Neverland: Turning This Ship Around

Sorry for the delay since my last blog...
LOTS going on.  

Some good, some bad, mostly just stressful, 

and keeping us very VERY busy.

Maybe these blahhhhhhgs are helping move the mountain?

(I think they might be....shhh...whispering so I don't disturb the process...)  

I'm staying in gratitude and hope...

We need many miracles.... 

First, let me say a huge THANK YOU 
for all the wondeful people that have shared and donated to our YouCaring crowd-sourcing campaign 
to help fund what we hope will be a systemic changing legal case obo my brother, 
Jeff Welton.  

In two weeks, we are 6% to our minimum goal of $50K.  
Please keep up the support.  

We are humbled by the care you've shown.  
We need it to go viral!!  
(link below)

*****

If you've been reading these blogs, you know Jeff is diagnosed as "mentally ill" and has been being criminalized in the Tulsa County Jail and the OFC in Vinita - then back to the new mental pods at DLMCJC.  This round of criminalization started on 6/26/16.  It's been a year and a half, ongoing.

The main point I'd like to make today is:

JEFF HAS DONE NOTHING TO DESERVE 

the way he's been treated the past 18 months.

Because of a delusional episode, he was manhandled, thrown in jail on that hot July day in 2016, kept for 111 days in a small, dark, solitary cell... allowed no books, and the detention officers ended up tazing him and administering a neurotoxin that Jeff is allergic to and then slapping him with another in-house FELONY on 10/13/16 because he was again - (wait for it >>) delusional.  Let's see, #doingthemath - that was DAY 79 of the torture chamber, I mean segregation cell.  

Just thinking about this really ticks me off.  

I hope and pray those officers have all had Crisis Intervention Training (CIT) since then, as that was pure evil.  Not understanding after ALL THAT TIME, that my brother was not in his right mind, and they still found every way to punish him day after day, on and on and on...  I don't want to sound mean, but they seem NOT HUMAN to me.  Definitely inhumane behavior.  Sure, a hard job, but they knew Jeff was suffering, and they kicked him when he was down.  Over and over again.

If I WERE a mean person, I'd say it seemed like they were getting their jollies.  

But I'm not that mean.  

Roger that.

A month later, Jeff was sent in an incompetent state, to the Oklahoma Forensic Center.  11/14/16.

The family ... 
Constant involvement - as much as allowed.
Constant communications sent, mostly ignored.
All documented.  Never idle.

#TeamJEFF  

We have and will continue to TRY TO IMPROVE things, not just for our loved one, but for YOURS, too...or your neighbors, or that person you don't understand that has issues...  Because in Oklahoma, (which I'm pretty sure is officially the world's biggest jailer. #mustfindthatarticle #ACLUiBelieve) - over HALF of the over-incarcerated have a mental illness diagnosis.

WHAT'S THE DEAL, OKLAHOMA?  

SOMETHING IS TERRIBLY WRONG WITH THIS PICTURE.

Anyway...  after another eleven months at OFC, Jeff was sent BACK to Tulsa JAIL and the lovely new regime in charge at DLMCJC, which now has the newly-minted, long-awaited mental pods.  We were hopeful this time the stay at jail to "await trial" would be better than last year's stay.

Hardly.  Barely.  Disappointingly NOT really.

Basically, Jeff just had a window to look through, showing him open spaces he was NOT allowed to go.  Some windows HIGH above, so the sun can come into the space. And brighter paint...not as dark, that's good.  That's about it on the improvements from my perspective.  Yes, Jeff was put BACK in a segregated cell (W) in Level 2 out of 4 levels, the lower levels are the ones that don't "act right" so get NO PRIVELEDGES.

Keep in mind..they brought him back from Vinita to get that TRIAL GOING...

Punitive, you know.  Punish.  

That's what we're here for, folks.  Step right up, get your ticket.  It's quite a show...those new mental pods.  NOT.
I'm sorry if the truth hurts, but Jeff got WORSE there.  Truth.

Here's a Tulsa World article from January 19, 2018, written by Michael Overall (& photos by Mike Simons) 
that serves as an update on how it's going in the new DLMCJC mental pods, and shows my parents visiting and putting money on the kiosks for Jeff's account.  
We thank the Tulsa World and these talented and kind gentlemen for bringing light to this story, for all the criminalized mentally ill in Tulsa.  There are way too many.
http://www.tulsaworld.com/homepagelatest/tulsa-jail-s-mental-health-pod-full-but-we-re/article_025ecab9-8b39-52de-9d6e-2e83295d87dd.html

Not to rehash, but...

