Civil Lunacy?

by: megan smith
In Nigeria, it has become common practice to jail mentally handicapped individuals, affectionately labeled as 'civil lunatics' . In most cases, these individuals are brought to court and jailed indefinitely by policemen, and even family members for either committing a minor crime, or no crime at all. "Civil lunatics are people that the society doesn't want to be roaming around causing problems." states one prison controller. A prison environment is obviously not a beneficial one for mentally handicapped individuals, and the state realizes that in order to thrive and get better, these people need a hospital environment...yet nothing is being done. At the current time, those few people who are concerned about these individuals are begging church communities and individuals to come and take these 'civil lunatics' in and show them love. Whether this plea for help will actually cause results, and get these people out of such terrible environments, only time will tell.