Libertarian strategies for dealing with the homeless and mentally ill
@JeremyKauffman writes:
It is absolutely, 100% possible to punish our way out of the homelessness crisis
It simply requires the right punishments.
Physically removing them to a park or a vagrant preserve seems like the best solution .
Take a few square miles of unused forest and make it clear that's the only acceptable region to live like a bum (unless you own the land you're being a bum on).
Dealing with mentally ill/addicted people can be extremely frustrating. Severe mental illness is currently incurable--the best we can do is CBT + anti-psychotic medications (which have unpleasant side effects.) It's tempting to dump them in a field somewhere and wash our hands of them.
However, dumping severely mentally ill people in a distant field without assistance is a slow death sentence.
If they can't care for themselves in a city, they're certainly not going to be able to care for themselves in an empty field. And few people would want a mentally ill loved one--such as a spouse or child--to be dumped in a field.
However, most people also agree that mentally ill people should not be allowed to:
assault other people
harass other people
impose huge financial burdens on the rest of the community (Gladwell, 2006)
damage public property
make public property inaccessible to the rest of the population
If aggressive, mentally ill people are not involuntarily committed to a psychiatric hospital, they will likely be imprisoned by the criminal justice system instead. And, in fact, a large percentage of prisoners are mentally ill. (Ford, 2015)
However, involuntary psychiatric imprisonment is dangerous. Left-wing governments love to imprison their enemies in mental hospitals. For example, the Soviet Union frequently imprisoned political dissidents in psychiatric hospitals. (Soviet Psychiatry, 2024). The Chinese government locks dissidents into mental hospitals to this day. (Washington Post, 2022)
Psychiatric prisoners are subjected to medical treatments/punishments that normal people would regard as torture:
electroshock treatment
solitary confinement
stun guns
shackles/straight jackets
compulsory drugs
Even wealthy, well-connected patients can suffer horrific abuse--JFK's sister Rosemary was lobotomized (Serena, 2022).
Mental patients are also often abused in unsanctioned ways. For example, this New Yorker story describes a psychiatric prisoner who was burned to death by the guards with scalding hot water (Press, 2016).
So what can we do with mentally ill homeless people that don't involve de facto death sentences? How can we reduce the risk of abusive institutions?
Ending housing suppression laws would substantially reduce homelessness. Low cost housing--such as boarding houses (Boarding House, 2024), capsule hotels (Capsule Hotel, 2024), and flophouses (Flophouse, 2024) --have been effectively banned in many cities (Yglesias, 2022)
Lifting housing suppression laws would substantially decrease the cost of housing (Harvey, 2020) which would allow more people to move off the street.
[Note, however, severely mentally ill street people would still exist even if free housing were available. (Smith, 2024)
Require that long term psychiatric commitment be based on the consensus of a team of two psychiatrists and one civilian (all selected at random).
Give prisoners vouchers (Volokh, 2011), and allow them to switch between facilities. That way, if they are being abused, they can switch to a better managed facility.
Offer patients therapeutic farming (Freight Farms, 2022) as part of a mental health treatment plan.
For example, a 2010 outcome study of 450 patients who had been through Gould Farm's program found statistically significant improvements on psychiatrist-rated Global Assessments of Functioning (GAF) of the guests at the beginning and end of their treatment. (Arehart-Treichel, 2013)
As Gould Farm (Gould, 2024) is quite expensive ($500/day), it would make sense to locate therapeutic farming communities overseas, where labor and land costs are substantially lower.
For example, in Ciudad Morazán in Honduras, an apartment costs $120/month. (Peterson, 2024). The median annual household income is ~$3000. Psychiatric hospital workers could be paid double that amount, and the costs would still be dramatically lower than in the US.
Experiment with micro-prisons. Like micro-schools, a micro-prison might only have 1-2 prisoners and/or be operated by family members. The prisoners would have to wear ankle bracelets and shackles. But they could work, participate in society, contribute to community. These would require frequent inspections and vouchers to prevent abuse.
Many corporations require their accountants to take long vacations (two weeks or more). This is an anti-embezzlement measure, as it ensures that someone else looks at the books/accounting procedures.
Similarly, prison guards /administrators should be forced to take vacations and be temporarily replaced by guards who normally work at distant facilities. That way, the guards know that their behavior will be regularly observed by someone who can't be easily retaliated against.
Use "secret shopper prisoners". (Norman, 2022) These are actors who are paid to pretend to be mental patients. They stay in a facility for a while and report on the the guards / prisoners.
Require lawsuits against prison guards / officials to be handled by juries / judges located outside the jurisdiction of the politicians in charge of the facility.
Conduct regular random surveys of prisoners, similar to the National Crime Victimization Survey (NCVS, 2024). Award bonuses based on reducing reports of abuse below the industry average.
Encourage asylum tourism. (Bazar, 2014). If the public can readily visit and talk to prisoners, it will help increase confidence that the prisoners aren't being abused.
