Wednesday, June 4, 2014

Damion Hayes: Life Sentence for Mental Illness

OCCUPY the U.S. Congress. Ask representatives to pass H.R.3717, Helping Families in Mental Health Crisis Act (a handy link is provided below). You do not have to have a mentally ill loved one to care. Families in Santa Barbara did not think mental illness was their problem, either, but it was. Condolences to grieving families, and may victims of assault have a speedy recovery.  http://www.usa.gov/Contact/Elected.shtml

Assistance to the Incarcerated Mentally Ill Blogtalkradio show featured Fred Hayes, father of mentally ill inmate, Damion Hayes, Wednesday, June 4, at 9pm Pacific. 

Mr. Hayes said, "My son shouldn't be in the Florida prison where he has been for 14 years for an assault committed while having a mental health crisis. I will NOT give up the fight for his freedom and treatment. I stand not for Damion only but for all mentally ill inmates in America." 


PETITION: Save Florida Inmate Damion Hayes from SHU 

Hear the taped radio show at the link below. We were joined by Ms. Lillian Eaglefeather, who is the mother of Paul, another a mentally ill American. Each Wednesday night in June, please call (818)572.2947 to speak to Mr. Hayes and other guests. Ask questions or comment on this father's mission to help save his son and other mentally ill Americans. 
http://www.blogtalkradio.com/nnia1/2014/06/05/assistance-to-the-incarcerated-mentally-ill 

Family portrait of Damion (left) with his family

Mr. and Mrs. Fred Hayes are the parents of two sons. The oldest grew up to become a law enforcement officer with the Sheriff's Department. Damion, their youngest, developed schizophrenia as a teen. The Hayes family grew alarmed at Damion's violent outbursts, when he would punch holes in their walls with his fists and talk to himself. Before Damion's mental health crisis resulted in an assault on a neighbor, Mr. Hayes took Damion to a mental health center for evaluation and treatment. Damion was kept for two days only, and he was released to his father without any appointment for additional psychiatric treatment and with no prescriptions for psychiatric medication. Not long after that, Damion apparently attacked a middle age neighbor, a woman who was a friend of the family. She was gardening in her yard when the assault happened. The attack was not prompted by any feelings of discord, and it occurred without any discussion between the woman and Damion.

Damion was arrested, tried, and sentenced to LIFE imprisonment. This mentally ill youth was hospitalized for two years to get him "trial ready," then sentenced and imprisoned in a Florida correctional facility. Damion's former cellmate wrote to Mr. Hayes numerous times and told him that his son would talk to himself in the cell at night and have long arguments and even physical confrontations with imaginary enemies. Damion is obviously mentally ill and should be transferred from the prison to which he was overly sentenced for an assault that resulted in no life threatening injuries for his neighbor. Damion should be relocated to a mental hospital and stabilized. Upon release from the hospital, Damion should be placed in an assisted outpatient treatment (AOT) program for his subsistence needs and continuous psychiatric treatment. 

AOT program participants in New York experienced an 85 percent or greater reduction in homelessness, hospitalizations, arrests, and incarceration as compared to their rates three years before entering the Kendra's Law program. AOT programs costs substantially less than incarceration, and community safety is greatly enhanced, as revealed by the reduction in arrests and incarceration among program participants. H.R.3717 has a provision for pilot AOT programs, which have already been certified by the United States Department of Justice.

Damion's arrest photo and information from the Florida DOC

Damion's life was full of promise as a youngster. He is from a middle class Christian family. His father worked in a middle management position until retirement. His mother retired as a civil servant. Damion has a good support base to help him resume wholesome living. He deserves psychiatric treatment, not prison. There are no throwaway people. Damion was wrongly sentenced to life in prison for an assault that (a) resulted from mental illness and (b) caused no catastrophic injuries. Damion's family were amazed when the defense attorney who had charged them $20,000 stood at the end of the prosecutor's case and merely said, "The defense rests." Florida taxpayers were sentenced right along with Damion. Incarcerating this young man indefinitely would cost the State millions of dollars unnecessarily, because many people with schizophrenia respond well to treatment and are able to resume normal lives. Damion's case is being appealed. 

PETITION: Save Florida Inmate Damion Hayes from SHU 

Damion Hayes, age 7

Mary Neal, director
Assistance to the Incarcerated Mentally Ill
Dog Justice for Mentally Ill

Repeat of paragraph 1: OCCUPY the U.S. Congress. Ask representatives to pass H.R.3717, Helping Families in Mental Health Crisis Act (a handy link is provided below). You do not have to have a mentally ill loved one to care. Families in Santa Barbara did not think mental illness was their problem, either, but it was. Condolences to grieving families, and may victims of assault have a speedy recovery.
http://www.usa.gov/Contact/Elected.shtml

*****
It would be illegal to keep a dog in a tight space 23 hours a day and gas or Taser him for barking. It would be illegal to put a dog in deadly restraint for control. But this happens to mentally ill Americans routinely in the nation's jails and prisons. What happened to Larry Neal?
Mentally Ill Americans Need Dog Justice. Treat mental illness medically, not legally.
Advocate for U.S. Congress to pass H.R.3717 - Helping Families in Mental Health Crisis Act.
Try to elect people who promote human rights and justice for all, not prison profits.

3 comments:

MaryLovesJustice Neal said...

MY GOODNESS. If you have an older cell phone, please read this article on its screen. The link to "Access Elected Officials" is not active! "They" don't want Americans to speak to their elected officials in support of a congressional bill, H.R.3717 "Helping Families in Mental Health Crisis Act."

Also, the only photo that shows on an older cell phone is Damion at age 7. "They" don't want you to see the excellent support base Damion would have if he is given an opportunity to be released from prison to receive psychiatric treatment in a mental hospital and eventually an AOT program.

MaryLovesJustice Neal said...

Apparently, it is during the reformatting of my articles for cellphone view that CoIntelPro codes some links not to be active and some pictures not to show. I must listen carefully to Applebaum's videos and read more documents by Edward Snowden to learn how this is done.

Of the three pictures I uploaded in this article about Damion Hayes, only the photo of him at age 7 is visible on my cellphone. They must have coded the family portrait and his arrest photo not to show. Likewise, they coded the linking for my first link, the one for readers to contact their elected officials, not to be active. All the links appear active on my computer view, and all the photographs (which are jpg) are visible.

Do any of you have ideas about how CoIntelPro accomplishes this? Is there any way to protect my articles from cyberstalking other than to complain to the USDOJ, which is SUPPOSED to fight cybercrime? If they are the ones doing this, which I strongly suspect, they will continue to ignore my requests for freedom of press.

I have a widget on my other blogs leading to a petition for Mary Neal's freedom of press. I did not put it on DogJusticeforMentallyIll because I did not want to upset my readers here who already have so much stress. But in case any of you are interested in helping me to overcome this illegal interference against my advocacy for human and civil rights for mentally ill Americans, the petition is at this link:

http://www.ipetitions.com/petition/free-mary-neal

Unknown said...

Most prisons get alotted money for each prisoner. The more prisoners the more money each fiscal year. Translating into job security. And the judge probably wanted to send a message. It makes for "good" press. Which means more contributions for re-election.campaigns!