Institutionalize is a nice, clinical sounding word, but what it means is incarcerate. Imprison.
You are talking about locking up people without them committing any crime, without any trial, without them having any appeal or defense, for a week, or a year, or their entire life.
You, I suspect, would condemn a police authority who wanted to imprison whoever it liked, for however long it liked, on grounds of serving the general good. It is just as wrong to give a medical authority those powers and declare they'll only be used to help the people they're imprisoning.
Well - let's keep this in context. I lived in Vancouver both Pre/Post Institutionalization - and I'm pretty certain those people who are chronically homeless lived much better and happier lives when they had a warm home to sleep in, and people to watch out after them.
And, I don't know what institutions you are referring to, but Riverview (one of the mental health institutions) had a Bus Stop in it. Crazy people were always getting on board - It's true that people who posed a threat to themselves or others, or were in for evaluation to determine if that were the case had their ability to leave restricted - but I don't think "Institution" and "Prison" are synonymous.
You are talking about locking up people without them committing any crime, without any trial, without them having any appeal or defense, for a week, or a year, or their entire life.
Not at all. In Canada, at least, people in psychiatric institutions have ample opportunity to challenge their detention. Their cases are reviewed and they are considered for release far more often than those who are convicted of crimes are.
In the bad old days in the U.S., crazy people, or people deemed crazy, could be kept in a mental institution against their will for years and years. When I hear people decrying deinstitutionalization, I assume they want to return to those bad old days.
Institutionalize is a nice, clinical sounding word, but what it means is incarcerate. Imprison.
You are talking about locking up people without them committing any crime, without any trial, without them having any appeal or defense, for a week, or a year, or their entire life.
You, I suspect, would condemn a police authority who wanted to imprison whoever it liked, for however long it liked, on grounds of serving the general good. It is just as wrong to give a medical authority those powers and declare they'll only be used to help the people they're imprisoning.