Government Robbery of Homeless Men in Fresno, CA

The homeless man in Dr. Floyd Harris' video posted below at the link was crying and saying police raped him repeatedly as cops wrote him a ticket for being homeless. A city truck is used to confiscate homeless people's clothes and other chattel. Many homeless people are not allowed to have personal property in the USA. The man in the film could be a former teacher or veteran, somebody's son, brother, or friend, but he is obviously nothing to the administrators in Fresno, California.

Thanks to Rev. Floyd Harris, Jr. and others who carry a camera and film scenes like this one. The homeless man is so afraid and tearful, especially when the city sent a truck to take his meager possessions. The homeless are criticized for smelling bad, but did you know some are not allowed to have a change of clothes or towels and soap?

NO SHOPPING CARTS ARE ALLOWED FOR HOMELESS IN FRESNO. PLEASE SEND MONEY FOR BACKPACKS ~ Rev +Floyd Harris , Jr. is an advocate against homelessness. He cop-watched and made the video of a homeless man in Fresno being given a ticket, and we can see the city truck that takes homeless people's personal property they cannot carry, which might include a change of clothes, prescription meds, a blanket, soap and towels. Please send donations to Rev. Floyd Harris to purchase and fill large, waterproof backpacks for the homeless in Fresno, a city where the homeless camp was bulldozed last fall in order to arrest our most vulnerable citizens for prison profits. Authorities refused to allow Fresno churches to invite the dislocated homeless people to encamp on their lawns.

Send donations to the attention of Rev. Floyd Harris, Jr., New Light For New Life Church Of God, 1106 W. Woodward, Fresno, CA 93706. If you require a receipt for a tax deduction, please include a request for same. Please notify me if you have any problems seeing the heartbreaking film below. My murdered brother might have been such a man if he had not lived in a care home. WE MUST DO BETTER.

Homeless citizens of Fresno, CA seek sanctuary among the dead. The photo below shows homeless people's possessions along the wall of a graveyard. Especially after city officials ordered their homeless camp demolished, it seems preferable to live among people who are beyond complaining about their presence. It seems best to live near the place they are intended to be.

Post by Floyd Harris Jr.

Assistance to the Incarcerated Mentally Ill (AIMI)

Mary Neal, Director

MaryLovesJustice@gmail.com

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

Indefinite Detention for Black Mental Patients

Two black men were denied a speedy trial in Mississippi for seven and eight years because they are African Americans with brain issues who lack wealth - the triple whammy. They are lucky to be alive, unlike many black mental patients who were killed during arrest attempts.

"Marktain Kilpatrick Simmons, 43 (pictured above), and Lee Vernel Knight, 47, both have mental issues and have been waiting years for a their day in court. Both Simmons and Knight are being held at the Hinds County Detention Center." This injustice was reported by "Your Black World" in an article at the link below

http://www.yourblackworld.net/2014/04/uncategorized/two-mississippi-inmates-are-still-awaiting-trial-after-7-and-8-years-breakingbrown-com/

Laws protecting citizens' rights don't necessarily apply to African Americans or the mentally ill of any race. Lengthy imprisonment with trials denied is a common practice in the USA, regardless of the "speedy trial" constitutional guarantee. Terrell Scott, a Pennsylvania mental patient, was imprisoned for 4.5 years with trial denied. He would undoubtedly still be incarcerated today if he had not finally agreed to make a false confession and accept a plea deal. Shannon Nyamodi, 20, has been incarcerated for nearly two years on false charges in North Carolina - most of the time in solitary confinement to torture him into making a false confession. Nyamodi is not mentally ill, but like mental patients, children are often intimidated into making false confessions. Nyamodi was arrested shortly after his 18th birthday, possibly to protect the real robber and shooter in his case, who is reportedly a white youth.
See "Maitri Klinkosum Blocks Shannon Nyamodi's Trial"
http://freespeakblog.blogspot.com/2014/03/maitri-klinkosum-blocks-nyamodi-trial.html

Americans are innocent until PROVED guilty in courts of law. There is obviously something wrong with the prosecutors' cases against the Mississippi men held indefinitely without trials, which is why trial is denied for them like it was for Terrell Scott. He was made a white woman's sex slave at the age of 17, then imprisoned on her false allegations when he left her and reported her neglect and abuse of her young children. Scott's child endangerment report was investigated, found credible, and Crystal's children were removed from her custody. Months later, Crystal retaliated by making a false criminal report against Scott, and justice officials gladly made a media event of Scott's arrest during an election year. Terrell Scott's real "crime was miscegenation (race mixing).

