Brandon Martin: Untreated until triple murder

1. When Brandon Martin, 22, threatened his family and they sent him for treatment, the treatment center only kept him two days for a psychiatric evaluation and released him. Upon the release of this former baseball player, he used his baseball bat to kill his father, uncle, and an ADT security alarm installer. Now that he killed three people, the prison investors who are America's decision makers plan to keep him for life. The amount of tax money spent for Martin's punishment will be significantly more than his treatment would have required, but that suits prison investors, because now they get the money instead of mental health care providers. Serious mental illness will not be treated properly unless and until prison investors divest themselves of prison stocks or resign from government positions, Dr. Stephen B Seager, Dr. Earle Williams, Dr. Armando Aluart, Georgia for Bernie Sanders, Olga Garcia-Verastegui, Gemma Pena, Diana Beth, Julie Acklin, Assistance to the Incarcerated Mentally Ill, Mental Illness Policy Org,Treatment Advocacy Center, Katherine Conner, Fred Hayes, and all concerned friends. 

2. Prison investors in decision making positions risk the safety of families and society in order to relegate people with serious mental illness into the legal system for prison profiteering. Martin will be given psychiatric treatment before his trial, if the case goes to trial, and the judge and/or jury will not see evidence of his mental illness. That is why the insanity defense is seldom used and is often unsuccessful when used to defend a mentally ill defendant. Some sick defendants are sent to mental hospitals for years to get them "trial ready," whereas the system only offered Martin two days of evaluation and treatment before the crimes happened.

3. People and organizations that object to mandated psychiatric treatment (hospitalization and assisted outpatient treatment programs (AOT)) are expected to object strenuously in the coming weeks to H.R.2646 "Helping Families in Mental Health Crisis Act," because the congressional bill which was introduced by Rep. Tim Murphy and Eddie Bernice Johnson in 2015 has provisions for non-consensual psychiatric treatment.Obviously, Martin needed someone else to make his health care decisions while he experienced a mental health crisis. When you read the objectors' rants against mandated psychiatric treatment, please think about Martin, the former Major League Baseball prospect who may never get to play baseball again and never again have the support of his father and uncle. He was deprived of treatment until he killed them.

4. People like Martin with serious mental illness usually receive mandated treatment after they have already done irreparable harm and are awaiting trial or have been sentenced to jails and prisons, but none of the "freedom of choice" voices are heard in those cases. People who protest mandated psychiatric services won't be around when Martin regains his mental balance through delayed treatment and realizes that he killed his father, his uncle, and an ADT alarm installer before receiving the long-term care he needed.

5. Keep challenging lawmakers to pass your bill, Congressman Tim Murphy (PA-18). Keep fighting against federal contracts with private prison companies, Senator Bernie Sanders. We who are families of persons with serious mental illness and realistic people throughout this country who care about the human rights of mentally ill people, their relatives, and neighbors know that both are sorely needed.

6. Read about Brandon Martin, who was deprived of treatment until he did an avoidable triple murder at KTLA.com, the first of eight(8) links below. Brandon's denial of psychiatric treatment should remind us that 1.25 million others (our nation's mentally ill inmates) were deliberately left untreated until they committed crimes to excuse prison sentences that enrich prison investors in the United States. In the 1970's, unscrupulous elected representatives voted for a Medicaid exclusion that deprived Americans with mental health disabilities of inpatient treatment. Millions of persons suffering from acute mental illness were turned out of asylums and have since been denied hospitalization because of the Medicaid exclusion. Most of them could have functioned well outside of a hospital environment if only their needs for continuing psychiatric treatment and subsistence assistance had been met under assisted outpatient treatment (AOT) programs.

7. Instead of rendering timely treatment for mentally challenged Americans, many thousands of people with serious mental illness roamed America's streets in the 1980's, homeless, resorting to street drugs to "get their heads on straight," and being subjected to incarceration for offenses ranging from vagrancy to murders. Hundreds of thousands have been warehoused in prisons, and thousands more have been killed since the 1970's in violent encounters with community bullies and by police officers attempting to conduct lunacy arrests. Some of those warehoused in prisons now include veterans who transitioned home from battlefields with invisible wounds to be killed by police officers or become prisoners of war in the USA. At least 50 percent of all violent police incidents involve a person with mental illness. More than 60 percent of prisoners in torturous solitary confinement are mentally ill, and roughly 40 percent of the nation's chronically homeless people also have mental health and/or drug alcohol issues. Yet, some mental health advocates will dare to come to us and say it is against sick people's civil rights to treat them without their agreement.

