a freeway overcrossing and living out of a McDonald’s garbage bin is, unfortunately, not uncommon.

There are a number of people in our society who are gravely disabled. The causes are many, including malnutrition.

When confined (that bad word again) to a mental institution where they can live indoors, are provided with clothes, and given proper nutrition and medications to control their mental problems, they do quite well and present themselves quite well to juries.

No wonder they get turned loose, revert to their old ways (including illegal drug use) and end up being brought back into the system.

I had a case several years ago where the defendant in an arson case tested with an IQ of 70. He was over 6 feet tall and weighed 140 pounds. He vaguely knew that he was from Texas but could provide no further information.

We got him into the mental health system and after a year in a state hospital he had gained 30 pounds and tested in the normal IQ range.

He was a normal human being again. He has long since been released and I hope he has found his way back to his family in Texas.

Mental illness does not mean a life sentence in an institution. But I sometimes wonder whether these people are better off living in a nice, warm and secure environment or living under a bridge.

BURL ESTES

Mission Viejo