Set up a fund for whistleblowers (Balsamo, 2022) to provide security to them and their families, cover their pay during trials/investigations, and relocate them to another jurisdiction if need be.
End qualified immunity. (EndQI, 2024) Both prison guards convicted of malfeasance and their department heads should be held civilly liable for making restitution to the victims. No paying judgments with taxpayer funds.
Donate funds to Clubhouse International (Clubhouse, 2024) to help the mentally ill to stay on their meds, avoid drug abuse, and stay integrated with society.
(Arehart-Treichel, 2013) | Joan Arehart-Treiche | "Farm Has Spent 100 Years Helping Those With Serious Mental Illness" | 2013-10-09 | https://web.archive.org/web/20240629205333/https://psychnews.psychiatryonline.org/doi/full/10.1176/appi.pn.2013.10b2
(Balsamo, 2022) | Michael Balsamo, Micahel R. Sisak | "Whistleblowers say they’re being bullied for exposing federal prison abuses" | PBS | 2022-02-24 | https://web.archive.org/web/20240629200754/https://www.pbs.org/newshour/politics/whistleblowers-say-theyre-being-bullied-for-exposing-federal-prison-abuses
(Bazar, 2014) | "Asylum Tourism" | Jennifer L. Bazar, Jeremy T. Burman | 2014-02 | https://www.apa.org/monitor/2014/02/asylum-tourism
(Boarding House, 2024) | 2024-06-29 | https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Boarding_house
(Capsule Hotel, 2024) | 2024-06-29 | https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Capsule_hotel
(Flophouse, 2024) | 2024-06-29 | https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Flophouse
(Clubhouse, 2024) | 2024-06-29 | https://clubhouse-intl.org/what-we-do/what-clubhouses-do/
(EndQI, 2024) | 2024-06-29 | https://web.archive.org/web/20231126224302/https://endqi.org/
(Ford, 2015) | 2024-06-29 | "America's Largest Mental Hospital Is a Jail" | Matt Ford | The Atlantic | 2015-06-08 | https://www.theatlantic.com/politics/archive/2015/06/americas-largest-mental-hospital-is-a-jail/395012/
(Freight Farms, 2022) | "Do Plants Improve Mental Health?" | 2022-05-10 | https://www.freightfarms.com/blog/farming-for-mental-health
(Gladwell, 20006) | Malcolm Gladwell | "Million Dollar Murray" | The New Yorker | 2006-02-13| P. 96 https://www.newyorker.com/magazine/2006/02/13/million-dollar-murray
(Gould Farm, 2024) | https://web.archive.org/web/20240322181214/https://www.gouldfarm.org/
(Harvey, 2020) | Mitchell Harvey, Alex Tam | "How Government Regulations Make Housing Unaffordable." | Mises Institute | 2020-07-08 | https://mises.org/mises-wire/how-government-regulations-make-housing-unaffordable
(NCVS, 2024) | 2024-06-29 | https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/National_Crime_Victimization_Survey
(Norman, 2016) | Abby Norman | "The Story Of Nellie Bly And Why Only A Woman Could Pull Off This Stunning Exposé Of A Victorian Mental Asylum" | All That's Interesting | 2016-11-25
(Peterson, 2024) | Carl Peterson | "Ciudad Morazán: A Libertarian City Without Any Libertarians" | Charter Cities Institute | 2024-04-29 | https://chartercitiesinstitute.org/blog-posts/ciudad-morazan-a-libertarian-city-without-any-libertarians/
(Press, 2016) | Eyal Press | 2016-04-25 | "Madness" | https://www.newyorker.com/magazine/2016/05/02/the-torturing-of-mentally-ill-prisoners
(Serena, 2022) | "The Forgotten Story Of Rosemary Kennedy, Who Was Lobotomized So That JFK Could Succeed" | https://allthatsinteresting.com/rosemary-kennedy
(Smith, 2024) | https://x.com/Noahpinion/status/1806008779286499406
(Soviet Psychiatry, 2024) | 2024-06-29 | https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Political_abuse_of_psychiatry_in_the_Soviet_Union
(Volokh, 2011) | Alexander Volokh | "The Constitutional Possibilities of Prison Vouchers" | OHIO STATE LA WJOURNA | Vol. 72:5 | 2011 | https://web.archive.org/web/20240629195500/https://kb.osu.edu/server/api/core/bitstreams/42c22179-9c51-5377-89f8-0357cbf2f825/content
(Washington Post, 2022) | Editorial Board | "How China weaponizes psychiatry against dissent" | Washington Post | 2022-08-19 | https://web.archive.org/web/20220821073324/https://www.washingtonpost.com/opinions/2022/08/19/china-psychiatry-mental-health-hospitals-punishment/
(Yglesias, 2022) | Matthew Iglesia | "Legalize housing, not tent encampments" |
