It was around 11 o'clock on a summer Sunday morning in July.  The air was warm but not yet hot.  The young man of 20 stood outside one of those trendy coffee emporia in an equally trendy Oakland County suburb, the green, white and black logo of the store sign an unmistakable icon of popular American culture. The establishment was filled with middle-class customers, sipping cappuccinos and mochas and eating flavored scones and biscotti.

The young man looked out of place.  With the temperature approaching 80, he was wearing too many clothes for the heat, long pants and several layers of shirts, the outer one being long-sleeved.  He was not wearing shoes but wore dirty, heavy white socks.  His hair was bushy and too long, his face unshaven.  A dark bandana circled his neck, cowboy style, and sunglasses obscured his eyes.  He carried a guitar over his shoulder, ready to play, which was connected by a cable to a small aquamarine amplifier which hung off his belt.  He looked nothing like the freshly scrubbed, khaki and designer-clad patrons imbibing various forms caffeine inside.

The young man's movements were jerky, sudden and subtly off-balance.  Had anyone been able to see behind his sunglasses, they would have seen deep blue-green eyes filled with intensity and fear.  He was smiling and speaking to the people coming in and out of the coffee establishment.  A few people responded, but most ignored him or just looked at him strangely and walked by.

The presence of this young man did not create the kind of ambiance the chain's operation manual directed its employees to provide its customers, so eventually someone inside the coffee place called the police.  Two officers arrived and asked the young man to pick up his belongings and move away from the area.  The young man seemed confused and sat down on a sidewalk bench.  The officers again asked him to move, but he remained immobile, not seeming to fully comprehend what was occurring.  When asked his name, he gave the name of his "guitar persona." Only after repeated questioning was he able to give his true name.  Finally, when he became more confused and would not rise from the bench, the police arrested the young man and took him off to their jail.

After being booked and the passage of several hours, the young man called his family and was bailed out.  He was charged with a the misdemeanors of "blocking a police officer" and "providing a false identification."  The bail was $100.

A few days later, the young man's psychiatrist wrote a letter to the suburb's City Attorney, who was acting as the prosecutor of the case.  The letter set forth the nature and severity of the young man's mental illness, that he was struggling mightily with his disease, that he was not homicidal or suicidal nor violent or a danger to anyone else, that had been prescribed medications and was under the doctor's care.  The letter stated that he was not a criminal in any true sense of that word and the psychiatrist asked that the charge against the young man be dropped.

The young man's father took that letter to the City Attorney and asked that the charges be dismissed.  The City Attorney read the letter but declined to dismiss the case.  "He has to be arraigned," the City Attorney said.  "We have to follow procedure."

The young man's father pointed out no rational purpose could be served by requiring an arraignment and that his son was too ill to comprehend any arraignment proceeding or understand the charges against him.  The City Attorney replied, "Well, I have never dismissed a case without an arraignment before.  I have to see him."  The father then asked the reason for having to "see" his son before dismissing the charge, as there was overwhelming and uncontroverted medical evidence of the nature and degree of young man's mental illness.  The father further respectfully pointed out that the City Attorney was not qualified to make a medical assessment of his son's mental state, but that she had a complete evaluation of exactly that already in the form of the psychiatrist's letter.  The City Attorney had no facile response to that point but remained unmoved.

Finally, the City Attorney said the case could not dismissed the case before an arraignment because the young man could then sue the City for false arrest.  The father then assured the City Attorney that it would be agreed in writing that there had been probable cause for the arrest and that a release could be signed, making a civil lawsuit impossible.  Again, without directly responding to the point, the prosecutor refused to dismiss the case.

Some weeks later, clear-thinking heads prevailed and the case was dismissed.

With the closure of almost all of the state mental hospital system in Michigan and in many other states, the job of dealing with the issue of mentally ill people in public places has increasingly and sadly fallen upon the police.  The percentage of jail and prison inmates composed of mentally ill persons incarcerated for no crime other than displaying benign and harmless symptoms of mental illness in a public place is steadily increasing.  With no state hospitals available to which to send these people, they become criminals for merely being ill, for being, like the young man whose story is told here, something unpleasant to look at on a summer Sunday morning.

This young man's case had no business in the criminal justice system.  He was an indisputably mentally ill individual being prosecuted for the act of sitting on a public bench.  However, like almost all legal matters, the case took on a life of its own and became increasingly difficult to stop as it gathered momentum and moved through the system.

If a person with a highly contagious disease were to walk down the street, should that person be arrested for being ill in public?  Obviously not.  Such a person requires medical, not legal attention.  Why should it be any different for the mentally ill, who have no more power over their disease than does anyone suffering from another kind of illness?  A person suffering from schizophrenia or bipolar disorder no more chooses to be ill than does a diabetic or cancer victim.  Yet we close the hospitals to help them and they fill our jails instead.

The proper thing for the police to have done in this case would have been to call the county's Community Mental Health Department to assess the obviously ill young man and take whatever actions were needed for him.  But arresting him was easier and quicker, thus criminalizing his disease.  It is time our police, courts and prosecutors stop using the criminal justice system as an alternative to medical treatment for the mentally ill and give these unfortunate people the help they so desperately need and deserve.