Noisy headlines, and mental illness gets shoved aside again

Black Lives Matter. Presidential debates. COVID 19. All making headlines these days. And once again, mental illness gets placed on the back burner. 

Yet, guess what? The problem doesn’t go away! And it won't. 

I’ve been hammering on it for years. We have a mental illness crisis in our state prisons, and thousands of people are not only suffering...they’re not being properly treated. 

Our in-prison essayist, Ricardo, has long served as a Prisoner Observation Aide, and claims to have personally witnessed over 1,000 mentally ill individuals suffering from acute disorders. He says that 10,000 Michigan prisoners have been diagnosed as being severely mentally ill. That’s a significant chunk of the population total of 35,000. Based on the messages crossing the desks in our office, we think the percentage of prisoners experiencing some mental challenges is considerably higher than that. One of our inmate whistle-blowers places the estimate at 80%! 

It’s a huge problem. 

For the most part, it’s being handled in the prison system by merely administering psych meds, according to Ricardo. “And in many instances those individuals experiencing episodes where they’re displaying harmful behavior, the approach by staff often takes a more punitive measure.” He claims that many prisoners housed in what is called the Residential Treatment Program are the subject of physical, verbal and emotional abuse by guards. 

In another facility, Michael writes: “Living in close quarters with mentally ill individuals doesn’t allow one to adjust, much less learn to adapt to a normal social environment.” He said that the mentally ill sometimes scream throughout the night, making it difficult for all to sleep. So, it’s hell when the non-mentally ill inmates are mixed in with the mental cases. 

Not that it’s all that much better on the outside. Things slid downhill in a hurry when we closed our mental institutions in the 70s. Just two years ago, a study showed that more than 650,000 Michigan residents with a mental illness and more than 500,000 with a substance use disorder are not receiving treatment! 

We’ll eventually get a vaccine for the coronavirus. 

But, like the poor, we’ll always have the mentally challenged with us. It’s time that we provided compassionate and responsible treatment to all, especially those behind bars.

We're completely aware of the fact that the "squeaky-wheel" headlines demand and will get attention. But behind the scenes, our mentally ill need attention now. 

Especially in our prisons!

“What mental health needs is more sunlight, more candor, and more unashamed conversation.”

 – Glenn Close

 


Comments

Bob Bulten said…
Well said, Doug. The need is SO great. Keep the drum roll going.
October 1, 2020 at 9:49 PM
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