This is the saddest part. What would she become if we gave her a fair chance?

Nobody knows. Perhaps something better. Perhaps the same.

When you see homeless people on the subway, you might rationalize that they’re all junkie, and therefore, it’s their blame that they’re homeless, dirty, and mentally challenged.

That would be irrational.

Would you say that a person with schizophrenia without medication is equally responsible for his action? Would you punish him with a prison?

The US does not, as a general rule, have a taxpayer funded mental health intervention infrastructure. Some intervention exists at the local level (city, county) but outside of the large ones….there’s not much.

But we’re transitioning here to a different discussion. The woman who was featured in the posted article did not claim any sort of certifiable mental disorder.

Numbers don’t lie. America has a punishment problem. You love to blame others, when in fact, it’s our blame. We’re equally responsible for that 13-year-old kid with a rifle in his school.

I’d have to disagree. You’re conflating a criminal act and its extenuating circumstances. There are indeed social factors which make one more inclined to commit crimes, but as long as the individual retains the ability to distinguish between right and wrong, they retain responsibility for the act.

If we focused more on rehabilitation and a healthy environment, we wouldn’t have to punish people as much. (Case: Norway, Sweden, Denmark, Switzerland, and basically the whole of Western Europe…)

Hard to make those comparisons. You’re talking small, homogenous nations and comparing them to a large, diverse one.