Treatment of the Mentally Ill Questioned

I read with interest Dana Parsons’ column, “Untreated Mental Illness Can Be Criminal,” (Nov. 3) about Steven Abrams, a mentally ill man who killed two children on a playground by running into them with his car. Parsons’ article touched on the dire need for reform in the way we handle the mentally ill. I can personally attest to this, since my son, now 31, is severely mentally ill with paranoid schizophrenia.

We must amend the Landerman-Petris-Short Act in California so that we can get these people treated before more tragedies happen. I know what can happen when the mentally ill are not forced to take their medicine. When they cannot get the help they need in time. I speak to others in our support group and feel the pain and anguish of this national tragedy. We extol our virtues of being an enlightened society to others in the world, yet when it comes to this issue, we are still living in the dark ages.

SUNNY J. CHANDONAIS

Fremont

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Steven Allen Abrams, the man convicted of intentionally plowing his car into a Costa Mesa preschool playground, reportedly conceived the attack years in advance claiming that killing “innocent” children would halt the voices the government beamed into his brain. Like Buford Furrow, another mentally disturbed man who attacked school children and murdered a postman, Abrams had previously been psychiatrically hospitalized and released without any mandated follow-up treatment.

California had an opportunity to help people like this regain their sanity and prevent future senseless killings this year. The Assembly passed AB 1800, which would have provided treatment before the person became a danger. The legislation was killed.

I recognize that most people with mental illness do not commit brutal crimes. Indeed, more are killed themselves or commit suicide because of delusions and hallucinations in their broken brains. The great sadness is that treatment works and all these innocent lives could be saved if only our leaders would get off their ideological high horses and allow this lifesaving legislation to pass.

ERIN JETT

Santa Ana