Posted on 05/21/2015 2:47:17 PM PDT by Kaslin
A Bronx man died in police custody last week after police responded to a 911 call. An Iraq combat veteran in El Paso, Texas, serving a two-day DWI sentence died after being subdued by guards. A woman died after being Tasered by sheriff's deputies in a Fairfax, Va., cell.
What they had in common, besides expiring abruptly while in the hands of law enforcement officers, is mental illness. Denis Reyes was afflicted by bipolar disorder. James Brown reported being diagnosed with post-traumatic stress disorder. Natasha McKenna had a history of schizophrenia.
We used to warehouse the mentally ill in overcrowded, unsafe asylums -- "loony bins" -- where they often got crude or ineffectual treatment, if any, and endured violent abuse. But our civilization has moved past that primitive stage. Now we warehouse them in jails and prisons, where their conditions are often even worse.
It may seem odd that the new executive director of the Cook County Jail, Nneka Jones, is a clinical psychologist, not a career cop or corrections official. It makes more sense when you consider that nearly a quarter of the inmates have mental illnesses.
Sheriff Tom Dart refers to the facility as the nation's biggest mental institution. But he's got nothing on Illinois prisons, which house six times as many mentally ill inmates as the jail.
The numbers will only get bigger. One of the grim consequences of Illinois' fiscal insolvency is Gov. Bruce Rauner's proposal for a 15 percent cut in funding for the state's mental health agency -- which pays for treatment, housing and other services to help those with psychiatric disorders function in society.
Last month, Dart told The Chicago Tribune he sees this approach as a mistake: "It doesn't make sense to cut service that prevents people from coming into the criminal justice system, which is a very expensive system to come into."
Cost aside, it creates hazards for them as well as corrections officers. A new study by Human Rights Watch says, "Persons with schizophrenia may experience prison as a particularly frightening, threatening environment and as a consequence some behave dangerously toward themselves, staff, or other prisoners."
Many, it says, "refuse to follow orders because hallucinations and delusions have impaired their connection with reality." The mentally ill violate the rules far more often than other inmates, for obvious reasons, and efforts to control them often aggravate their insanity. Some, like the prisoners cited above, end up injured or dead.
Short-term budget needs sometimes take priority over long-term cost-effectiveness. But it's clear that governments need to improve their policies toward citizens who have lost their hold on sanity.
One reason so many of these people wind up incarcerated is the lack of other places to put them. A 2010 report by the Treatment Advocacy Center noted, "In 1955, there was one psychiatric bed for every 300 Americans. By 2005, there was just one psychiatric bed for every 3,000 Americans."
Another cause is a shortage of good outpatient care. The idea behind the "deinstitutionalization" of the 1950s and '60s was that the mentally ill could be helped more humanely while living and being treated in community settings. But many of those released from asylums never got the help they needed.
The results were disastrous, and not just for them. In his book "The Insanity Offense," psychiatrist E. Fuller Torrey notes that a study of 81 cities found "a direct correlation between the decrease in the number of public psychiatric beds and the subsequent increase in homelessness, arrest rates and crime rates among mentally ill individuals in those cities."
Sally Satel, a psychiatrist and scholar at the American Enterprise Institute, says one remedy is to expand mental health courts, diverting some criminal offenders to non-punitive programs involving medication, treatment and monitoring.
Another, she says, is for state and local governments to be more active in the use of mandatory outpatient treatment for mentally ill people who repeatedly end up in jail, emergency rooms or homeless because they can't care for themselves or make rational decisions.
Such measures will require funding. "We're not putting enough into the people who are the most sick," Satel told me. But there is no way for any of us to escape the social and fiscal costs of serious mental illness.
We're putting a lot into these people, but in all the wrong places -- jails, prisons and even morgues. Addressing mental illness differently would be a welcome symptom of sanity.
The rats blame Ronald Reagan
I enjoyed it too. In fact, I've seen it several times.
Since I am a musician (cum laude graduate from Berklee College of Music) who is unfortunately not blessed with Mozart-level talent, I could relate to Salieri's pain.
Mozart was so socially inept that he seemed to go out of his way to publicly humiliate Salieri in front of the emperor.
Absolutely true. I too know this for a personal fact.
Interesting aside - I have an old book on traditional Tibetan healing for physicians. The book was literally translated from leather-bound wooden-braced stacks of paper. And in the section on mental illness, it goes on and on about exposing the physician-in-training to people known to be possessed by demons. It explains that unless the physician is crystal clear about the ID, they will make the mistake of diagnosing the patient as mentally ill rather than possessed, and from that mistake there can be no possible recovery and actual danger to the physician.
...let them run around loose, because they vote Democrat.
Blame the ACLU and the courts that sided with them. That's where the "Homeless" came from.
Seconded.
