To the editor:

Kudos to Judge Jean Shepherd for her visionary Youth Mental Health Court proposal! Young people with mental illnesses will be changed for the rest of their lives depending on how they enter the “systems” we have in place for them, i.e., mental health treatment or penal incarceration. The tragedy of this proposal is that it will only be the third of its kind in the nation.

In a similar development, some adult courts around the country are now setting up parallel “soldiers courts” to deal with soldiers returning from Iraq and Afghanistan who commit crimes while suffering from PTSD (Post Traumatic Stress Disorder). Much like Judge Shepherd’s proposal, these soldiers plead guilty and then are “sentenced” to appropriate mental health treatment. Upon completion of successful treatment the “guilty” plea is rescinded.

What a concept! If good enough for these two populations, why not develop a similar “parallel court” for all persons with mental illnesses? The results could be dramatic: people receiving long overdue mental health services, reduced pressures on our overcrowded penal system, reduced recidivism and the return of people to our society as better functioning, contributing citizens.

Today, the largest mental health facility in the country is literally multiple wings of the Los Angeles County Jail. The treatment, or lack thereof, of our mentally ill citizenry remains largely inhumane and barbaric in this so-called progressive 21st century.

Thank you Judge Shepherd, for the ray of light you shine into the darkness.