Responsibility

Last weekend there was a murder at a local group home. The victim was 50-year-old Joseph Beaudoin, the roommate of 20-year-old Edward "Teddy" Shuman, who is charged with the crime. Teddy has a history of violent outbursts which have resulted in injury to others in the past, but nothing close to what happened to Mr. Beaudoin. Teddy told the police that he tightened a belt around Beaudoin's neck until he stopped breathing and turned blue, yet he insists that he did nothing wrong. He's been in and out of institutionalized care since age 7 when he started displaying uncontrollable violent outbursts.

Who is responsible here?
We have a dead man, and the murderer has an IQ of about 42 who knows what he did, but doesn't believe he did anything wrong.
We have parents who have tried everything to get proper care for their son since they adopted him at 18 months.
We have a state mental health system which had no reason to believe that Teddy was capable of this level of violence and believed that putting him in a residential setting was acceptable.
We have a residential facility which, under state guidelines, matched Teddy with a roommate he killed less than a week after being transferred there from a state hospital.

Who is responsible? I have no idea. But one thing's for sure. We have failed BOTH Teddy Shuman AND Joseph Beaudoin. I know Teddy needed more care than he was afforded, but now he's in the criminal justice system- a place I'm afraid he will get lost in and not get the care he truly needs.

(story linked to H&I Fires post at The Castle Argghhh!, home of Jonah's Military Guy, LuvMuffin and SugarButtons)