8. Do not be fooled. Private prison and jail companies are very wealthy, and mentally ill Americans comprise more than half of their commodities. Their lobbyists have significantly more free speech and freedom of press than persons who advocate to decriminalize mental illness and drug addictions and remove barriers to adequate care. Private prison and jail companies also finance political campaigns for "tough on crime" politicians, although people experiencing mental health crises are not made well by enacting draconian laws. It is reasonable to assume that private prison investors also make considerable donations (whether or not the donations are publicly acknowledged) to so-called advocacy groups and human rights organizations that contest enforced mental health treatment.

9. Families that have no mentally ill members are also seriously impacted by a system that awaits crimes to punish sick people with prison terms rather than giving treatment before tragedies. Consider that whereas Martin killed his own family members and a man who was trying to ensure their safety by installing an alarm system; Elliot Rodger, 22, and Seung-Hui Cho did not. Rodger killed six people in his community, and Cho killed 32 fellow Virginia Tech students. Then each of the young men committed suicide like Virginia's Sen. Deed's son, Gus.

10. No misunderstanding causes decision makers and some mental health organizations to ignore anosognosia, a condition which prevents a person's awareness about his/her own need for treatment. It is not the concern for civil rights of mentally ill people that caused this nation to shut down mental hospitals and reduce budgets for community psychiatric care. A more sinister reason causes America's decision makers to ignore mental illness until there is a smoking gun or dripping knife. It comes down to a simple bible truth that requires no religious training: "The love of money is the root of all evil."

11. Psychiatric treatment methods, including drug therapies, have improved significantly in recent decades. But as long as mercenary owners and investors of private prisons, jails, and probation service companies and prison vendors are allowed to make our nation's decisions regarding mental health care, they will continue to sacrifice Americans with mental disabilities and ignore families' pleas for help during crises, just like police officers ignored Elliot Rodger's family, who were disturbed by his YouTube videos that threatened violence. Prison investors are concerned with having full prisons that demand over $100 billion per year of your tax dollars to operate. Prison investors and their mouthpieces insist that people in crisis must PROVE to be imminently dangerous to self or others before involuntary commitments are possible, because prison profiteers have more concern for hefty dividend checks than for mentally ill people, their families, and for your community's safety.

12. People who receive treatment for mental dysfunctions are not more dangerous than other members in society. However, as Rodger's family's lawyer said, "...this country, this world needs to address mental illness and the ramifications ..."  Americans should urge our representatives to co-sponsor the "Helping Families in Mental Health Crisis Act," with its provisions for limited resumption of Medicaid for inpatients and AOT programs that mandate psychiatric treatment. We must also urge support for Senator Bernie Sanders' bill, introduced on September 17, 2015, the "Justice Is Not For Sale Act." That would prevent the federal government from entering contracts with private prison companies within two years of the bill becoming law. 

i) Brandon Martin pleads not guilty in triple murder 
http://ktla.com/2015/09/22/former-mlb-prospect-pleads-not-guilty-in-beating-deaths-of-father-uncle-and-adt-installer/
ii) Sergio Robles Denied Treatment: Killed Police Officer
http://dogjusticeformentallyill.blogspot.com/2014/09/psychiatric-crisis-sergio-robles-killed.html
iii) Elliot Rodgers and the Santa Barbara Massacre
http://www.dailymail.co.uk/news/article-2638427/He-disturbed-boy-British-grandmother-Santa-Barbara-mass-killer-boy-grew-Hollywood-royalty-posted-chilling-blogs-vowing-revenge-against-women-rejected-him.html
iv) Seung-Hui Cho and the Virginia Tech Massacre
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Seung-Hui_Cho
v) Damion Hayes: Denied treatment until assaulting innocent neighbor
http://dogjusticeformentallyill.blogspot.com/2014/06/mental-illness-made-damion-hayes-fl.html 
vi) Tell Officials to Divest or Resign
http://DivestOrResign.blogspot.com
vii) Contact Your Government Officials
https://www.usa.gov/agencies
viii) A coalition against passage of H.R.2646 could be funded by prison investors.
http://realmhchange.org/2015/09/24/launching-our-murphy-bill-video-and-day-of-action/

Our condolences to families and close friends of Brandon Martin and the alarm system installer. Victims' survivors should have strong civil action cases against the state for neglecting to treat Martin for his mental illness before the tragedy, we feel. Martin should now be treated for mental illness rather than used as another prison commodity. Thank you for giving Assistance to the Incarcerated Mentally Ill. 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. That happens to mentally ill people routinely in the nation's correctional facilities. What happened to Larry Neal? Why must a Black family in the USA ask for 12 years what happened to our mentally ill loved one who were secretly arrested and killed? 

