When I look up JAIL in the dictionary, it might as well say...
ASYLUM
Let me begin with the obvious: Jails are not mental hospitals.
There are no long-term mental hospitals any more. That's good, because they were horrifying places. Then, good intentions closed the mental asylums, to be replaced by Community Mental Health Centers. It was the brief, shining moment of a Camelot dream in our American history, when President Kennedy (who's sister Rosemary, suffered with a mental handicap) tried to find a better way. https://www.ymadvocacy.org/the-community-mental-health-act-of-1963/
I admire him for trying. It just hasn't worked for the most ill.
I admire him for trying. It just hasn't worked for the most ill.
Now, 54 years later, the Camelot experiment has proven to not be enough for the most difficult cases. Today, the seriously mentally ill are either invisible, or suffer fates of being treated like animals, ostracized, criminalized, and punished for their afflictions. Things got worse, not better.
Do we care? I'm not sure. Caring means doing something about it.
One answer is, to find the root cause. Functional medicine is where to start. A daunting task, as each person is an individual, and each brain is a a vast, complex universe. But if someone is in the harrowing throws of a delusional life, how does punishing them do anything helpful?
It's an expensive problem.
Exponentially expensive.
Trickle-down-AND-up, expensive.
Literally, solving-state-budget-woes kind of expensive.
Get a handle on this, and maybe the state could be fiscally solvent..what?!!!
It's THAT expensive.
We need a new kind of "mental hospital." An emotional-trauma & therapy center. More a sanctuary than the H-word. That would take a monumental shift in the current approach. But how's the "medical model" working for you, Oklahoma? If it were a raging success, that'd be one thing. But in our experience, for these most dire cases, the medical model is failing. *****
Currently, the jails are where the mentally ill land when they fall through the proverbial "cracks." In spring 2017, four shiny, new mental pods were christened at DLM Tulsa County Jail, costing 15.9 million dollars, funded by a 2014 0.041% sales tax, passed by Tulsa County voters.
http://www.tulsaworld.com/news/local/mental-health-pods-at-tulsa-jail-become-operational-this-week/article_c4a14583-b34c-56de-8832-64a972c5ef6a.html Yet, it doesn't solve much. It's just an expensive band-aid. I predict it will mostly serve to perpetuate a superficial need for more such band-aid "solutions."
A bandage helps after an injury, but if the injury can be prevented, we wouldn't need bandages. Capiche?
My brother is back at the jail now, in one of these pods. Highly touted and specially designed to ease the worst of the 55% of incarcerated Oklahomans that have a mental illness diagnosis. But it's still jail, and it's still segregation. He's locked in his cell 23 hours every day. This is so backward it's mind-boggling. Jeff's essentially being punished for
having a damaged, broken brain. I don't know about you, but MY brain has compassion for him, and MY brain understands that there is no reform under such conditions. The mentally ill cannot win for losing.
Jeff is one of Oklahoma's most chronically mentally ill. The powers that be know this. But "care" isn't in their job description. Punish, is. Get them to trial... I feel like it's the old west. "Lock em up and throw away the keys", mentality. Our mom was actually told to do this back in the early 90's, by an ADA in McAlester. FOR SHAME.
When someone has a delusion (in Jeff's case due to forced RX that make him worse - in the name of "treatment."), it's like our culture goes into an auto-hypnotic-trance of popping or injecting pills/pharmaceuticals/drugs. Add in the element of fear and control, that arrogance and self-absorption deems "we know better" as if the psychiatric forcing of a neuroleptic "quick fix" helps. Sometimes, many times IT DOESN'T! The stats on serious mental illness are rising.
In 1941, President Kennedy's sister was given a lobotomy. She was 23 years young. I guess I should be thankful my brother's frontal lobes weren't severed with an ice pick in the name of "treatment". But it's like he's had a chemical lobotomy. SO MANY FORCED DRUGS, you've no idea. https://www.huffingtonpost.com/2014/11/12/tim-shriver-fully-alive_n_6141734.html
At least stigma isn't near as debilitating in America as it was then. And Jeff has a family that loves him dearly, and visits him as often as we can. One article I read said that Rosemary Kennedy's father never visited her in the Wisconsin facility where she was sent for the rest of her days. https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Rosemary_Kennedy She passed away at age 86, in 2005. Our Jeff is not invisible to us...
