That’s Politics…
2010-10-20 - by
By now most everyone has figured out the two things Democratic politicians love to talk about more than anything else on earth are Education and Health Care. Beverly Perdue talked about both so much two years ago she got herself elected our first woman Governor.
But there was a peculiar fact – about health care in North Carolina – in the newspaper the other morning. It turns out – under Governor Perdue – if you’re poor and mentally ill in North Carolina you’re more likely to wind up in a state prison than a mental hospital. At least that’s what the folks at the National Alliance for Mental Illness report – that there are 770 beds in state hospitals to treat mental patients while there’re 5,513 people in state prisons that the Governor’s Department of Corrections says are severely mentally ill.
And the Governor hasn’t disputed the figures.
Which, I guess, in an odd sort of way makes sense – because if you’re mentally ill and can’t get into a hospital it’s more or less inevitable sooner or later you’ll break a law and land in front of a judge.
And here’s a second peculiar fact: Right in the middle of this mess the Governor is closing one of the state’s four mental hospitals – Dorothea Dix in Raleigh.
Her Secretary of Health Lanier Cansler – defending the Governor – tried earnestly to explain to the press that it’s not her fault. The fault, Cansler said pointing fingers, lies with legislators who, in their wisdom, decided not to spend a penny to keep Dix Hospital open.
The legislators, of course, aren’t taking that lying down. They’re telling the press a different story. Cansler and Perdue, they say, never asked them for a penny to keep Dix open.
Now, one way or the other someone’s gilding the lily, but there’s no doubt about one fact: The Governor is building a $151 million hospital with beds for mental patients inside Central Prison – which is right across the street from Dorothea Dix. Which at first blush seems odd: The Governor’s closing a public hospital to treat mental patients before they get to prison but opening a new hospital – across the street – to care for them after they’re in jail.
That’s Politics…
2010-10-20/
By now most everyone has figured out the two things Democratic politicians love to talk about more than anything else on earth are Education and Health Care. Beverly Perdue talked about both so much two years ago she got herself elected our first woman Governor.
But there was a peculiar fact – about health care in North Carolina – in the newspaper the other morning. It turns out – under Governor Perdue – if you’re poor and mentally ill in North Carolina you’re more likely to wind up in a state prison than a mental hospital. At least that’s what the folks at the National Alliance for Mental Illness report – that there are 770 beds in state hospitals to treat mental patients while there’re 5,513 people in state prisons that the Governor’s Department of Corrections says are severely mentally ill.
And the Governor hasn’t disputed the figures.
Which, I guess, in an odd sort of way makes sense – because if you’re mentally ill and can’t get into a hospital it’s more or less inevitable sooner or later you’ll break a law and land in front of a judge.
And here’s a second peculiar fact: Right in the middle of this mess the Governor is closing one of the state’s four mental hospitals – Dorothea Dix in Raleigh.
Her Secretary of Health Lanier Cansler – defending the Governor – tried earnestly to explain to the press that it’s not her fault. The fault, Cansler said pointing fingers, lies with legislators who, in their wisdom, decided not to spend a penny to keep Dix Hospital open.
The legislators, of course, aren’t taking that lying down. They’re telling the press a different story. Cansler and Perdue, they say, never asked them for a penny to keep Dix open.
Now, one way or the other someone’s gilding the lily, but there’s no doubt about one fact: The Governor is building a $151 million hospital with beds for mental patients inside Central Prison – which is right across the street from Dorothea Dix. Which at first blush seems odd: The Governor’s closing a public hospital to treat mental patients before they get to prison but opening a new hospital – across the street – to care for them after they’re in jail.