Good. People with mental health issues should find this encouraging and will hopefully be more inclined to get treatment rather than trying to fight their illness secretly until something terrible happens.
It isn't a hopeless situation to have mental illness.
Yeah sure, we can totally expect people dealing with schizophrenia to the extent that they're contemplating dismembering fellow human beings for no reason, to accurately assess their mental state and make that treatment plan.
NO! A person with at least that amount of sanity, won't want the stigma of being labeled as schizophrenic, and what if they are forced to take medication that has bad side effects? Many people with mental illness DO go off their meds because of the side effects. It's not like they just wake up one day and say to themselves "I think I'd rather be insane again", rather that unless there is a specific environmental cause that can be removed instead, managing mental illness is not an on/off switch flipped by a pill, makes a person different, not whole, so to some extent, in some cases it can be hopeless.
That's the problem right there. This isn't about this guy. This is about all the people dealing with lower level stuff who can be led to believe that their situation is hopeless and that there's no amount of treatment available that could help them.
No, this really is about this guy, We don't lock people away then become shocked that they're released if the worst thing they've done is become a victim to mental illness. This is about nobody else except those, mentally ill or not, that commit such gruesome, senseless crimes.
I hate to break it to you, but there are many people who remain batshit crazy until the day they die. Hope and optimism is a lovely notion but the reality is that if we look at all criminals like this, we have completely undermined the deterrence to crime. I'd be MUCH more comfortable with releasing a murderer from prison who wasn't severely mentally ill because at least that person has more control of themselves.
This guy wasn't some adolescent mind in a bad situation, rather a 40 year old with a college degree. If you make it that far in life and still can't cope with your own demons without beheading people, you're beyond hope.
Remember, just as there are sane people who commit crimes and others who don't, the same standard has to apply to those mentally ill. This is not a discussion about mental illness. This is one about a vicious murderer. Some murderers are short. Some are tall. Some have brown eyes, some have blue. Some like roast beef and some cry wee wee wee all the way home. Makes no difference to the victim.