The Thorazine Shuffle!

"The trend over the decades has been to release mental health patients, with a number of court cases restricting involuntary commitment. Last week’s deadly rampage at Sandy Hook Elementary School exposed cracks and inconsistencies within the nation’s mental health system. Many say that until those problems are fixed, it’s only a matter of time before another national nightmare unfolds."

“It’s a cultural and mental health problem and it’s something we need to address soon and seriously,” former Homeland Security Secretary Tom Ridge told Fox News. “We need to balance individual rights with the needs of the community.”

Connecticut killings reopen debate on forcibly committing the mentally ill.

After spending over twenty years of my early life working security in hospitals that humanely took care of these individuals to protect the community I must agree. I witnessed these changes and how it effected the community with patients being released who refused to take meds only to be brought back by the police and re-admitted after committing some crime and then released again after 72 hours. Now it is to the point where they know there is no control mechanism and they can do as they wish with little or NO consequences. Couple this with all of our "Societal issues" and we as the community will continue to suffer at the hands of these individuals who feel no compassion or remorse for those effected by their actions.

Yes the shuffle was not fun to watch but it was needed and and kept us safer and we realized that after treatment most went on to productive lives as far as we could tell by monitoring. One of my uncles suffered manic depression and went through this when I was a child and he turned out to be my favorite relative as an teen and an adult. I visited his grave recently and teared at our loss.