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Partly because country life was thought to be healthier, the asylum has traditionally been located there. It need not be. Older urban hospitals, now being closed, could be turned into institutions to care for the homeless mentally ill. There is no need for warehousing. Smaller-scale urban or suburban clinics will do. The crucial feature of asylum is not isolation or size. It is control.
The civil libertarians will protest this control. They already are protesting. When Koch announced his roundup plan, he was vigorously opposed by the American Civil Liberties Union.
Liberty counts for much, but not enough to turn away from those who are hopelessly overwhelmed by the demands of modern life. To permit those who would flounder even in the slowest lane to fend for themselves on very mean streets is an act not of social liberality but of neglect bordering on cruelty. In the name of a liberty that illness does not allow them to enjoy, we have condemned the homeless mentally ill to die with their rights on. --By Charles Krauthammer