I feel strongly that insane people are not well-served by the prison system. (It's not designed for that, although heaven knows they try.) Putting an insane person in a mental hospital is the only appropriate -- ethical, practical -- thing to do. Putting someone insane into a prison is cruel and unusual punishment, and might be downright dangerous.

It is the responsibility of a mental hospital when acting as custodian on behalf of the state never to release someone who is not fit to be released. (Unless you're Reagan, and think that insane homeless people are good for the nation. t /bitter ) Prisons release the unfit all the time, when their prison terms expire.

Oh, x-post by someone who has been there and ate the t-shirt. What Cashmere said.

This is the part of the story that I find amazing. Rusty Yates divorced Andrea Yates after the children's June 2001 deaths and recently remarried. He said they are still "friends" and reminisce about the children.

WTF? Don't understand that.

She's not going to get out. Nobody is going to want to be the person who released someone who methodically killed four young children. Can't really comment about the verdict though. Without hearing everything the jury did, I really can't criticize them.

It's just tragedy on tragedy.

That's for damn sure. There's no possible justice here. She's done the most horrible thing that could ever be done to herself.

But I get really, really pissed when people automatically assume that pleading mentally ill is a cop out of some sort.

I know this is probably how I read to you, but I really didn't mean it that way. I don't think it's a cop out. Truly. I'm sorry if I upset you.

While we didn't have to deal with it ourselves being 2500 miles away, Joe and I watched his family go through trying to get treatment for his cousin who is also schizophrenic (He's in for killing his sister). He's getting his medication and some treatment in prison, but very very little.

But in cases like this, involving children, I get unreasonably angry and probably make broad statements that I shouldn't. So, I'll just go over there and sit back in my corner and stop upsetting people I care about.

x-posted with Firefly:

Dunno if this has been posted, but... Ita Moon stickers! (closeup) (A whole bunch of Firefly -themed oval stickers (the kind you see on cars in Europe showing what country the car is from.))

Also, "Niska's Skyplex sticker" and "This Land sticker." And a bunch more.

I completely agree that nobody wins when the criminal justice system locks the insane up with criminals.

He said they are still "friends" and reminisce about the children.

That sentence seems like a gross simplification of the interview I saw with him. It was more like "well what DO you talk about?" and him all "the children, we both miss them, half the time she doesn't remember what happened to them."

But in cases like this, involving children, I get unreasonably angry and probably make broad statements that I shouldn't. So, I'll just go over there and sit back in my corner and stop upsetting people I care about.

You're not doing the upsetting as far as I can tell. The situation is what's horrible and heartbreaking and your reaction is perfectly reasonable even if I don't happen to agree with your conclusion.

Nutty and Cashmere (and anybody else who has an opinion of course), what do you think of the "Guilty but Insane" plea that is available in some states? It seems to make more sense to me then "Not Guilty by reason of Insanity" but I don't know if I really understand it and how it is applied.

But in cases like this, involving children, I get unreasonably angry and probably make broad statements that I shouldn't. So, I'll just go over there and sit back in my corner and stop upsetting people I care about.

I know you don't think it was a cop out. And I'm not pissed off at you at all. FWIW, DH and I have already had this argument and he agrees with you.

I thought that the motherhood thing might affect how I look at these cases but it doesn't. I've had too much first hand experience with severe mental illness to be able to try to hold these people responsible for their acts. I just can't do it.

In this case, and in the two cases where schizophrenic men (in Columbus) killed several people (the highway sniper and the shooter that killed the lead singer of Damage Plan), the entire system let these people down. The deaths of AY's children (and the people killed here) are tragic but if the system could better deal with mental illness, they might not have happened.

I do understand both points of view. But I think as a society, what we do with the mentally ill is criminal.