Mentally ill need care, not prison

This letter is in response to the Eric Rupp case. What kind of judge would rule that a man who really believed that his family was grooming him to become president of the United States is competent and then unbelievably allow him to act as his own attorney?

All too often in this country the mentally ill are simply thrown into prison instead of getting the medical attention they need.

Schizophrenia is a disease just like any other disease: heart disease, cancer, diabetes. Would it be fair to put a man in prison who while driving had a heart attack and killed someone? It seems a shame that so much ignorance about mental illness still exists in this day and age.

Marysville