Crime Prevention

It looks like you can get treatment for mental illness in Maine- as long as you first commit a crime ("Woman admits to torching home" Feb. 6)

Christine Bissonnette had been off, and on, treatment for her mental illness since 2002, like some others who are mentally ill. She had also been convicted of assault and had multiple brushes with the law.

Yet it took burning down her own home before a court could step in and order her to treatment.

Forty-one other states allow someone to be court ordered to outpatient mental health treatment in a civil court. Only eight states, including Maine, wait to allow court ordered outpatient treatment until someone is standing in criminal court. In one state in which participants use assisted outpatient treatment, 83 percent fewer experienced arrest.

Bissonnette and others in Maine with severe mental illness deserve compassionate intervention before a crime is committed.

Mary Zdanowicz, Arlington, Va.

Editor's Note: The writer is founder of the Treatment Advocacy Center, a mental health advocacy organization.