Mozart was gift to humanity from God out of sheer divine mercy and love. Not giving him slack for bearing such staggering Light without succumbing to social disorders is pitiable. I'm sorry you can't listen to his music and get that - you are poorer for it.
Thanks for that excellent, and detailed, explanation.
What in the hell are you babbling about?
We are talking about a movie. I listen to Mozart, and I enjoy it.
Take your Thorazine.
I saw the movie too. And judging by your take on Mozart in the movie, you didn't know what you were looking at. Maybe because you're the one on Thorazine, I don't know. But its clear you didn't recognize the portrayal of the power of genius ripping through Mozart's life, burning him alive while it poured out in his compositions. Where do you think such power comes from - and why do you think it would give a damn about social conventions? Billions of people are concerned with social conventions, all nice and proper. And you can tell who they are too - they sniff at the Mozarts of the world for being embarrassing.
You sound like a deranged artsy nutjob. Have a good night.
The states are no longer willing or able to institutionalize large numbers of people who need to be institutionalized. And nobody trusts the federal government to do so.
Therefore, a remedy might be agreements between states to set up and operate multi-state asylums. Importantly, these will have safeguards to prevent people who do not need that care from being dumped there, as well as safeguards to prevent those who need institutionalization from easily being loosed.
To start with, states pay a flat rate to set up the asylum, then pay for each person from their state institutionalized there.
To get there, first a low level diagnosis of mental illness is made by a psychiatrist. Then an independent diagnosis is made by a different psychiatrist at county level. Then yet another diagnosis by a different psychiatrist at state level. Then finally a panel of psychiatrists from all of the states, any one of which could veto the patient being put there.
The asylum itself is subdivided into six parts. The first part is long term care unlikely to change. Basically a coma ward for people unable to tend for themselves.
The second part is for people who are incapacitated, but may recover to some degree, or whose condition is degenerating. There will be research and experimental therapies here.
The third part is for those who are mentally ill, but can still function some of the time. Again, active therapy.
The fourth part is for those who are “guilty but insane”, and who otherwise would be in prison.
The fifth part is for those who are dangerously insane, and a serious threat to themselves and others. It is a maximum security section.
The sixth part is administration.
What a wonderful clip! I have to watch that DVD again now.....
You are nuts. I never denied Mozart's divine gift, nor the profound brilliance of his talent. Nor have I lived my life without often being moved by his music, which I have the formal training to understand and appreciate.
But it is a quirky fact of life -- perhaps God's humor -- that many geniuses who have blessed humanity with their dazzling contributions were miserable, arrogant douche bags.
Beethoven wasn't known for being a nice guy either.
So spare me your misplaced pity, you sanctimonious twit.
We as a nation need devote some funding to reopen the mental institutions, perhaps revamped, reorganized institutions NOT just for a place to sweep the insane out of sight, but a place where the insane can be treated properly for what ails them. A place where we can place the Liberals, and keep them out of our governance.
Thanks for your work and good words.
Families are the first resource for people afflicted with the disease. They should decide if hospitalization is called for if the person cannot be persuaded to go voluntarily.
We dare not give the government power to commit people without rigorous and open public review in the courts—for the minority who pose a threat.
That, I think is why we do things the way we do and I’m leery of changing it. It’s not perfect and sometimes messy, but freedom has its price.
Transinstitutionalization - the result of the deinstitutionalization of the ‘70’s - according to the lefties, the mentally ill have rights and should not be kept in a restrictive hospital setting, even though in many cases they’re so detached from reality they can’t exercise them properly and end up hurting themselves or others, and end up in prison instead of a hospital - “they died with their rights on”, as one psychiatrist once observed......
I agree 1000 percent that families are the first resource! That’s why I do what I do - Giving families the knowledge and skills to help them more effectively navigate the many challenges of having a loved one with mental illness is key in recovery.
And you sound like a knuckledragging drooler.
Yeah, I think we're done here.
LOL, spouts the "musician cum laude graduate from Berklee College of Music" who thinks "Mozart was an ass," and "Beethoven wasn't a nice guy," and thinks "God's humor is that many geniuses who have blessed humanity with their dazzling contributions were miserable, arrogant douche bags."
I hate to break this to you, but you're the only one impressed with what you call your "formal training to understand and appreciate" musical genius. In addition, you should have taken more English classes at your music school, so you'd comprehend that I don't pity Mozart or Beethovan at all. What I see, and millions of others along with me, is what that genius cost these geniuses - specifically, everything. Maybe your refusal to give what they gave is why, in your words, you are "unfortunately not blessed with Mozart-level talent." Maybe what you call "talent" to excuse yourself, is what they called "devotion."
