What?? We desperately need mental health institutions back. No, we don’t need the romanticized victorian dungeons, but what we do need is an alternative to jails. Secure treatment facilities. We have… four, on the west coast. Two of which have at most ~160 beds. The priority waiting list for admission is decades long (no, that isnt an exaggeration) and there isn’t a non-priority waiting list. If you’re not a priority, you just go to jail!
Community treatment is critical and we totally lack anything like it, but good god deinstitutionalization was one of the biggest public health and social equity diasters this country has ever had.