I am in Canada and can say there are no private prisons or jails in this country.

Also I was not put in a mental health court but the prosecutor referred me to mental health diversion. Upon completion of the diversion program, which just consisted of meeting a nurse twice and that nurse getting a letter from my psychiatrist, all remaining charges were dropped. Some of the charges were dropped early on, so I ended up with no charges.

I did other illegal things when I was ill that I wouldn't repeat even on an anonymous forum. They were not 'minor'. I feel lucky to have gotten out of that last episode with no criminal record. Of course it is in my medical record that I was 'cared for' in a forensic psychiatric hospital.

We also have homeless people in Canada, or in the depths of winter a lot of people in homeless shelters or hospitals. Various foundations have grouped together in my city for a 'housing first' initiative to get homeless people into permanent housing.

I met a man in a sitting area outside a hospital when I was sectioned once into a psych ward and was out on a smoking break (this is back when I used to smoke). He was missing all 4 limbs and had mechanical hooks for hands and got around in a wheel chair. When i asked him what had happened he said he had been homeless and got frost bite. That was why he had all 4 limbs amputated.