And so people like you who feel free to mock them and compare them to - literally - non-geniuses, are just sneering to hide from your own knowledge that you do, in fact have the talent - just not the devotion. And so your musical limitations are actually your own fault, and to hide from that you mock trivia in geniuses who gave, and give, the last of their life force to create genius. And yeah, I've played too - though not with your staggering level of credentials. Thank God.
Sanctimonious twit? Look in a mirror - and look at what you feel free to mock, instead of biting your tongue in respect. But hey, you're the musician. It's not like your attitude will effect your music, right?
Actually, as it happens I also have a bachelors degree in English from a different college, although that's not where I learned to spell BeethovEn.
You're a funny guy. Your own blind douchebaggian rage is so out of control that you didn't even take the time to understand what you were reading. When I referred to your misplaced pity, I was not saying that it was aimed at Mozart and Beethoven. I was referring to your condescension towards me, to wit: "I'm sorry you can't listen to his music and get that - you are poorer for it."
You're sorry for me? Really? I'm poorer? Than what? Than you, your sanctimonious twittiness?
And forgive me, your douchebagginess, for being proud of my honors degree from Berklee, although in my defense I did make clear my healthy humility about my own musicianship (which in any case you have never experienced and are therefore in no position to judge).
You’re thanking God that you don't have my "staggering level of credentials"? Wow. You think it's so easy to graduate with honors from Berklee, which you dismiss as "[my] music school" but which happens to be one of the finest and most famous music schools in the world? Let's see you try it, pal. And your point is what? That being a Berklee honors grad makes me less qualified than you to appreciate Mozart and Beethovan? I mean Beethoven.
If you were worth the time, I would address your other preposterous statements -- your reference to "people like [me]," my "refusal" to give what Mozart and Beethoven gave (as if you knew the first thing about me), your absurd suggestion that what they had was not "talent" but "devotion," (and that I, too might have equaled their more than brilliant legacies if only I had been willing to summon that extra ounce of “devotion”).
Still, I do appreciate the opportunity for amusement provided by your ridiculous tirade, and the target-rich environment it offers for repartee.
One more thing. Before you offer any more unsolicited advice to others regarding the value of taking more English classes, you might first want to address your own risible butchery of our mother tongue with sentences such as this gem: “And so people like you who feel free to mock them and compare them to - literally - non-geniuses, are just sneering to hide from your own knowledge that you do, in fact have the talent - just not the devotion.”
Well in my defense, I was typing on a phone at the time. Nevertheless, even though I don’t have a bachelors degree in English, that doesn’t mean I can’t reference Mozert or Beethovan or even Bock or Broms of Vivaldy if I half too.
...my honors degree from Berklee... graduate with honors from Berklee... one of the finest and most famous music schools in the world... being a Berklee honors grad...
Hey I’m bowing as fast as I can on the wreckage of my instruments, I’ve torn my clothes, covered myself in ashes, and forced myself to listen to 10 hours of Miley Cyrus in penance, whaddya want? I mean, a lot of people claim to have graduated with honors from Berklee, or to be a Berklee honors grad, or have an honors degree from Berklee, but to actually trade written communications anonymously by proxy on the internet with someone who actually, seriously was, in fact, an honors graduate from one of the finest and most famous music schools in the world is a whole different thing, completely unexpected. So you can hardly blame me for thinking it was totally impossible for one such as you, to actually, in fact, be communicating with one such as me. Truly, I still can’t believe it’s happening.
Your own blind douchebaggian rage is so out of control...your sanctimonious twittiness... your douchebagginess... your own risible butchery of our mother tongue... If you were worth the time... your other preposterous statements... your absurd suggestion... your ridiculous tirade...
LOL, wipe your mouth and get help. Or at least take a pill! In any event, despite your frothing level of offense at my insolence, you’re still the one who, in spite of your honors degree at one of the finest and most famous music schools in the world, as well as you bachelors degree in English, wrote that he thinks ”Mozart was an ass” and Beethoven wasn't a nice guy,” and thinks ”God’s humor is that many geniuses who have blessed humanity with their dazzling contributions were miserable, arrogant douche bags.”
And so I say again, with complexity and yet a subtle rhythmic coherence, nuanced to represent several levels of depth simutaneously almost as prose poetry, people like you who feel free to mock them and compare them to - literally - non-geniuses, are just sneering to hide from your own knowledge that you do, in fact have the talent - just not the devotion.
And on that note (note, get it?), sorry about your disappointment in your music career. But you know, Berklee wouldn’t have taken you if you lacked talent. So give the discipline another try. Everyone falls. What matters is getting up again. Read up on Baytoven’s life for some inspiration on that subject.
Disclaimer: Opinions posted on Free Republic are those of the individual posters and do not necessarily represent the opinion of Free Republic or its management. All materials posted herein are protected by copyright law and the exemption for fair use of copyrighted works.