See "Teen Sex Slave Wrongly Arrested in PA"
http://dogjusticeformentallyill.blogspot.com/2013/11/teen-sex-slave-wrongly-arrested-in-pa.html

Many mentally ill Americans of all races either plea bargain or are tried and found guilty of crimes every year, then join 1.25 million other mentally ill people imprisoned in this country. The mentally ill should not be brutalized or killed while incarcerated in America's prisons and jails, either. But brutality and deaths are common among mentally ill people before and after incarceration. Three examples are below:

1) Terrell Scott endured brutal imprisonment for nearly five years while denied a trial. He lost his eyesight in one eye, hearing in one ear, and his jaw bone is misaligned from beatings by inmates. His front teeth were knocked out, and he was imprisoned in solitary confinement after his suicide attempt, which followed his rape and brutality that exposed him to HIV. Upon his release from prison, a reign of terror started against Scott's family. Because Scott finally confessed to having molested Crystal's children after he saw he would never be allowed to defend himself against the false charges in a trial, Pennsylvania decided to remove Scott's 10-year-old brother from his home to "protect" him from Scott. The family is currently fighting in family court for the right to remain an intact family. Can't the State realize it already has its pound of flesh? Terrell lived for four years with a white woman, but at this point, he's paid enough for his miscegenation.

2)  James Embry, Kentucky State Penn Inmate STARVES to death ~ "James Kenneth Embry, 57 and with just three years left on a nine-year sentence for drug offenses, began to spiral out of control in the spring of 2013 after he stopped taking anti-anxiety medication. Seven months later, in December, after weeks of erratic behavior — from telling prison staff he felt anxious and paranoid to banging his head on his cell door — Embry eventually refused most of his meals. By the time of his death in January of this year, he had shed more than 30 pounds on his 6-foot frame and died weighing just 138 pounds, according to documents reviewed by the AP."
http://news.yahoo.com/ap-exclusive-kentucky-inmate-starves-death-160028075.html

3) Larry Neal was a mentally ill heart patient who was secretly arrested in mid-July 2003 and detained until his death on August 1, 2003. Neither Shelby County Jail nor the United States Department of Justice release records and information to explain this kidnapping and murder. Prior to Larry’s final incarceration, whenever he was arrested on public nuisance charges and other misdemeanors related to his handicap, the police would contact his social worker or family and Larry would be released into their care. Given the long history Larry had with Memphis Police, it is impossible for Larry’s family to believe that Shelby County Jail did not know that Larry was under arrest during the nearly three weeks that his family agonized over his whereabouts. The police repeatedly denied having Larry in custody but did nothing to help search for the mentally ill heart patient precisely because police knew that no search was necessary. Fingerprinting for accurate identification is a routine part of arrest procedures. Yet, Larry’s family was allowed to spend weeks looking for Larry while he suffered and died in jail. One would assume that police became weary of their enforced role as caretaker to this man who would stand and sing loud on street corners, bother pedestrians for handouts, eat in grocery stores without paying first, etc., and decided to rid themselves of a "nuisance." His murder remains a national cover-up that the media will not report and the government will not address. See "Wrongful Death of Larry Neal" http://Wrongfuldeathoflarryneal.com

In addition to Sixth Amendment rights being set aside for mental ill Americans, so are other due process of law provisions. Mentally ill people's murders behind bars should be reported immediately to their families, unlike the family of Jerome Murdough, who was baked to death in Riker's Island prison. A reporter from Associated Press informed his family weeks after his death when he sought an interview. Neither Murdough's lawyer nor prison or state officials had informed his survivors of his demise. Cover-ups are common to hide murders and brutal treatment of mentally ill Americans under incarceration. See
APNEWSBREAK: NYC INMATE 'BAKED TO DEATH' IN CELL
http://bigstory.ap.org/article/apnewsbreak-nyc-inmate-baked-death-cell

Politicians who continually usurp funding for psychiatric treatment in order to keep the mentally ill revolving in and out of prisons and jails should not be reelected. Please see other stories about abuses of civil and human rights of America's mentally ill people in the index at Dog Justice blog on the right margin at http://DogJusticeforMentallyIll.blogspot.com

The Sixth Amendment right to a speedy trial should apply to every defendant and not be denied to persons based on race and health status. Laws against kidnapping and murder should not be set aside in cases of mentally ill victims. As Martin Luther King, Jr. said, "All we say to America is, 'Be true to what you said on paper.'" That has forever been a problem, especially regarding people of color.