Article by MaryLovesJustice, MaryLovesJustice@gmail.com, (678)531-0262. Director of Assistance to the Incarcerated Mentally Ill ("AIMI"). Join us at the "Follow This Blog" for "Dog Justice for Mentally Ill" blog (right margin) and at Facebook, Google+, and Care2. Mentally Ill Americans Need Dog Justice. Treat mental illness medically, not legally. Please advocate for your congresspersons to pass H.R.2646 - The "Helping Families in Mental Health Crisis Act." Stop private prisons from victimizing Americans with mental disabilities by supporting Bernie Sanders' "Justice Is Not For Sale Act." Try to elect people who support human rights and justice for all, not prison investors who have a conflict of interest in decriminalizing mental illness in the United States of America, which is supposedly an equal opportunity nation. Eliminate the exception for slavery in America under the 13th Amendment to abolish human trafficking.

Forced Drugging - Is It Ever Justified?

Below is an excerpt of an invitation by Katherine Hine to the October 8th "Human Rights Demand" show, which regarded enforced drugging. She and other guests on that episode oppose enforced psychiatric treatment, whereas Assistance to the Incarcerated Mentally Ill (AIMI) perceives enforced treatment, such as under AOT programs, as necessary for many people with acute mental illness to avoid homelessness, imprisonment, and avoidable deaths. Ms. Hine wrote, in part:

Katherine Hine and Sharon Cretsinger will be guests at 3 p.m. EDT, Wednesday, Oct. 8, 2014, on Mary Neal’s daytime call-in broadcast, "Human Rights Demand." Speakers and guests should call to speak on air at (347) 857-3293 or listen by computer at
http://www.blogtalkradio.com/humanrightsdemand/2014/10/08/forced-drugging--is-it-ever-justified We are talking about doing another show about forced confinement.

If anyone wants to make sure to have his or her voice heard, please call. Everyone is welcome to call in. Mental health treatment concerns us all either directly or indirectly.

Among the points that are expected to be made in the broadcast are 10 basic legal reasons why we feel forced drugging in Ohio is unlawful – particularly where forced drugging is ordered as a result of hearings in which no evidence is presented. Most of these grounds apply in other states. Sharon, who is a survivor of psychiatry as well as an MSW with many years of clinical experience within the mental illness system, will address the fact that many if not most people with psychiatric histories are capable of fully recovering without drugging, and that drugging itself can predispose a person to act violently.

See Free John Rohrer campaign
http://en.gravatar.com/jonnylucid

******

AIMI members believe that persons with acute mental illness should be hospital inpatients or outpatients as opposed to jail and prison inmates. Our welcome and mission statement from AIMI's Care2 group is published below.

Thank you for joining us in giving Assistance for the Incarcerated Mentally Ill ("AIMI"). Mental health care is a vast area. To be most effective, we will limit our advocacy on this group to issues related to incarcerated mentally ill persons in America and those likely to suffer imprisonment due to their mental disorders. You are already helping the incarcerated mentally ill merely by joining this group!

Most chronically mentally ill persons do not vote or engage in America's political process, yet our legislators determine the direction of their lives. Your participation in this group demonstrates that voters are concerned about mentally ill prisoners. We welcome everyone who is interested in decriminalizing mental illness.

We hope AIMI attracts diffable person who have suffered incarceration. First person accounts are very valuable! Families of mentally ill persons, please share your input. Too often, the family members of mental patients have little voice in policy decisions that impact their lives and the lives of their sick loved ones. Psychiatrists, psychologists, and other mental health care professionals, we welcome you. Law enforcement officers, attorneys, and others who work in the criminal justice system, thank you for joining us.

We will use this group to share our experiences, seek assistance on specific cases, offer and receive advice and encouragement, and to impact public policy by denouncing criminalizing mental illness. We will discuss treatment options and impediments thereto, along with a wide range of topics having to do with mental illness.

It is not necessary for all members of Assistance to the Incarcerated Mentally Ill to agree on every topic of discussion, and neither is it likely. However, we will respect and value each other and the rights of each member to express differing views.

We believe prisons have become America's mental institutions in large part because of restrictions against enforced treatment and hospitalization of chronically mentally ill persons.  There is a serious lack of short-term inpatient care and community care for mental health crises that frequently lead to avoidable tragedies.  Long-term hospitalization is frequently needed for patients who require constant monitoring and treatment.  Imprisoning mentally ill Americans is financially wasteful, discriminatory, and inhumane.  No one can be punished into a state of mental health.

Most diffable people are capable of functioning well in society without enforced treatment or confinement. However, our advocacy in this group concentrates on providing humane options for the care of patients who are incarcerated precisely because they require either hospitalization or enforced treatment in their communities.  

