Sometimes irresponsible fiscal measures and politically correct refusal to acknowledge unpopular realities can be deadly. There has been a recent spate of newspaper articles chronicaling assaults by relatively young mentally ill persons placed in nursing homes, on elderly residents. The nursing home placements of the mentally ill are made because of a shortage of appropriately staffed community residential programs. In one recent case, a 30 year old man with severe schizophrenia, murdered his frail roommate by smashing him in the face with an alarm clock. Placing young, strong people with severe mental illness, in nursing homes is a profoundly ignorant idea. It is no answer that most people with mental illness are not dangerous. Nor is acknowledgment of the foolishness of the policy a demonization of people struggling with mental illness. Frail elderly individuals who must live in nursing homes, are there precisely because they cannot care for themselves. To force them to live amongst mentally unstable persons who are not frail, and may be physically strong is beyond irresponsible. In a civil case by an elderly nursing home resident, victimized by a young, mentally ill resident, the placement of the mentally ill abuser should be prima facie evidence of negligence on the part of the home.