What would you choose, if you had to, between jail and a psychiatric hospital?

I’ve been in both as a student observer in 2 different college courses. The idea of being on psychoactive meds all day is not appealing. The idea of being forced to join a Neo-Nazi gang or risk getting raped or shived sounds worse.

I think I’d pick jail. Seems a lot safer to me. And I think I’d stand a better chance of getting out in a reasonable length of time.

Psychiatric hospital, for sure.

In prison, gang rapes are common and guards and wardens are idiots and never helpful.

In a psychiatric hospital, there are at least a few professionals, and they are at least in theory trying to help you.

Jail. In a cell by myself.

Hospital. I’m most likely the biggest person. You get priviages that prisoners don’t get. Also the food is better.

@luigirovatti I’d give you another chance and recommend that you undergo extensive therapy.

From what I know of, when crimes have been committed where there was an option (for example, James Hinckley who shot President Reagan), and the person is put into a psych hospital, there is no end date. They can be in the psych hospital indefinitely. Still, I’d probably choose the hospital over the jail. Jail seems like the less appealing choice, to me, if that’s a good description.

There’s a huge difference between jail and prison. There is also a huge difference in the prisons reserved for upper crust Club Fed prisons and the ones for us common folk. The same is true regarding psychiatric facilities. If you have the money, these can be the equivalent of luxury hotels. Ideally, I would prefer to have my choice of jails or hospitals rather than choose between the 2 categories.

Psychiatric ward.

Prison can beat your mind to death too. At least in the psych ward they don’t punish you above and beyond imprisonment. They don’t force you to relieve yourself in full view of everyone. They don’t feed you card board for breakfast and tell you it’s cereal.

Prison. In prison I at least know that I’m getting out. And state-ran psych wards are pretty goddamn atrocious themselves. There’s a reason why the “insanity defense” is used in less than 1% of criminal cases. Attorneys know it’s a worse deal for their client.

I would choose a psychiatric hospital. It seems less scary to me.

If I had to wait until I was found to be sane, it would be a long stretch.
However, jail would be much more dangerous. I wouldn’t want to go through that.

Psychiatric hospitals seem to be far more interesting, too.

Although to really be insane would probably be worse than merely being a criminal, which takes some street smarts and mental clarity.

Jails are hotbeds for Covid-19.

Psychiatric hospitals are pretty full right now with people who claim to be time travelers sent back to stop Trump.

Another reason I think a psychiatric hospital would be better is because the food would HAVE to be better than jail food. In jail, they seem to use to the food as a way to inflict more punishment on the inmates.