In this group, we acknowledge that the decision to put chronically ill patients in charge of their own treatment options (to treat or not to treat) contributed to the criminalization of mental illness. Enforced psychiatric treatment is often necessary for acute mental patients’ safety. These patients are usually expected to make major health decisions while in a demented mental state. We believe someone other than the acute mental patient must be allowed to make their treatment decisions before any tragedy occurs, or mental patients face the likelihood of repeated arrests for crimes committed while in a mental crisis.

AIMI's goal is to gain release from prison for the estimated 1.25 million incarcerated mentally ill Americans in order that they may be treated in their communities or hospitals, depending on the severity of their crimes. AIMI seeks to reverse the trend to imprison rather than treat our mental patients. We believe the laws restricting enforced hospitalization and outpatient therapy often hinder chronically mentally ill persons from receiving needed treatment.

We acknowledge that chronically mentally ill prisoners have a higher rate of return to jail than other inmates precisely because of their tendency to discontinue therapy and lapse back into psychosis. We assert that prison release for the nonviolent offenders should include mandatory treatment, at least during their parole or probationary periods. Inmates who are incarcerated for violent acts should be hospitalized for the duration of their criminal sentences or until their psychiatrists recommend release. Such psychiatric recommendations should be reviewed by the sentencing court. 

If the court agrees with the psychiatrists’ recommendation for prison release, the court should then order the patients' continued psychiatric monitoring and care as outpatients for the duration of their parole or probationary period. Mental patients who are required to receive court-ordered treatment should be zealously sought and remanded to hospitals if they disobey the court and discontinue their treatment at any point while on probation or parole.

Decriminalizing mental illness will not occur unless and until sensible alternatives to prison are available for persons in crisis. We believe that mental hospitalization in extreme cases, and community care under enforced treatment will provide the alternatives that our most severely ill citizens need in order to regain and to retain their freedom from our nation’s correctional institutions.

Welcome to our quest for justice for the incarcerated mentally ill! Thank you for your involvement in this human rights effort.

Washington Tour for H.R.3717 Supporters

WASHINGTON TOUR FOR FAMILIES OF MENTALLY CHALLENGED AMERICANS IN FAVOR OF H.R.3717 "Helping Families in Mental Health Crisis Act". Although the bill has good support in Congress, it needs advocacy by the stakeholders. Many people are impacted by severe mental illness in themselves or close family members, and a Washington tour is being planned for them and others who wish to support justice for the mentally ill. As we have seen in numerous avoidable tragedies, mental illness affects us all, whether or not a relative has that condition.

We will reserve D.C. hotel rooms and buses to leave from CA, GA, MO, NY, and a couple of other states soon. We will begin accepting down payments on YOUR TRIP after we get some pricing information (proposals are requested from bus companies and travel agencies). This is Going To Happen, People. We will take this fight to D.C. before election day 2014 - likely in September! Only support candidates who support human rights. No more long-term #solitaryconfinement #policebrutality or #prison deaths for mentally ill Americans. We demand psychiatric treatment and human rights!

If Congress won't listen to us rather than prison investors, we will take this fight to the United Nations. Volunteer by commenting below if you are willing to be an organizer for the Washington tour in your region, or email MaryLovesJustice@gmail.com . Congressman Tim Murphy (PA-18, a psychologist) has a bill before Congress that will answer many of our concerns. We REFUSE to be ignored.

If you care about people with Autism, schizophrenia, bipolar disorder, dementia, depression, PTSD, or any other serious mental disorder, please support this Washington tour for families of people with brain disorders who are brutalized, imprisoned, homeless, or those who are at greater risk for those occurrences than mentally healthy Americans.  Support this Washington tour if you want safer communities and a lower prison budget (currently over $80 billion annually). H.R.3717 provides for four essential changes:

• Resumption of Medicaid insurance for psychiatric inpatients in certain facilities;
• Assisted outpatient programs (AOT) that allow involuntary psychiatric treatment and give subsistence assistance (food, housing);
• Crisis Intervention Team (CIT) training for police officers and prison guards who need specialized training to make safer lunacy arrests and to avoid injuries to mentally ill detainees;
• Relaxed HIPPA rules, which will allow families of mentally ill people to know about their relative's condition and treatment.

We also demand better accountability when mentally ill people are mistreated or killed by law enforcement and corrections officers. 

Please indicate your interest in going on the Washington Tour for H.R.3717 or your willingness to help sponsor a family on this trip. Call Mary Neal, director of Assistance to the Incarcerated Mentally Ill, at 678.531.0262 or use the email address above.

