Let me repeat the question

So here's the latest chapter from Lois.

Her son Kevin, now home and on parole---thank God---was mistakenly arrested! Can you believe that?

A week ago, on a Sunday night, someone is at the door and says Kevin violated his parole. No paper work to prove it. His Parole Agent was not involved, and didn't even know this was going on.

Now you gotta remember that this is not a normal situation. Kevin was incarcerated as a little kid, a juvenile, on a mickey mouse charge...mainly because he was and is mentally challenged. Thus began a long, rocky road in the prison system which doesn't know how to deal with the mentally ill. His mother deserves a badge of honor for her fight all of these years to keep him alive and well, and to get him outta there. It was a living hell...serious injury, serious abuse, suicide attempts. But Kevin is free, and he's doing well.

But then someone says he violated parole and must go to jail. Lois is beside herself, because she remembers that day years ago when Kevin went to jail and had a meltdown which resulted in a trip back to the Michigan prison system.

Well fortunately, that didn't happen this time. Kevin's medications kicked in and he handled it well. Lois was able to contact the parole officer and persuade her that there had been a mistake. She knew Kevin had not violated parole. And within four hours, he was released from jail.

No one is explaining the error. No one is apologizing for this terrible episode.

If family is important to the MDOC, and if we really do want to take measures to make sure the mentally ill get appropriate care, there MUST be some safeguards against situations like this.

Shameful. Unacceptable.

Comments

Post a Comment

Popular posts from this blog

Half-a-race!

The HFP Drag-Racing Fund-Raiser had the potential of being extremely successful, and could have raised several thousand dollars. Let's just say it was partly successful. For background purposes I'll explain that I was racing a 1963 supercharged Studebaker Lark that has a reputation of being one of the fastest stock Studebakers in drag racing today. The engine was built by one of the finest Studebaker engine mechanics in the country, and the car many times has achieved quarter-mile runs in less than 14 seconds! We promised to make at least ten passes in the Pure Stock Muscle Car Drags at Mid-Michigan Motorplex in Stanton, Michigan, this past weekend, and we asked for pledges ONLY ON THOSE RUNS REACHED IN LESS THAN 14 SECONDS. On Friday, here's how we fared: Run #1 13.936 @ 101.24 mph Run #2 14.027 @ 101.30 mph Run #3 14.091 @ 100.88 mph Run #4 13.805 @ 102.84 mph Run #5 14.058 @ 101.26 mph By the 5th run we discovered that ...
Read more

Gregory John McCormick: 1964-2008

Itchy is dead. The lifeless body of this talented rock musician, whose band Shock Therapy was a popular group especially in Europe, was found in a field in Detroit last Wednesday, November 5. The Wayne County Coroner's office informed father Glenn McCormick that the body of his son Gregory, better known to all of us as Itchy, bore no signs of trauma. Glenn said that Itchy, who had been living at his father's dental lab in Detroit, had been drinking to excess for some time. While the toxicology report has not been released yet, the general consensus seems to be that he drank himself to death. Our agency, while still named INNOCENT, first got involved with Itchy in 2005. The Detroit native, who called Germany his home, got involved in some unfortunate activity that placed him in the Michigan State prison system on a charge of arson of a dwelling. It was really just a bonfire in an alley, but an alleged parole violation placed him in prison for 1-20 years. I personally sat w...
Read more

Three lives, connected by a divine thread

My kids say it should be a book! The Doug, Pat and Mark story is a doozie!   About 25 years ago, while fighting to free Maurice Carter from prison, I read a newspaper column written by Pat Shellenbarger of the Grand Rapids Press on the topic of eyewitness identification. I contacted Pat re that story. That led to a friendship between Doug and Pat that continues to this day.   In subsequent months, Pat would go on to assist me in an investigation into the Maurice Carter case that eventually led to solving the crime.  That particular episode became a chapter in my book about the Carter case, SWEET FREEDOM, published in 2006.   Fast forward to 2009, A New York businessman claims wrongful conviction, and while serving time in a Michigan prison is handed a copy of my book. Mark Hartman, who was also convicted in Berrien County, was amazed at the similarity of these two stories and tried to reach out to me. His letters bounced.   Persisting in his efforts to c...
Read more