We just published an interview with Chaplain Brian about a diagnosed and treated mentally ill inmate he had been seeing for the past 8 years. This particular inmate is no longer being treated for mental illness after studying Christian Science in prison and working with Chaplain Brian. There are literally tens of thousands of inmates in the system who are not so fortunate.
The complete report will take a little while to read — and is hard to stomach. But Stanford Law School’s “Three Strikes Project” has published an in-depth look at this problem that describes in detail the problems facing the system, including investigating causes and potential solutions.
We can no longer ignore the massive oppression we are inflicting upon the mentally ill throughout the United States. Over a century ago, Dorothea Dix began a movement to improve the deplorable conditions of mentally ill prisoners. Despite her success in changing the country’s perception and treatment of the mentally ill in prison, we are now right back where we started in the nineteenth century. Although deinstitutionalization was originally understood as a humane way to offer more suitable services to the mentally ill in community-based settings, some politicians seized upon it as a way to save money by shutting down institutions without providing any meaningful treatment alternatives. This callousness has created a one-way road to prison for massive numbers of impaired individuals and the inhumane warehousing of thousands of mentally ill people.
We have created conditions that make criminal behavior all but inevitable for many of our brothers and sisters who are mentally ill. Instead of treating them, we are imprisoning them. And then, when they have completed their sentences, we release them with minimal or no support system in place, just counting the days until they are behind bars once again. This practice of seeking to save money on the backs of this population comes with huge moral and fiscal cost. It is ineffective because we spend far more on imprisonment of the mentally ill than we would otherwise spend on treatment and support. It is immoral because writing off another human being’s life is utterly contrary to our collective values and principles.
The numbers are staggering: over the past 15 years, the number of mentally ill people in prison in California has almost doubled. Today, 45 percent of state prison inmates have been treated for severe mental illness within the past year. The Los Angeles County Jail is “the largest mental health provider in the county,” according to the former official in charge of the facility.
Please take the time to download and read their report (22 pages, PDF), and give this your prayerful support.
An update on giving this Stanford Law Review to Judge today. She said, “I LOVE IT! I love this kind of stuff [law reviews, evidence] I will definitely read it!” She then ORDERED, first in closed session, then in open court, that The Sheriff’s Department is to make available Christian Science Textbook, access to phone to call Christian Science Practitioner, Teacher, or Chaplain, and [not exact right now] to make available as much as possible for the inmate to practice his faith.[Christian Science]. She then gave me the name and telephone number to the attorney for the Sheriff’s Department who will do more. I called the attorney and he is looking into where things broke down and making things right. The Sheriff’s department did not have control over the two hospitals involved. All were so nice and genuinely sincere in their remarks and actions. There were other opportunities to share the love of Christian Science in the courtroom today. Thanks again for posting the Law Review.
Thank you so much for posting this!. As an attorney, I am presenting this to the judge tomorrow in case of an infraction and the horror stories of what went on in the jails/prison/hospitals in the last few weeks. Forced medicine, unauthorized non consensual surgery, bruises all over inmate’s body unaccounted for, non access of faith materials or chaplain, no telephone access to attorney, spiritual advisor, or family for weeks. Thanks again,
The decision as written seems it is the masses. Most have voiced the STOP mass incarceration. The priority should be education and health care. Just getting rid of Death Row alone frees up billions.
Thank you for your article regarding the situation of the mentally ill in the prisons. This is very well said. I noticed the situation thirty years ago when a homeless man took me on a tour one night in Seattle. People who once were being helped (and then the programs had shut down) were all piled into old degraded apt buildings with no furniture. I went from room to room of depressed people with nothing. Thirty years later I see by your article the direction it has gone since closing down programs and housing for the mentally ill in the United States.
Clearly this is an insane handling when considering also the cost difference between helping them on the outside, or supporting them in the prisons; and considering this handling fosters greater statistics and bigger situations for the future. Your article says it all.
I want to thank all of you for your work and care here for our brothers and sisters having a tough time, and for letting us know about this.
I had to face a tough situation out in the environment once wherein there was nothing I could do about it; the situation was protected at the top. A question was posed to me from a spiritual source: when you find yourself in a burning city, do you go back in to find out who started it, or do you head out gathering others along the way?
I am inspired by your article to help some of these people. I’m sure that any one us with a heart and God as our inspiration could do a lot to help one person feel better about them self and rise into a higher ground of sanity. It is definitely worth trying.
The Bible has all the answers of how to get through these times we are in now. Any of us who are Christians can share these answers with those with no answers to bring them up into the light of not feeling alone, feeling supported and valuable, of finding a purpose and rising out of the ashes. So I’m going to look into this.
Thank you again for your work and sharing this information!