We tire of Americans with mental handicaps being imprisoned to enrich prison profiteers, brutalized by police or neighborhood thugs, and killed behind bars or before they reach jails because they have common, treatable health conditions. We have in H.R.3717 a congressional bill that can significantly reduce those occurrences and restore people with serious mental illness to wholesome lives. It is time for families and advocates to do everything in our power. More information will be added to this article as details about the Washington tour emerge. The warehousing of 1.25 million mentally ill Americans in prisons and jails has continued long enough. It is time for real Change.

It is always the right time to do what is right. ~ Rev. Martin Luther King, Jr.

Please read H.R.3717. Its language, status and co-sponsors are at
http://beta.congress.gov/bill/113th/house-bill/3717 . See also H.R.401 "Justice and Mental Health Collaboration Act of 2013," introduced by Rep. Richard Nugent (R-FL).

JAIL IS THE LAST THING MENTAL PATIENTS NEED ... AND TOO OFTEN, IT IS THE LAST THING THEY EXPERIENCE. Please join our quest to decriminalize mental illness in America. No one should be punished for having a disability. Please contact your congressional representative today and demand that hospitalization and outpatient treatment replace incarceration for the mentally ill people in your state. Support H.R.3717 by emailing your reps today at http://www.house.gov/writerep

Please assist us by sharing this invitation and/or the url to our radio broadcasts with mentally ill people and their families as well as prisoner activists, mental health organizations, psychiatrists, psychologists, social workers, lawyers, congresspersons, students, law enforcement officers and administrators, and others who may have input or an interest in mental health law in the USA. Thank you for helping to give ASSISTANCE TO THE INCARCERATED MENTALLY ILL.

Mary Neal, director
Assistance to the Incarcerated Mentally Ill (AIMI)
MaryLovesJustice@gmail.com
678.531.0262

Seeking Dog Justice for America's Mentally Ill People

Speak to Senate for H.R.3717 April 27-28

OPEN MIC FOR MENTAL HEALTH CARE ADVOCATES -- Three radio shows for people who care about the mentally ill and may not be able to attend Tuesday's Senate hearings in Washington, D.C., where only crisis intervention training (CIT) for police officers will be discussed. Your voice is invited on air to speak for or against H.R.3717 "Helping Families in Mental Health Crisis Act." I believe we need ALL the provisions of H.R.3717, not only CIT. Please meet us at Blogtalkradio on Sunday and Monday, April 27 and 28, at 3pm EST. Please call (347) 857-3293 for "Human Rights Demand" channel. We will meet a second time on Monday at midnight EST at Blogtalkradio. Please call (818)572.2947 for the Monday midnight broadcast. A link to hear your comments will be sent to the U.S. Senate, and senators will be notified of the broadcasts in case they are interested in tuning in to the live radio shows.

Invite your relatives and friends at Internet social sites to hear you speak on air.
Human Rights Demand (Sunday and Monday at 3pm EST)
http://www.blogtalkradio.com/humanrightsdemand

Justice for All (Monday at midnight EST)
http://www.blogtalkradio.com/nnia1

Mothers, fathers, sisters, brothers, spouses and friends of people suffering from schizophrenia, bipolar disorder, severe PTSD, and other serious brain disorders are invited as well as persons who work with our mentally ill citizens or advocate for them.

I regard the Senate Judiciary Committee Hearings on CIT training as a sign that prison investors in the government do not plan to pass U.S. congressional bill H.R.3717 - Helping Families in Mental Health Crisis Act. The U.S. Senate hearings are planned for April 29 on only ONE provision of the bill: Crisis Intervention Training (CIT) for police officers. H.R.3717 also provides for:
~ Medicaid insurance for psychiatric inpatients
~ AOT programs, providing subsistence assistance and mandated psychiatric treatment for persons with acute mental illness who lack the mental clarity to stay on their meds
~ Relaxed HIPPA laws, enabling family members' inclusion in relatives' treatment

Better training for police officers without the other provisions in H.R.3717 might enable more sick Americans to survive their arrests and join 1.25 million mentally ill inmates, but only if police obey their training. Crisis Intervention Training (CIT) originated in Memphis, Tennessee. That is where my mentally, physically disabled brother, Larry Neal, was secretly arrested in 2003, incarcerated for 18 days while police denied having him, and murdered. His kidnapping and death are treated like a national secret rather than investigated and handled by due process of law. A mentally dysfunctional teen was killed by police there in 2012. In fact, 23 people in Memphis were killed by police officers in 2012 and 2013. CIT training in a culture where police accountability is seldom demanded will not significantly enhance the safety of mentally challenged people or anyone else. Continuing to react to mental health crises AFTER a person proves to be a danger to self and others compromises our sick citizens AND our communities. But this keeps the prisons full, and that seems to be the plan.

