What do you think about what to do with all the mentally ill?

because they CAN be dangerous? that's a process called "preventive detention". it's completely illegal to incarcerate or hospitalize a person who is not a danger to themselves or others JUST IN CASE they commit a crime.

i suffer from bipolar disorder and anxiety/panic and with the right treatment and medication, you'd never know i had a problem. i have no violent tendencies and manage to keep a decent rein over my behavior.

judging an entire subset of people by the very small percentage that are violent is overly reductionist and completely baffling.

certain races are statistically proven to have higher crime rates in america. would you advocate locking up all black people, just in case?

I guess that I would have to give you the benefit of the doubt that you don't know much about mental illness, and the many different types of mental illness. Some great people from history and current walks of life have suffered from depression, bipolar disorder, and other mental illness. So, I would ask you what would you have done with Winston Churchill, Abraham Lincoln, Michelangelo,... and look at this list:

Leo Tolstoy, author

Charles Dickens, English author,

John Keats, poet,

Michelangelo, artist

Bette Midler, entertainer

Charles Schultz, cartoonist

Dick Clark, entertainer

Irving Berlin, composer

Rosemary Clooney, singer

Jimmy Piersall, baseball player. Boston Red Sox

Burgess Meredith, actor,

Peter Illyich Tchaikovsky, composer

Charlie Pride, singer

Sylvia Plath, poet and novelist.

Janet Jackson, singer

Patty Duke, actress,

Roseanne Barr, comedian

Marlon Brando, actor

Maurice Bernard, actor

Buzz Aldrin, astronaut

Margot Kidder, Actress

Jonathon Winters, comedian

Pat Conroy, author

Ernest Hemingway, Pulitzer Prize-winning novelist,

Tennessee Williams, American playwright

If all of these people and too many to list here needed to be locked up for good and were dangerous, then there is something a bit wrong with your judgement. I suggest that you educate yourself more deeply on the subject. You may be very surprised what you learn.

Would be easier and less expensive to send the people who do not suffer from some sort of mental illness to a hospital and lock them all up.

Not all mentally ill people are dangerous. You usually have no idea if someone has mental health issues, and you probably will never know.

I wonder if you really think this, or are just trying to stir people up? If you do really think this, you are extremely misinformed. Mental illness is correlated with violence in the sense that folks with mental illness are MUCH more likely to be victimized than those without mental illness. Any link with violence by folks with mental illness is due to substance abuse, not the mental illness itself, except apparently, there is increased risk in the case of paranoid schizophrenia. But i bet most people with that condition run and hide rather than attack others. Being a young male, having been physically abused as a child, drug and alcohol use - these are the factors that correlate strongly with violence, not mental illnesses (of which there are MANY kinds - such a broad group of folks that the term "mental illness" is not a very useful term in most cases. WHICH mental illnesses do you mean?)

No? Because not all mentally ill suffer from the same conditions, as you should already know. Some can still function in society, while other can not. But they are still human beings, they still have feelings, and should still be treated with respect. Same thing goes with minorities, and the disabled, the gay/straight.

well I don't it would be a good idea. There are many people with mental health issues that are able to function with jobs, families in today's society. Mentally ill people have rights too, so do old people with dementia who get aggressive with their caregivers. Can you imagine having no empathy and throwing some poor old grannie who's frontal lobe is missing in the loony bin.

I am mentally ill and hear voices! I had a 4.0 and 1st honors and am going to study to become a psychologistt to help people that are worse than me...I can relate to them and want to help them. :)

How can I help them if I am locked away? :(

I suppose you should be very careful. They could be lurking anywhere.

Boo.