Joseph Caputo, a man who jumped the White House fence on Thanksgiving day, had his first appearance in court on Friday and was sent to have a psychiatric evaluation. He has another hearing scheduled on Monday after he is evaluated at the Comprehensive Psychiatric Emergency Program at St. Elizabeth Hospital. Caputo had left a suicide note with two associates and a message to his mother in which he said he might not see her again. He made statements, such as "I love my country" and "I knew I would be locked up" after he was caught by secret service agents on Thursday.
I think it is a good thing that the court decided to send this man to get a mental evaluation, and possibly help him after he is evaluated. That is very different from life in the 1800s, when mentally ill people were believed to be acting the way they were by choice. Thanks to Dorthea Dix, it became evident that mental illness was not a choice of the individual, but rather something they could not help.
I'm glad that instead of treating mentally ill people as monsters, they send them to get help, which is a huge improvement from the mid 1800s (Bella Di Fazio pd:8)
ReplyDeleteBrenna Hale(6th Period)
ReplyDeleteI wonder what he planned to do if he made it to the President? What provoked his jumping over the fence? I agree that it's great that treatment and understanding of mentally ill patients has evolved to be more humane.