I was told by someone in the Tulsa DA's office that runs the Alternative Courts Program, that since the mental pods opened, these mentally ill inmates are doing "so much better." I was told by another person that deals with mental health issues in Tulsa that the jail now gets calls when beds are needed in the city. I repeat: the JAIL gets calls for Emergency Order of Detention (EOD), because there aren't enough "beds" to CARE for all these folks. Come on! JAIL IS JAIL.
Let's not pretend it's Camelot. Far from it...and not shiny at all. Quite the opposite. It's depressing.
This new, multi-million dollar "solution" for the seriously mentally ill is SOLELY for them to await prosecution. Most of them are there due to being sick. Many of them are found guilty and get sent to prison. That's the reality. Are we proud of this? It may sound better on the surface, but now that Jeff is there, we know for a fact that it's a scant, incremental improvement on the solitary he was confined in for 111 days in jail last year. He's still in a locked cell, alone. The cell has a window, but otherwise the door only has a food slot. Okay, okay...I'll give props to the addition of kiosks where the mentally ill can communicate their needs with those in charge. I guess that's better. But kinda pricey for a kiosk...
My lovely Oklahoma. You're getting quite the reputation for the apparent Big Business of incarceration and the FARCE of mental health care. This is too serious to pussyfoot around. No time to walk on eggshells. I must be frank and tell you how the world sees you. It's a tragic tale in my home state. I smh, as this family of lowly layment tries nonstop to DO SOMETHING ABOUT IT....because we care.
That's why I write. I'm thankful for my pen...
...If only it were mightier than the gavel.
***************
For more fun reading on this topic, here's a good one:
Just Google: jail mental hospital
4 comments:
Jackie, you speak the SAD TRUTH and it IS a reality for many Oklahoma families. It IS a horrible fact and many will never know unless they have a family member, friend or are the one directly affected. Our stories are much different, and I choose to believe that we have crossed paths for a reason. Having been on BOTH sides, (it still feels VERY weird saying that) I can attest to what youbare saying. I will also add that if someone is on the brink of having serious mental health issues, try placing them in a small, cold cell with or without a sink, if without you have no ability to wash your hands, you are NOT given a heavy duty spork so you are forced to eat with your hands without the abiliy to wash them. To recap that,let's add the fact that you are only given THREE cups of WATER a day with your meals. I will be generous and say that they are 5 ounce baby cups. Mist people wikll eventually suffer from dehydration and a symptom of that is diahrea. So, let's return to the need for hygiene. You now have diahrea and no ability to wash your hands and you must eat with your fingers. Really? Yes, I asked about this one...why no hand sanitizer, clorox wipe, anything? FAIL. AND how about this, no real human contact, lockdown for at least 23 plus hours a day, somencells do not have a window, so you have no visible clock, no window, no calander, no ability to tell the time of day or night it is. FAIL. The obvious ridiculousness of reducing the visitation days from SIX to TWO and then disseminating it beyond belief by NOT allowing other supportive family members to share the load with you and keep necessary bonds for when the person is released from custody. Also, not allowing children to visit WHEN APPROPRIATE. I'm stopping now, but my unknown sister, Jackie, has got this well under control. I am here to back you up however you deem appropriate. Thanknyou for speaking up. I ABSOLUTELY can NOT believe that the Tulsa Mental Health Association has not embraced this issue yet.
Gina, wow...thank you for all this insight, and for your heart, and beautiful, truthful, brave words. I truly look forward to meeting you, some day soon. You are so valuable and compassionate. Thank you!!!!
Yes, Gina, I’m the mother and we need to meet and I invite others to meet with us to start a grass roots campaign to change this. This is wrong,
A great blog, Jackie. Thank you!
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