The new asylums: How Utah traps the mentally ill behind bars

PROVO — Across Utah, nearly 70 mentally ill men and women who are supposed to be receiving mental health treatment are instead trapped in jail cells.They're getting sicker. They're being released without treatment. They're dying.They're not supposed to be there.Charged with crimes but too sick to answer for them in court, they are stuck, waiting for an opening at the only facility in the state that can prepare them to face the legal system — the Utah State Hospital in Provo.The Deser