North Carolina has done itself no favors by largely dismantling the public network of mental health services offered in communities across the state after a 2004 push toward privatization. Western North Carolina alone has lost psychiatric programs at several area hospitals.
There hasn’t been a shortage of people with mental health issues, and far too many of them have found themselves running afoul of law enforcement, complicating the already tough job that police officers and sheriff’s deputies face. They pose a danger not only to their fellows, but to themselves. But jail is no place to warehouse those with mental illnesses.
