There are some two million Americans with schizophrenia. About 150,000 are homeless and living in the streets according to Dr. E. Fuller Torrey. Another 150,000 are in jail, usually for minor offenses. Governments have not been very compassionate to people who develop schizophrenia. The impact and cost of the illness is not appreciated and resources are not utilized optimally.
People taking appropriate medication, though, are unlikely to get in any trouble with the law.
There is a very promising trend these days to an early diagnosis with prompt treatment with new atypical medications which treat positive, negative, mood and cognitive symptoms and those people seem to recover very well, especially with family education and community support. I expect they will be able to return to a much more normal life. I have heard researchers say that in the next ten years they will have drugs ten times better than what they have now, that essentially there will be control of this illness such that people with schizophrenia will be able to lead relatively normal lives. It is none the less a serious and potentially very destructive illness, that is not understood very well by anyone. There is a lot of suffering associated with schizophrenia, and it has historically been so disabling that many people with schizophrenia have never married, many have never worked, and many had such poor recoveries, they needed someone to help them live day to day.