Cook County Judge Teresa Molina-Gonzalez is facing backlash after she freed a career criminal with 72 arrests to his name just weeks before he allegedly set a woman on fire on a train.
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This is outrageous.
This is horrifying. Poor victim. I am scared to even post what my biggest fear is. Best of wishes for her.
On the other hand - what do we do with these mentally ill people whose psychosis is inborn + most likely, worsened by street drugs?
There are no long-term state hospitals. They have closed. Period. Wrong decision, but this is what we have.
The only place the police has control over is jail. But you can’t turn jails into cages, so the judges have no choices rather than let someone out.
There may be a way of letting aggressive but mentally ill people on least restrictive alternative, with monthly shots of antipsychotics. This could theoretically help, as most of these people are noncompliant with their meds. But, IM antipsychotics are expensive. However, letting such inmates out on regular visits of doctors/clinics + shots + drug tests is way cheaper than just making them wear ankle monitors. This case will cost the city of Chicago, and justly so.
About the judge: theoretically, she has to “ease” Cook county jail, which is not the greatest place. I’d first check that her principle of letting out the inmates was fair. “Fair” means that Lawrence Reed was among the sanest and least dangerous of the choices that she had during the last year. (It could have been so, or not at all.) I don’t care what her views are, but first and foremost, the judge has to be rational in her decisions. If she had safer inmates to let out, but chose this one, then now: 1) it costs a ruined life to the victim; 2) Reed will likely get life in federal prison which is no fun either; 3) it costs the city of Chicago. So the judges’ choice was irrational.
On the other hand, I can imagine people scarier than Reed roaming the streets of Chicago. And, Cook county jail is no Hilton. And the judges have little time to weigh all pros and cons. We all are bearing the cost of closing state psychiatric hospitals.
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