I hate this sort of article. Just someone banging out words for a deadline.

>Yet there is little available data that draws a neat line between mental illness and crime, let alone violent crime.

Ok, so there's "little available data that draws a neat line"? Surely they'll discuss what that small amount of data is? No? No.

>Several studies, which did not look specifically at New York City, have concluded that people with mental illness are more likely to be victims of crime than perpetrators.

Gibberish, since it does not refute the idea that people with mental illness are more likely to commit crimes than people without mental illness.

>Experts in mental health care said they want to see the city and state taking more direct steps to help people who may need housing and psychiatric care. But they are concerned that the new policy isn’t nuanced enough to avoid criminalizing mental illness broadly, especially without clear data that shows a relationship between mental crisis and committing crimes.

Ok, now the writer is asserting--providing no evidence--that there are no "clear data that shows a relationship between mental crisis and committing crimes." I guess "little clear data" means "no clear data" in this universe.

>[Quote from a guy who doesn't like the policy]

Ok.

>Several high-profile crimes in recent years have drawn attention to mental illness as a possible predictor for assaults, or worse. Perhaps most infamously, the man who pushed Michelle Go in front of a subway train in January was deemed mentally unfit for trial.

>In May, police officials offered statistics at a City Council hearing showing that at least half of people arrested for hate crimes in the first four months of the year were already designated by the department as “emotionally disturbed.”

So far, the only data presented in the article suggests there actually may be some correlation between mental illness and criminal activity.

>[several paragraphs of Adams saying stuff.>

Ok.

>Yet experts said that Adams’ rhetoric broadly tying mental illness to crime was unfounded.

Ok, now presumably we're going to have an expert explain how it's not true that people with mental illness are more likely to commit crimes. . .

>"There's no cause and effect (of) if someone has a mental illness, they’re inevitably going to commit a violent crime. Absolutely not the case,” said Ruth O’Sullivan, the clinical director for Brooklyn Mental Health Court.

But instead we got an expert saying that having mental illness doesn't automatically mean you will commit violent crimes. Again, this is off-point gibberish.

A few paragraphs on . . .

>While data tends to show a connection between incarceration and mental illness, experts said it’s not clear that there is any causal relationship between having a chronic issue such as schizophrenia or a behavioral disorder and committing crimes. Jail may exacerbate mental illness due to lack of treatment, they said.

Ok, so now we learn that there is in fact a correlation between incarceration and mental illness, but we're told to ignore that because unnamed "experts" say that incarceration may cause mental illness. Fair enough.

A few paragraphs on:

>To be sure, O’Sullivan said she believes, based on her experience, that people experiencing both a total lack of shelter and untreated mental illness are more likely to commit acts of violence.

So now we're almost at the end of this article and the writer drops the statement that an expert believes that homeless mentally ill people are more likely to commit violent crimes.