Belmont University student Jillian Ludwig was walking on a track in a local park when she was shot and critically wounded.

The Nashville district attorney called on Wednesday for the Tennessee legislature to make it easier to commit someone to a mental institution after a man who was previously released for incompetence to stand trial was accused of shooting an 18-year-old college student in the head.

Belmont University student Jillian Ludwig, of New Jersey, was walking on a track in a local park when she was shot and critically wounded at about 2:30 p.m. Tuesday, according to the Metro Nashville Police. They arrested Shaquille Taylor, 29, after surveillance video and witness statements pointed to him as the shooter.

“Taylor was shooting at a car when a bullet hit Ludwig in the head as she walked on a track in a park across the street,” police said on social media when announcing the arrest Wednesday.

  • @MotoAsh
    4•1 year ago

    We mostly need jail that’s not 100% punitive. If there were mental health services in there and a LOT less abuse, there should be zero issue with “locking up” mentally incompetent people: it would be exactly the 24/7 observation and help you’re asking for.

    • snooggums
      5•1 year ago

      We had those in the US, but Reagan shut them down instead of properly regulating them.

      • girlfreddy
        5•1 year ago

        Because they were literal shitholes in decrepit buildings who had loooong histories of viciously abusing their residents.

        The problem was they needed to be shut down, but first local supports needed to be put into place for them. Instead Reagan just booted people into the streets with zero money, zero training and zero supports. This was the start of the massive unhoused population increase you see playing out today.

        Btw the same thing happened at the same time in Canada, because we had a right-wing gov’t who was Reagan’s lapdog.

        • snooggums
          1•1 year ago

          No, they didn’t need to be shut down. They needed to be regulated and funded.

          • girlfreddy
            2•1 year ago

            Byberry opened in 1907 and closed in 1990.

            Trans-Allegheny opened in 1863 and closed in 1994.

            Willard Asylum opened in 1869 and closed in 1995.

            Danvers opened in 1878 and closed in 1985.

            These are just a few in the institutions that closed. As you can see the buildings were extremely old, so refurbishing/rebuilding them without fed funding (Reagan cut it in 1981) was impossible without massive tax increases neither the feds or states wanted.

            The stories attached also tell of abuses that occured in each institution.

            • snooggums
              0•1 year ago

              refurbishing/rebuilding them without fed funding (Reagan cut it in 1981) was impossible without massive tax increases

              Bullshit.

              Reagan cut funding as part of his “trickle down fails yet again like it always has” and that is why they weren’t funded. No increase was needed, slashing funding was the problem. Don’t repeat Reagan’s lies.

              • girlfreddy
                1•1 year ago

                source

                In 1963 President John F. Kennedy signs the Community Mental Health Act to provide federal funding for the construction of community-based preventive care and treatment facilities. Between the Vietnam War and an economic crisis, the program was never adequately funded (this is the last bill JFK signs before his death)

                In 1965, with the passage of Medicaid, states are incentivized to move patients out of state mental hospitals and into nursing homes and general hospitals because the program excludes coverage for people in “institutions for mental diseases.”

                The California Legislature passes the Lanterman-Petris-Short Act in 1967, which makes involuntary hospitalization of mentally ill people vastly more difficult. One year after the law goes into effect, the number of mentally ill people in the criminal-justice system doubles.

                President Jimmy Carter signs the Mental Health Systems Act in 1980, which aims to restructure the community mental-health-center program and improve services for people with chronic mental illness.

                Under President Ronald Reagan in 1981, the Omnibus Budget Reconciliation Act repeals Carter’s community health legislation and establishes block grants for the states, ending the federal government’s role in providing services to the mentally ill. Federal mental-health spending decreases by 30 percent.

    • girlfreddy
      2•1 year ago

      People needing mental health care should NEVER be in a jail. Full stop.