Putting The Mentally Ill To Work





from the Associated Press :

KANSAS CITY, Mo. - Two people have been charged with holding six mentally ill patients at group homes and making them work against their will, authorities said.

A man and a woman were arrested Tuesday under a federal law banning involuntary servitude after 20 FBI agents searched two group homes in Newton, Kan.

The agents rescued four adults from one home and two from the other, FBI spokesman Jeff Lanza said. The identities of the two people who were arrested were not immediately released.

The six mentally ill individuals had lived in the homes for “a long period of time,” Lanza said. It was not immediately clear what type of work they had been forced to perform.

Though there's nothing funny about the mistreatment of the mentally ill (or selling 7" singles by The Mentally Ill on eBay), let's consider what "involuntary servitude" really means. Whom in their right mind actually wants to go to work? And if going along with this forced labor plan ins an indication of mental illness, what does that say about all the other wage slaves out there? I'd think it would be pretty difficult to get mentally ill people into the workplace mainstream, so perhaps this was just a pushier way of doing so.

Posted: Wed - October 27, 2004 at 12:16 PM      

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