It was Reagan's administration, in the 1980's, that killed off mental health inpatient care for good. For a while they were funneled through our over-crowded prisons, but the mentally ill don't make for good criminals or slave labor or even defendants in our criminal justice system. Unfortunately these are the folks that usually fall through the cracks, like our homeless war veterans they share the streets with. It's hard to "take your meds" in that situation.