Crime & Punishment

I’ve posted a few times on my ideas for reforming the prison system. This incident in New York is a good example of the problems in our handling of the defectives.

The state gave him no meds and no psychiatric referral, releasing the murderous ticking time bomb from prison on an unsuspecting public.

Daniel St. Hubert, a paranoid schizophrenic who spent five years in the slammer for trying to strangle his mom with an electrical cord, was operating with barely any safety net when he was sprung last month.

Nine days after he walked out of the upstate Clinton Correctional Facility, police say, he used a steak knife to kill a 6-year-old boy and seriously hurt his 7-year-old playmate at a Brooklyn housing project.

Police also suspect St. Hubert killed an 18-year-old college student and critically injured a 53-year-old homeless man.

St. Hubert’s sister said she pleaded with officials for help for her mentally ill brother before and after he was released May 23 from prison.

Judith Perry said he was diagnosed as a paranoid schizophrenic with aspects of drug-induced psychosis.

“I begged them and they didn’t do it,” she told the Daily News on Thursday.

“I spoke to the social worker in regards to his mental capacity and when will he be able to see a doctor. They told me it doesn’t happen right away. It usually takes a couple of weeks. Usually they’re discharged with medication.”

Prison officials declined to discuss whether St. Hubert was treated for mental illness behind bars. Records show he was committed to mental health facilities three times — once in 2010 and twice in 2011.

You have the whole range of pathologies on display here. First you have a person with a long history of violence being released from prison. Even not knowing about his mental condition, no responsible adult should sign off on this act, but our prisons are not run by responsible adults.

Then you have the mental problems. That alone should have kept this person off the streets. There’s no fixing this man with current technology. Only a lunatic would think putting a monster in a cage for a given period of time changes the nature of the monster.

The bigger issue, the real root of what ails us as a civilization, is the insularity of the government functionaries. This madman went through the system. Government bureaucrats signed off on his release. We should be able to easily get this information and know who, exactly, is responsible for letting this maniac loose on the public. This will never happen. No one will be named. No one will be sanctioned. No one will be held accountable to the people.

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