Democracy Only Works in Public View
The Mississippi attorney general's office releasing the TAC report, which details how the state should work to fix its children's mental- and behavioral-health care system, this week is just one in a line of recent examples where transparency could have enabled the democratic process to work in a more efficient way.
The report details what advocates, news reports and other state officials have repeatedly said when asked about Mississippi's system of mental-health care—we over-rely on institutions to serve those who need care instead of offering community or home-based services instead.
If this information was out in the open two years ago when researchers completed the report, the State could have spent two years working to fix the system instead of allowing its agencies to continue to make the same mistakes. The State could have made and shown progress out in the open, even if the attorney general wanted to continue legal discussions and possible settlement agreements in private.
Keeping the report secret didn't help anyone—not the taxpayer, lawmaker or especially the child with mental- or behavioral-health needs. The obvious fixes necessary to help the state's children are the same today as they were in 2015, and the report shows that they might be even more important now, since spending on institutional care for children increased from fiscal-year 2010 to fiscal-year 2014.
Read more: http://www.jacksonfreepress.com/news/2017/jun/21/democracy-only-works-public-view/
