Taylor Kuhn
retail
“People forget about people who need mental services. It’s sad that we put them somewhere and forget about them; they genuinely need help.”
Kira Castellanos
restaurant management
“We need programs within jails so that offenders don’t become repeat offenders, and we don’t need more jails. But funding needs to go to mental health—after Reagan, finding help for your disabilities is so hard to do without insurance.”
Marcos Ramirez
student
“Most people in jail, it’s not because they’re rapists or killers. It’s because they’ve got drug problems. The prisoners should be the rapists or the killers, and we need to fund other programs.”
Jessie Marceleno
security guard
“We need more help for the mentally ill, but sometimes they cheat the system. It pisses me off.”
This article appears in Jun 25 – Jul 2, 2015.