This image shows a field of dark sand dunes in the Nili Patera area of Syrtis Major, which lies near the martian equator. The odd shape of these sand dunes suggests that wind has moved the sand from the upper right to the lower left area of the image. | ||||||||
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Considering that the criminalization of the mentally ill is probably the
most serious issue that we face, and I’d qualify this
to include [AB] 1800, because
once your in jail or the hospital you haven’t got any rights,
what we have is
quite a dilemma. I want to address a couple of the issues, 1st the courts as being used as a diversion, is this appropriate and mandatory, all the lengthy legal briefings I have listened to and participated on as a member of Los Angeles County’s MICCIOR and CRIMMIO advisory board meetings is emphaticiaclly, they are voluntary. They are coercive, how-ever, the fact is that they are not voluntary. In these specific programs they get no time off there sentence to participate in these programs. By creating mental heath courts one can argue the very real problem that when some-one is finished with their treatment or sentence, that depending upon the their doctors or the medical directors of these institutions, that they could be civilly committed for extended periods of time much longer after what they normally would have served in a prision or a jail. This is the flip side and why quite frankly many public defenders and defense attorneys advise client aganst being diverted — doing your time, accumulating 50% good-time and getting out.  How-ever
the courts also have something called probation and parole. These systems are
being used to mandate or stipulate probationers and parolees into involuntary
treatment. I’ve worked with many folks who have turned down parole to do
their entire sentence just so they would not have to be part of this. The
other factors to be considered are the laws themselves, with three strikes if
someone continues to get arrested and the sentences are longer and longer
one needs to consider the danger involved in the decision being made in
becoming involved in deciding on what’s at stake. Diversion will keep you
out, but place you into coercive involuntary treatment .. it’s targeted at
people who are at high risk for returning to jail or state prison and quite
possibly involves a “double jeopardy.”The current system offers really nothing but doing your time, hoping you don’t get beaten, killed or raped in the mean time, mind your business, be a model prisoner, get paroled, how-ever there are pre-trial probation reports made prior to sentencing the judge looks at these reports and well and does read them if drug or alcohol prior offences, incarcerations, psychiatric issues or reports that are more often involved either through the trial or investigations then he imposes stipulations to the parole or probation specificially to ie report to and receive out-patient parole clinic’s pee-testing and psychiatric treatment as a condition of the parole. This is mandatory .. Now if you’re in the joint and are going to get out early, parole is a bitch, parole officers are a real pain in the ass. But as a parolee, contrary what a lot of people think including the parolees, which is why so many violate your still doing your sentence, what would you rather do, submit to this coercion or break rocks in the hot sun??? The point is that the entire system stinks .. and does need to be reformed. CRIMMIO, and MICCIOR pilot programs are just what they were set up for, not to lead people into forced treatment but to cut down the recividism rate, I agree they’re far from perfect, we have had many lively discussions about them being represented as voluntary or involuntary. If you think about going sky-diving and asking some-one would you like a parachute or not, this about sums up the argument. .. The key to this debate to me is very clear. First for the 2-billion dollars we spend on FORENSIC mental-health, and as long as it’s FORENSIC it will always be coercive, the treatment either in jail or in hospitals needs to be respectful, creative and have linkage with programs once someone is discharged. The second point is that community mental health programs with integrated services that have the experience, and have demonstrated there capability to work with this extremely difficult population, in a tolerant, respectful and flexible way. This has been probably the biggest reason why so many programs have failed with this population, the attitude of the staff, the agendas being pushed, the fact they can’t relate to men and women who frankly have been institutionalized most of their adult lives and now that there out are supposed to over-night change there whole life walk the straight and narrow with the help of all of these well intentioned professionals, or go back to the very institutions, which they more often do. The last part of this is also the first part, and here we have the quagmire the prevention part. If we had adequate community mental health, harm-reduction model integrated services available with-in the community, be it the big city or the way out in the toolies there would be hopefully less of a propensity of people decompensating to the point of them coming to the attention of the authorities in the first place, having the services available hence they would not end up in the system period, but realistically, prevention can but keep the folks currently receiving services ending up in the system, the system is over-flowing, the choice to be made about these courts, should continue to be made by their individual attorneys, because justice in this country is an illusion on a good day. Gerald Minskcrimmio board memberlamp staff advocate L.A. County | ||||||||
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