Lawrence Journal-World opinion section

To the editor:

For the past year, county commissioners, along with other stakeholders, have been developing plans for an expansion of our local jail along with the creation of a mental health crisis center. Eventually these two issues will be presented to voters as a single package. As a mental health consumer, I would like to make a few comments regarding this developing proposal.

First, having a mental illness is not a crime! The major reason mental illness is discussed within the broader parameters of the criminal justice system is because the state and local mental health systems have failed to provide the continuum of care necessary to meet our mental health needs. With nowhere else to turn, the mentally ill are discarded in our jails and prisons.

To continue to develop a plan that still incorporates the mentally ill within the criminal justice system is to give the appearance of improvement and change without having to change at all!

Do we need a jail expansion? I don’t know. I will leave that to others. Do we need to have a greatly expanded continuum of care for the mentally ill that is separate from the criminal justice system? The answer is an unequivocal YES!

Please examine the forthcoming proposal as two separate issues. Let’s finally provide the real medical continuum of care that is necessary for those of us with a mental illness. I am a person with an illness. I am not a criminal!