I work in community mental health and we are stretched thin -
My county population is over 600,000. There are currently 8 of us - NPs and MDs that serve this entire county's mental health needs for out patient services. We already do some diversion services - meaning we have mental health and drug court in our county. So a judge has the option of sending someone to mental health or substance abuse treatment instead of jail. We have counselors as well. Not enough of them either. Our turnover is high. No-one wants to stay because its unbearable at times to work with this many people and provide quality care for them. Not only do they have mental heath or substance use care needs, they have housing needs, health care needs, job training needs and so much else.
So while I am trained as a psychiatric nurse practitioner - my training in school - diagnose mental illness and prescribe medication. My job goes way beyond that when I have someone sitting in front of me crying that they have nowhere to sleep tonight, they have no food, they are going to violate probation and go back to jail because they have no job and can't pay their probation fees and on and on and on.

I will go further - one of my weekly assignments is to see people in jail that are getting ready to be released. I see them via telemedicine. I don't get their legal records. Only medical records. The county pays for them to get 30 days worth of meds when they leave jail. That is what I am supposed to do when I see them. I go even further and tell them to make a follow up appt with the clinic after they are released so they can continue their treatment. But what I really want to drive home is time after time whenI ask them why are you in jail, the answer is usually VOP. I have been doing this for almost a year now and in the beginning I had no idea what the hell VOP was. It rolls off their tongues so effortlessly. It's just a way of life. Almost everyone, has numerous VOPs. VOP- Violation of Probation. So its this cycle of Jail, Release, Violation, Jail, Release, Violation and rinse and repeat.
So now, my next question after they say is VOP, is what was your original charge?
It is usually possession of drugs, DUI, theft (usually to support their addiction), prostitution, shoplifting, sometimes battery if they have gotten into a fight. But a lot of it is substance abuse related. Or even the battery charges stem from dysfunctional family or intimate relationships when you hear what happened. Its usually not a random stranger they got in a fight with.

What we are doing is not working folks. If anyone is really interested in protecting the safety of the public, they should understand that this system does not work. Even if people are angry at drunk drivers and say that they should go to jail. I can tell you that jail is not going to deter them if they are not given treatment and resources.

I am actually concerned about this conversation surrounding getting mental health involved when people don't actually know how the system actually works, we that are already involved - are already overwhelmed. If people don't understand what actually happens and think that you can just funnel more people without vastly funding the mental health system, an already broken system will collapse.

It’s weird how often phrases that criticize aspects of American society get turned right around and are used uncritically to uphold those very same aspects of society.

The phrase “a few bad apples” is literally shorthand for “a few bad apples spoils a bunch”, as in, failing to remove a small bit of rot at the earliest opportunity will result in the spread of that rot through the system. Which is both true, and the exact opposite of what pretty much anyone who uses the term “a few bad apples” means.