Hear voices in support of H.R.3717 "Helping Families in Mental Health Crisis Act" that were 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 crisis intervention teams (CIT) alone will NOT prevent brutality and deaths, neither will CIT prevent people with serious mental illness from going into crisis and being arrested. ONLY treatment can help reduce the great number of mentally ill people and drug addicts revolving in and out of America's prisons and jails. Treatment is needed for persons with acute mental illness whether or not they agree to treatment. Assisted outpatient treatment (AOT) programs provide for mentally disabled people's subsistence assistance (food, housing) and mandate continuous mental health care.

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

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

Bridgewater State Hospital Investigation

A death in restraints after ‘standard procedure’ at
Bridgewater State Hospital psychiatric prison

Joshua Messier was having a schizophrenic attack, then died as Bridgewater state prison guards subdued him. The medical examiner called it homicide, then changed her mind. No one has been prosecuted, or even reprimanded, for the death of a young man in state care.

In a sequence caught on surveillance video, two of the guards had pushed down hard on Messier’s back as he sat in handcuffs and leg irons on the bed, forcing his chest toward his knees. The tactic, sometimes called “suitcasing,” is banned in Massachusetts prisons because it can cause suffocation, especially for those like Joshua Messier, who had grown overweight from taking antipsychotic medications. [Messier died in 2009]

http://www.bostonglobe.com/metro/2014/02/16/homicide-bridgewater-state-hospital-raises-profound-questions-about-care-for-mentally-ill/TqgMJdNZ8SPjLcFQ6hRkTN/story.html

Today, Bridgewater is back in the news. BOSTON (AP) - A nonprofit watchdog group has opened an investigation into the treatment of inmates at the Bridgewater State Hospital psychiatric prison.

The state Department of Correction confirmed Wednesday that lawyers from the Disability Law Center arrived at the medium-security prison Tuesday to meet with administrators, gather records and talk to patients.

The investigation comes in the wake of reports that guards and clinicians had illegally put mentally ill inmates and patients into physical restraints and isolation cells, and soon after two high-profile cases.

In one case, the parents of a man who died while being restrained at the facility in 2009 settled a lawsuit for $3million. In another, the mother of a man being held at the hospital filed a lawsuit saying he had been restrained and isolated for unreasonably long periods of time.
http://www.washingtontimes.com/news/2014/apr/17/state-psychiatric-prison-under-federal-scrutiny/

Do your elected representatives or their spouses invest in private prison companies? Join the ASSISTANCE TO THE INCARCERATED MENTALLY ILL Blogtalkradio broadcast for Call (818)572.2947 Wednesdays at 9pm Pacific to speak on air, or join us by computer. Below is the 4/16/14 tape
http://www.blogtalkradio.com/nnia1/2014/04/17/assistance-to-the-incarcerated-mentally-ill

Listen to the tapes for our shows anytime, 24/7.

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 therefore treated very differently. White persons with mental illness are brutalized and killed like black ones are in the USA, but Caucasians are seldom subjected to kangaroo courts, cover-ups, and denial of due process of law that followed the "Wrongful Death of Larry Neal." (Google it)


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

David O’Quin, Another Restraint Chair Death

David O'Quin, Deceased

“I Thought He Was Safe, That Was a Mistake”(April 15, 2014) ~~ When Bill O’Quin called the police to warn them that his 41-year-old paranoid schizophrenic son, David, was wandering the streets one night in February 2013, he had no idea the arrest would ultimately lead to David’s death in a Louisiana prison.

Yet “thirteen days later David Jackson O’Quin lay lifeless on a jail cell floor after being shackled to a restraint chair for nearly 170 hours during 10 days of often violent behavior,” reports the Advocate (“Dad hopes suit over mentally ill son’s death in jail will spur change,” April 14).

An artist, David O’Quin was fluent in Spanish and graduated from the University of Texas with a degree in studio art. Shortly thereafter, he moved to Los Angeles to study at UCLA.

