Right Time for H.R.3717: Larry Neal's Murder Anniversary

*MURDER ANNIVERSARY* ~ August 1 was the eleventh anniversary of Larry Neal's murder, which happened following 18 days of secret incarceration in Memphis at the Shelby County Jail. Our family initially believed that Larry, a man who suffered from a heart condition and paranoid schizophrenia, had fallen through the cracks somehow. Now we know more about homicides against imprisoned mentally ill people. They get scalded to death, baked, starved, raped, dangerously restrained, Tasered, shot, and some are used for human dog fights.

It appears that most crises that mentally challenged Americans endure result from inhumane treatment by jails, prisons, and emergency police rather than the disease itself. Support H.R.3717, which has provisions for Crisis Intervention Team (CIT) training, assisted outpatient treatment (AOT) programs, and resumption of Medicaid insurance for inpatient psychiatric treatment in certain facilities. Nobody deserves to be secretly arrested by police and murdered like Larry Neal was in 2003 because a mental disease makes sick people a nuisance to police.

Torture and murders of America's mentally ill people are secret crimes against humanity that millions of people throughout the world know about. The U.S. Congress should pass H.R.3717 ~ Helping Families in Mental Health Crisis Act. It is too late to save Larry Neal, Kelly Thomas, Brian Claunch, Jerome Murdough, Darren Rainey, Daniel Linsinbigler, and so many others, but "the time is always right to do what is right" (MLK).

Mary Neal, director of Assistance to the Incarcerated Mentally Ill (AIMI)
a/k/a MaryLovesJustice Neal
MaryLovesJustice@gmail.com
Phone (678)531.0262 or Google Voice (571)335-1741