Headline: understatement of the century
Jan 31 2007 | Comments 3
Jail not right for people with mental illness
liz | 11:21 AM | Uncategorized
The Trouble with Spikol | Make Major Moves | PW Style | Cup o'Joel
Jail not right for people with mental illness
liz | 11:21 AM | Uncategorized
Liz Spikol was born in Philadelphia sometime in the 20th century. She started writing about her experience as a person with mental illness in 1999, while employed at Philadelphia Weekly as the paper’s managing editor. Aside from serving as that paper’s web editor, music editor, staff writer, senior editor, executive editor and a host of other random roles that she couldn’t make up her mind about, she has also worked as a Spanish teacher, as a Certified Peer Specialist during Philly’s system-wide transformation and as a communications specialist for a prison reform organization. Currently, she works at the Mental Health Association of Southeastern Pennsylvania and writes book reviews for PW. This blog — named one of the Top 10 Bipolar Blogs of 2007 and 2008 by PsychCentral — is about medications, schizophrenia, bipolar disorder, OCD, PTSD, SAD (and many other acronyms), mad pride, Big Pharma, celebrities, hospitals, stigma and the recovery movement. And other stuff.
Amen, Liz… A vicious cycle can result from not being properlytreated–and/or not taking medications–and then falling into the hands of the criminal justice system as a result of behavior stemming from this.
Expecting to come out from a stay behind bars in a healthier mental state than when one went in… is akin to expecting to win the lottery without having bought a ticket.
John
Dear John,
I am very much in agreement with your thoughts. The State of Florida and in particular Broward County was the first to recognize that the legal system had to address the mental health of individuals differently from the criminal element.
The first judge to preside over such a court was the Honorable Ginger Lerner-Wren.
While your comments are relevant as well as important I am once again taken aback by the flagrant misuse and sensationalism of the news media and the fact that all too often they do a disservice toward mental health advocacy, education and the elimination of discrimination and stigma.
More folks just have to speak up as did Ms. Givens to right the record or information.
Warmly,
Herb
VNSdepression.com
.
Liz – also check out the following:
http://www.law.uchicago.edu/news/harcourt-mentally-ill-prisoners/index.html
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