What originally appeared to be the quirky behavior of an artist became more alarming when David moved to the west coast. “Helicopters and birds followed David around Los Angeles,” Bill O’Quin tells the Advocate. “Intelligence officials implanted listening devices in his brain . . . He often stripped naked in public.”

When he landed in the East Baton Rouge Parish Prison on that February night . . .
Read the entire article at http://theadvocate.com/news/8475687-123/i-thought-he-was-safe

Condolences from ASSISTANCE TO THE INCARCERATED MENTALLY ILL to Mr. O'Quin on the tragic and needless death of his beloved son. The good news is your lawsuit will likely be paid, because your son was white. If you were black, you would likely get no due process of law and might even be persecuted for asking for justice. No, your lawsuit will NOT change anything. The payout will come from taxpayers. David's incarceration was financed by taxpayers. Prison investors are not personally inconvenienced by wrongful death lawsuits, but changing the system and incarcerating fewer mental patients would most certainly negatively impact them. Change is up to the people. We must remove prison investors from public office.

Do your elected representatives or their spouses invest in private prison companies?
Join the ASSISTANCE TO THE INCARCERATED MENTALLY ILL Blogtalkradio broadcast for 4/16/14. Call (818)572.2947 at 9pm Pacific to speak on air, or join us by computer
http://www.blogtalkradio.com/nnia1/2014/04/17/assistance-to-the-incarcerated-mentally-illListen to the tapes for our shows anytime, and join us every Wednesday night for the live broadcasts.

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

SAMHSA Blocks Mental Health Treatment

Prison Investors in Government advocate AGAINST the best interest of people with serious mental illness. See the following statement by Mental Illness Policy Org. 

The Definition of Insanity - A federal agency (SAMHSA) undermines treatment for the mentally ill. (Wall Street Journal March 31, 2014)

Every time a mass shooting happens in the U.S.—Sandy Hook, Virginia Tech, Aurora — we have the same national discussion: Why can't we identify and treat the dangerously mentally ill before they kill? Here is one infuriating answer.

Inside the U.S. Department of Health and Human Services sits an agency whose assignment since its creation in 1992 has been to reduce the impact of mental illness and target services to the "people most in need." Instead, the Substance Abuse and Mental Health Services Administration, known as Samhsa, uses its $3.6 billion annual budget to undermine treatment for severe mental disorders.

Health professionals agree on the need to provide medical intervention for serious psychiatric disorders—schizophrenia, bipolar disorder, severe depression. The National Institute of Mental Health does evidence-based research and promotes medically driven models of care, including early intervention, intense psychiatric treatment and drugs. Doctors have promoted reforms such as "need for treatment" standards in civil-commitment laws, or assisted-outpatient laws so courts can require the mentally ill to receive treatment to avoid hospitalization. These reforms help the mentally ill and reduce crime, incarceration and homelessness.

Instead of being part of this solution, Samhsa is in the vanguard of the legal-advocacy and anti-psychiatry movement that sprang to life in the 1980s, and it continues to waste taxpayer dollars on programs that undercut efforts to help the world's Adam Lanzas.

Known generally as the "consumer/survivor" movement (as in having "survived" psychiatric treatment), this movement largely opposes drug treatment, psychiatric care, civil-commitment laws or even the reality of mental illness. Samhsa pushes the "recovery model," an approach that puts the patient in charge of crafting his own recovery plan and stresses "empowerment" and coping rather than medical intervention.

For instance, Samhsa's Guide to Mental Illness Awareness Week suggests schools invite as speakers such radical organizations as MindFreedom, which rejects the existence of mental illness and stages "human rights" campaigns against drug treatment and commitments. Or the National Coalition for Mental Health Recovery, which "holds that psychiatric labeling is a pseudoscientific practice of limited value in helping people recover."

Samhsa underwrites the Alternatives conference, which in 2013 included a session titled "Dance Your Way to Wellness and Recovery" and a presentation from the "Hearing Voices Network," which "believes that hearing voices is a part of human experience."

The recovery model can help people with minor mental illness. But Samhsa's allegiance to it neglects or harms individuals with severe psychiatric disorders. Most of Samhsa's annual $460 million in grants goes to community mental-health centers aimed primarily at the "worried well."

