Society Failed—And Another Innocent Person Paid the Price

by Richard Graves, Sept 7, 2025

"Empathy Without Accountability Is Deadly"

She fled a war only to die on a routine train ride. Iryna Zarutska, a Ukrainian refugee who came to the United States seeking safety, boarded a train in Charlotte expecting nothing more than a routine ride. Instead, her life ended violently when she was fatally stabbed by Decarlos Brown Jr., a 34-year-old homeless man with a long criminal record and a history of untreated mental illness. For Zarutska, America did not live up to its promise of refuge. For the rest of us, her death is a stark reminder of how our society fails to protect the innocent from those we already know are dangerous.

Brown’s history was no secret. He had multiple convictions, repeated encounters with law enforcement, and a well-documented psychiatric history. He should not have been unsupervised in public. Yet here we are—mourning a preventable tragedy because the systems designed to protect both the public and the mentally ill have been hollowed out by ideology and neglect.

Prisons Are Not the Problem—Policy Gaps After Release Are

Contrary to progressive narratives, prisons are not barren landscapes of neglect. After reforms such as the Rasho consent decree, correctional facilities have been compelled to expand psychiatric treatment, provide medication, and maintain consistent monitoring for incarcerated individuals (U.S. District Court, Central District of Illinois, 2018).

The breakdown happens when people like Brown are released. Society fails to ensure continuity of care. There is no enforcement of medication adherence, no mandated community treatment, and insufficient monitoring. As the Wall Street Journal editorial board noted, “the biggest failure of mental-health reform has been the lack of a system to ensure that patients continue treatment after discharge” (Wall Street Journal Editorial Board, 2023). Brown’s case is precisely what happens when that failure becomes reality.

The Bed Shortage and Policy Paralysis

The Washington Post recently reported that the U.S. is short nearly 40,000 psychiatric beds, creating an impossible bottleneck for those in crisis (Weiss, 2025). Instead of building capacity, progressive activists continue to argue for prison abolition—claiming that incarceration itself is the problem—while ignoring what happens when the severely mentally ill return to the streets untreated. This ideological stance misidentifies the issue, absolves policymakers of responsibility, and leaves vulnerable citizens like Zarutska at risk.

Peer-reviewed research reinforces this truth. A study in Scientific Reports demonstrated that people experiencing homelessness with untreated serious mental illness are significantly more likely to commit crimes, particularly when disconnected from consistent care (Parpouchi et al., 2021). Neglecting this reality is not compassion—it is cruelty disguised as empathy.

Empathy Without Accountability Is Deadly

Ms. Zarutska was not a policymaker or an activist. She was simply a woman trying to live her life in peace after escaping war. She deserved safety. Yet she was killed because the public safety systems that should have addressed Brown’s risks failed to act.

This tragedy forces us to revisit debates like the one surrounding Daniel Penny in New York. Many condemned him for intervening against a mentally ill man behaving erratically on a subway. But incidents like this remind us: misplaced empathy that prevents us from addressing real threats can cost lives. Compassion must be paired with accountability, or else it becomes dangerous.

Solutions That Confront Reality

If we want to be proactive to possibly prevent the next tragedy, we need solutions grounded in reality, not ideology:

• Mandatory continuity of care: Require treatment and medication compliance for high-risk individuals after release.

• Expanded psychiatric infrastructure: Address the 40,000-bed gap with serious investment (Weiss, 2025).

• Probationary treatment mandates: Evidence shows mandated treatment cuts recidivism by 36% while saving taxpayer money (Nesbit, 2022).

• Supportive housing tied to treatment: Providing both shelter and healthcare reduces both arrests and emergency hospitalizations (Stanford SIEPR, 2024).

The debate should not be whether prisons exist, but how society handles the transition from custody to community. Without accountability and treatment, we invite more tragedy—not less.

Conclusion

Iryna Zarutska’s death was not just a crime; it was a policy failure. A woman who escaped war became the victim of our refusal to deal honestly with mental illness, public safety, and criminal accountability. As long as we cling to empty slogans about prison abolition while ignoring the societal realities of untreated mental illness and repeat offenders, more innocent lives will be lost.

The arithmetic of this failure is simple: society refused to act, and Zarutska paid with her life.

References

Nesbit, R. (2022). The role of mandated mental health treatment in the criminal justice system [Working paper]. arXiv. https://arxiv.org/abs/2212.06736

Parpouchi, M., Moniruzzaman, A., Buxton, J. A., & Somers, J. M. (2021). Multivariable modelling of factors associated with criminal convictions among people experiencing homelessness and serious mental illness. Scientific Reports, 11(16610). https://doi.org/10.1038/s41598-021-96186-x

Stanford Institute for Economic Policy Research. (2024). How better access to mental health care can reduce crime. Stanford University. https://siepr.stanford.edu/publications/policy-brief/how-better-access-mental-health-care-can-reduce-crime

U.S. District Court, Central District of Illinois. (2018). Rasho v. Walker: Consent decree. Retrieved from https://www.aclu-il.org/en/cases/rasho-v-walker

Wall Street Journal Editorial Board. (2023, May 22). The missing link in mental health reform. Wall Street Journal. https://www.wsj.com

Weiss, M. (2025, August 18). Involuntary commitment got a bad rap. The streets got more dangerous. Washington Post. https://www.washingtonpost.com/opinions/2025/08/18/involuntary-commitment-homelessness-trump