Yes, we tire of reading about mentally ill people brutalized and killed by untrained police officers, but moreover, we tire of a system that allows mental illness to go untreated until a person proves through violence that he/she is a danger to self and others. We tire of seeing disabled Americans homeless and hungry because their basic needs are ignored. We tire of prison investments taking precedence over the welfare of sick Americans and community safety. 

Radio experience is not necessary for you to call and make your opinions known to our senators. You should not worry about your educational level or anything else that might hamper you from speaking your mind clearly on this issue. These are YOUR relatives and friends, your tax money and your senators. Speak on behalf or against mandatory psychiatric treatment and subsistence assistance for people who are too sick to recognize their own need for intervention services. Speak about the dire need for more psychiatric hospital space and the resumption of Medicaid insurance for working class and indigent families whose loved ones need help. Speak even if you do not know anyone with mental illness, but you recognize that we all shop and attend schools together, and you would prefer for people with serious mental illnesses to get the treatment their conditions demand instead of remaining untreated unless and until they prove through violence their need for continuous care. Call and object to the prison industrial complex enlarging itself by continuing to deflect your tax money away from treatment in order to excuse arresting Americans who simply need psychiatric services and subsistence assistance.

You do not need an appointment to speak on the broadcasts Sunday and Monday, April 27 and 28. The first five callers will be accepted for each of the three shows. 

I already recorded my opinion for the Senate Judiciary Subcommittee during a special broadcast of Assistance to the Incarcerated Mentally Ill on April 24. Hear the tape, please. 
http://www.blogtalkradio.com/nnia1/2014/04/25/enslavement-and-genocide-of-africans-and-indigenous-peoples

Please support H.R.3717. Learn more about how this bill can prevent psychiatric crises that lead to altercations with police officers in the first place.
http://murphy.house.gov/helpingfamiliesinmentalhealthcrisisact

The Senate Judiciary Subcommittee Hearings announcement is below:

Law Enforcement Responses to Disabled Americans: 

Promising Approaches for Protecting Public Safety
Hearing Before the Senate Judiciary Subcommittee on the Constitution, Civil Rights, and Human Rights
Link to details on website: http://goo.gl/6oLil7

Date: April 29, 2014
Time: 10:00 a.m.
Location: Dirksen Senate Office Building, Room 226

NOTE: Sometimes there are late changes to room assignments for hearings. We encourage interested parties to check the Committee's website the day of the hearing to confirm the location. Keep track here: http://www.judiciary.senate.gov

Description: U.S. Senator Dick Durbin (D-IL), the Senate’s Assistant Majority Leader and Chairman of the Senate Judiciary Subcommittee on the Constitution, Civil Rights, and Human Rights, will chair a hearing entitled “Law Enforcement Responses to Disabled Americans: Promising Approaches for Protecting Public Safety.” Because of inadequate social and mental health services, law enforcement officers have increasingly become the first responders for individuals with mental illness or developmental disabilities who are in crisis.

Recent high-profile tragedies have demonstrated the need for law enforcement officers to receive additional training to safely address these situations. State and local law enforcement agencies have taken the lead in developing innovative solutions, such as Crisis Intervention Teams. Localities that use these approaches have seen fewer injuries and deaths among officers and people with mental illness or developmental disabilities, increased jail diversion rates, fewer lawsuits following crisis incidents, and stronger ties with the mental health and disability communities. This hearing will explore how Congress and the Executive Branch can support and strengthen these efforts.

Hearing Attendance: This hearing is open to the public. Interested members of the community are encouraged to attend. For planning purposes, the Committee requests that those planning on attending indicate their intent to come by completing an online RSVP at: http://goo.gl/2dmgSH

Statements for the Record: Chairman Durbin invites stakeholders to offer their perspectives and experiences on these issues by submitting written testimony to be included in the hearing record. These statements help educate Committee members about this issue and are important to demonstrating community interest.

Statements must be submitted as a PDF or Word Document of 10 pages or less, and should be emailed to Durbin_Testimony@Judiciary-dem.Senate.gov as early as possible, but no later than Monday, April 28, 2014 at 5:00 p.m. Please note that the Subcommittee cannot accept previously published information, such as newspaper articles or reports, as a statement for the record.

Senator Dick Durbin is Chairman of the Senate Subcommittee on the Constitution, Civil Rights, and Human Rights. The Subcommittee has jurisdiction over all constitutional issues, and all legislation and policy related to civil rights, civil liberties and human rights. The Ranking Member of the Subcommittee is Senator Ted Cruz (R-TX).