Samhsa's grants prioritize "prevention"—though there is no known way to prevent severe mental illness. Samhsa spends millions on anti-bullying coloring books and online kids games and pamphlets on how to handle emotional distress after floods: "Take care of pets . . .  Nature and animals can help us to feel better when we are down."

E. Fuller Torrey, who runs the Treatment Advocacy Center devoted to helping the severely ill, has noted that Samhsa's most recent long-term planning document is 42,000 words but contains not one reference to bipolar disorder, schizophrenia or schizoaffective disorder.

Sally Satel, a psychiatrist who served on an advisory committee to Samhsa, told a House committee last year that her review of the 288 programs on the agency's registry of "evidence-based" programs turned up only four aimed at severe mental illness. Most were aimed at helping substance abusers, or enhancing parenting skills, or helping kids recognize "anxiety." Samhsa had even refused to put assisted outpatient therapy on the list, though this is the most-effective program for severe illness.

Ms. Satel told the House how Samhsa leadership routinely rejected advice from the medical professionals on its advisory council. Jeffrey Geller, the director of public sector psychiatry at the University of Massachusetts Medical School, related to Dr. Satel: "Most members who served [on the Samhsa advisory council] during the years I served gave up attempts for meaningful input and left in disgust."

Pennsylvania Rep. Tim Murphy spent a year reviewing federal mental-health policies and in late 2013 introduced a thoughtful overhaul. One proposal would create a new HHS assistant secretary for mental health to streamline federal programs and take over Samhsa's grant-making—requiring that money go to evidence-based practices. The position would have to be filled by a medical professional.

Some conservatives oppose this new government position, but the status quo is worse—and dangerous. Samhsa is out of control and would be better off abolished. But if that can't be done, the Murphy bill would reorganize government to make it more effective and accountable. And as long as the government spends billions on mental health, it needs someone to streamline and make more effective its dozens of programs.

At the very least, someone needs to assure Americans that their tax dollars aren't feeding a culture of nontreatment. The risk to society from untreated mental illness is tragically obvious. It's well past time for Washington's politicians to clean up HHS's absence of oversight at Samhsa.

http://mentalillnesspolicy.org/samhsa/wsj_samhsa_hurts_3.23.14.html

*******

Request from D.J. Jaffe, director of Mental Illness Police Org.:

ASK REPRESENTATIVES TO SUPPORT HR 3717 - "THE HELPING FAMILIES IN MENTAL HEALTH CRISIS ACT" AND ESPECIALLY TO SUPPORT THE PROVISIONS THAT HELP THE MOST SERIOUSLY ILL (which are the ones the consumer movement is opposing):

Fund AOT Pilot Programs.

Eliminate SAMHSA Technical Assistance Centers. They fight states that want to preserve hospitals, implement Laura's Law, change civil commitment standards, and take other steps that get treatment to adults with serious mental illness.

Redefine SAMHSA's mission as helping people with serious mental illness vs all others.
Incorporate a "Need for treatment standard" in state civil commitment laws.

Reform HIPAA so parents can help get treatment for adult children with serious mental illness.

Reform the IMD Exclusion in Medicaid so adults who are too sick to live in the community can get care when they need it.

Prevent PAIMI from taking anti-AOT, anti-hospital, anti-civil commitment reform positions.

Contact office@mentalillnesspolicy.org 
Contact DJ Jaffe, founder http://mentalillnesspolicy.org

*****

AIMI SUGGESTS THAT CITIZENS DEMAND THAT GOVERNMENT OFFICIALS DIVEST THEMSELVES OF PRISON STOCK, OR AMERICA WILL CONTINUE TO PUNISH RATHER THAN TREAT THE MENTALLY ILL. ASK SAMHSA TO SHOW YOU THEIR ADMINISTRATORS' STOCK PORTFOLIOS. LOOK FOR PRIVATE PRISON STOCK.
http://www.samhsa.gov/

Do your elected representatives or their spouses invest in private prison companies? 

Join the ASSISTANCE TO THE INCARCERATED MENTALLY ILL Blogtalkradio broadcast for 4/16/14. Call (818)572.2947 at 9pm Pacific to speak on air, or join us by computer
http://www.blogtalkradio.com/nnia1/2014/04/17/assistance-to-the-incarcerated-mentally-ill Listen to the tapes for our shows anytime, and join us every Wednesday night for the live broadcasts.

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

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.