Witnesses
Panel I
The Honorable Denise E. O'Donnell
Director, Bureau of Justice Assistance
United States Department of Justice
Washington , DC

Panel II
Alfonza Wysinger
First Deputy Superintendent
Chicago Police Department
Chicago, IL
A.D. Paul
Sergeant
Plano Police Department
Plano, TX
The Honorable Jay M. Quinn
Judge
Fourth Judicial District of Minnesota
Minneapolis, MN
Pete Earley
Author
Fairfax, VA
Patti Saylor
Frederick, MD
--------------
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About the National Council on Disability (NCD): NCD is an independent federal agency of 15 Presidentially-appointed Council Members and full-time professional staff, who advise the President, Congress and other federal agencies on disability policy, programs, and practices.

United States Senate Committee on the Judiciary
JUDICIARY.SENATE.GOV

*****

WE THE PEOPLE SPEAK FOR H.R.3717.

TREATMENT, NOT IMPRISONMENT.

For your information, regarding the special H.R.3717 Blogtalkradio shows for Sunday and Monday, 3pm EST is 2pm Central, 1pm Mountain, and Noon Pacific. Regarding the Blogtalkradio show at Midnight EST, the time is 11pm Central, 10pm Mountain, and 9pm Pacific. This is YOUR opportunity to speak about YOUR mentally challenged loved ones and the safety of YOUR community and how YOUR tax money should be spent - on prisons, that help nobody get well and where the mentally ill are often relegated to solitary confinement, or on hospitals and better community care, which can actually restore sick people to wholesome lives. Nobody deserves to be arrested for having a common, treatable health condition. Hear from people who already addressed H.R.3717:

Check Out Politics Progressive Podcasts at Blog Talk Radio with Justice For All2 on BlogTalkRadio

Please listen to the voices in support of H.R.3717 Helping Families in Mental Health Crisis Act that have already been recorded at "Assistance to the Incarcerated Mentally Ill" Blogtalkradio show on February 12 and at 
http://www.blogtalkradio.com/nnia1/2014/02/13/assistance-to-the-incarcerated-mentally-ill

JAIL IS THE LAST THING THAT MENTAL PATIENTS NEED, AND TOO OFTEN, IT IS THE VERY LAST THING THEY EXPERIENCE. Please join our effort to decriminalize mental illness. No one deserves to be punished for having a disability.

Assistance to the Incarcerated Mentally Ill. Mary Neal, director.
http://www.care2.com/c2c/group/aimi

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 into a deadly restraint chair for control. But this happens to mentally ill Americans routinely in the nation's jails and prisons. What happened to Larry Neal? He was a black disabled man, and his wrongful death in police custody is covered-up rather than treated with due process of law because crisis intervention training started in Memphis, Tennessee, where Larry Neal was kidnapped and murdered in 2003. This proves that CIT alone will NOT prevent brutality and deaths, neither will it prevent people with serious mental illness from going into crisis and being arrested. See "Wrongful Death of Larry Neal." (Google it)

Dog Justice for Mentally Ill
http://dogjusticeformentallyill.blogspot.com
Wrongful Death of Larry Neal
http://WrongfulDeathofLarryNeal.com

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

2014 Election: Human Rights for Mentally Ill

WELCOME to "Dog Justice for Mentally Ill" blog! Thank you for coming to help give Assistance to the Incarcerated Mentally Ill. Many exciting changes are underway regarding keeping people with serious mental illness out of prisons and jails and improving conditions for those who are presently incarcerated. Our officials are listening to us. We must take full advantage of this election year to push our agenda to decriminalize mental illness in America. Never has so much attention been focused on the plight of our mentally challenged citizens. Make Assistance to the Incarcerated Mentally Ill a campaign issue this election cycle.

Wise candidates for elected offices focus on prison reform and treatment for mentally ill constituents and people with substance abuse problems in order to improve community safety and reduce America's huge prison budget. Look for your representatives among the co-sponsors of H.R.3717 - "Helping People in Mental Health Crisis Act," a U.S. Congressional bill that would provide assisted outpatient treatment (AOT) programs, resume Medicaid insurance for psychiatric inpatients in certain facilities, and train our police officers and prison guards in how to apprehend and contain mentally ill people without excessive violence. 

If your representative is not among the H.R.3717's co-sponsors, please urge him/her to join the effort to give Assistance to the Incarcerated Mentally Ill and prevent more incarcerations of our most vulnerable citizens:
http://beta.congress.gov/bill/113th-congress/house-bill/3717/cosponsors

Please send your thanks to Rep. Tim Murphy (R-PA), who introduced H.R.3717, and congratulate congressional members who showed they care by co-sponsoring this important mental health bill. We presently have 74 co-sponsors for the "Helping Families in Mental Health Crisis Act," 50 Republicans and 24 Democrats. Ask those who are not among the bill's co-sponsors if they own prison stock that is expected to improve if adequate care is withheld from Americans with serious mental illnesses. Contact your elected officials by using this handy link 
http://www.usa.gov/Contact/Elected.shtml

Congratulations to U.S. District Court Judge Lawrence Karlton in Sacramento, who recently ruled that California's treatment of mentally ill inmates violates constitutional safeguards against cruel and unusual punishment through excessive use of pepper spray and isolation.
http://www.huffingtonpost.com/2014/04/10/california-mentally-ill-inmates_n_5129376.html

Thank you, Judge Kariton and congressional co-sponsors of H.R.3717, for giving Assistance to the Incarcerated Mentally ill and reducing the likelihood of future arrests due to lack of treatment. We applaud your commitment to promote the human rights of Americans with mental disabilities and their families. Please read articles in this "Dog Justice for Mentally Ill" blog to see why your commitment is so important. Stories about sick people being killed by untrained police officers, imprisoned in torturous conditions, and denied adequate care are throughout this blog - not to embarrass the USA but to urge Change. We can and must do better. 

Elect people who prove they care about human rights, safer communities, and reducing the prison budget, which is currently over $70 billion annually. 

Mary Neal, director

Assistance to the Incarcerated Mentally Ill

http://www.care2.com/c2c/group/aimi

Dog Justice for Mentally Ill

http://DogJusticeforMentallyIll.blogspot.com

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 into a deadly restraint chair 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.
Elect people who promote justice for all. Five(5) links are in this article. 

AIMI Members Discuss H.R.3717 on Radio

I apologize for the late start to our "Assistance to the Incarcerated Mentally Ill" Blogtalkradio broadcast on February 19. Please forgive America and/or stalkers. Blogtalkradio reported a DDOS attack, which prevented me from going on air at the appointed time. NSA or whomever does this should get used to the idea that they will NOT hamper my advocacy to pass H.R.3717 like they did when I advocated for congressional bill H.R.619 in 2009. People with acute mental illness deserve advocacy. Rep. Tim Murphy has covered numerous issues in the "Helping Families in Mental Health Crisis Act" that deserve our support.

Below is a link to the 20-minute broadcast we were able to publish after Blogtalkradio put down the DDOS attack. We invite everyone who would like to give input on the "Helping Families in Mental Health Crisis Act" to call next Wednesday and EVERY Wednesday and share your viewpoint with our radio audience.
http://www.blogtalkradio.com/nnia1/2014/02/20/assistance-to-the-incarcerated-mentally-ill

Our first broadcast regarding H.R.3717 was more fruitful. The host was not prevented from starting the broadcast for 20 minutes, which dissuaded her guests on the second broadcast. The February 12 show is at
http://www.blogtalkradio.com/nnia1/2014/02/13/assistance-to-the-incarcerated-mentally-ill

Join us next Wednesday at 9pm PST for the third broadcast regarding H.R.3717. To speak on air, please call (818)572.2947. Otherwise, please join by computer at
http://www.blogtalkradio.com/nnia1/2014/02/27/assistance-to-the-incarcerated-mentally-ill

We will NOT be deterred from informing voters that the bill is before the 113th Congress now that would help decriminalize mental illness, reduce violence by police and correctional officers toward mentally ill people by providing additional training for officers, establish AOT programs, resume Medicaid insurance for inpatients in certain facilities, and reduce the stigma associated with psychiatric conditions - common, treatable health conditions.

IF my advocacy for H.R.3717 draws attention to the secret arrest and Wrongful Death of Larry Neal.com and my family's denial of due process of law, do not think those crimes will not be fully exposed anyway in my book "The Cochran Firm Fraud" and in my lawsuit before the International Court. We will continue to discuss H.R.3717 during our "Assistance to the Incarcerated Mentally Ill" Blogtalkradio shows until the bill passes. Therefore, call off the DDOS agents, please, and don't bother to send the in-person stalkers. I do not own any prison stock and am not interested in helping anyone protect theirs at the expense of Americans with acute mental illness. 

We congratulate Rep. Sheila Jackson Lee (TX) and Rep. Ami Bera (CA) for becoming the latest two of only six Democrats who have shown they care about a police firing squad killing a black mental patient in Michigan. Please watch the video and determine if police officers need crisis intervention training:
http://youtu.be/5pZM0fVErrU



Mary Neal, director
Assistance to the Incarcerated Mentally Ill
MaryLovesJustice@gmail.com