I've already blogged about the new jail administrator and his DOC mindset, bringing all kinds of new HARD*SS rules to the "mentally ill" in the new pods.  That man just doesn't get it.  At all.  

He needs CIT training, if he hasn't had it.  

Boss man should try sitting alone in a segregation cell for months and see how he fares.

The jail administrator is like the ship captain, right?
I wonder - would he go down with his ship?  

If that means with the people on the ship, nope. 
This guy is more like a Captain Hook character.
If you consider how jails / prisons stay full, and how they make money off the inmates in so many ways...  Captain Hook took the kids from their dreams,
to a bad place in Neverland.

I'm a writer, so sue me.

But if the archetype fits........

Jeff is like a child in many ways.  His issues, and now the BRAIN DAMAGE from being force-drugged hundreds, maybe thousands of times over almost 30 years, Jeff IS WORSE FOR THE WEAR, and may never get to... grow up.  He struggles more than you can imagine.  We speak to him daily.  We hear how his days go.  They are sad. They are scary.  His thoughts are caught up in a past mixing the real with the delusions - borne from living a life of sheer torment for decades, without enough compassionate people to HELP HIM.  Yesterday he called me three times, and the last call he was speaking gibberish.
DAY 8 of "meds."

WILL NO DOCTOR EVER TRY TO FIND THE ROOT CAUSE OF JEFF'S ISSUES?  

They only use RX as patches and bandaids then send him on his merry way...  #Arrrrrrrg!  

You should see the druglist database our mother has kept all these decades.  

TRULY a miracle Jeff is still alive after being forced to endure all these chemicals, all these years.
His life will end up an example of WHAT NOT TO DO.
Wait and see.

NOW ~~~~
We have an update I'm just going to touch on.  

It seems hopeful on the surface, but don't let it fool you.  

Through some legal wrangling, Jeff was moved from jail

the day after MLK day Tuesday, 01/17/18.

Yay ... you think?  On basic levels FOR SURE:
YAY:  Respectable, healthier food.
(an attorney recently described the food at jail as DOG FOOD.)
YAY:  Socialization.  BETTER, absolutely.

No law enforcement officers bearing down on him 24/7.

(Someone with paranoid issues CANNOT shake that off when detention officers are the only people he interacts with on the daily.  BASIC COMMON SENSE.)

So yeah, Jeff is in a "treatment" facility, now.  It took some doing and we are grateful.  But the downside is...they started the contra-indicated RX the very first day.  So, now the family begins again...informing, getting releases signed, establishing our treatment advocate rights, and educating a new set of doctors/caregivers that THIS PERSON has two illnesses that mimic psychosis.  The RX have NEVER fixed Jeff.  We blame the RX for keeping him in the system.
These drugs are dependent.  THAT'S RIGHT, professionals...if you don't understand that, please do your homework.  And while you're at it, read Pulitzer nominee 

~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~  Robert Whitaker's ANATOMY OF AN EPIDEMIC

to learn why mental illness statistics are rising in this country.
https://www.madinamerica.com/anatomy-of-an-epidemic-2/

Mental illness numbers are going up, not down.  

"Treatment" is many times NOT in a pill.  

Sometimes it's in therapy, 

and from micronutrients, 

and in an environment that is peaceful, tranquil, 

- NOT armed and ready to kill.
Sometimes the pill...the "treatment" does quite the opposite of what's intended.

Many things that must be turned around,
starting with the ship.
Instead of Hook's brig the Jolly Roger,
let's have a vessel in this story more like
battleship, the USS Constitution.
My family got to tour her
in Boston Harbour a couple of years ago.
What stories she holds and what inspiration she elicits.  
Also known as Old Ironsides,
her first duties were to provide protection
for American merchant shipping.
Noble AND tough.

That's the kind of ship we need, moving foward...

to win the wars waged on the mentally ill in this country. 

#Noble #Tough #InspiringGOOD #ProtectingOthers #NoPiratesAllowed

I dream of seeing a blue sky when the smoke from cannonballs dissipates.

I dream of soft pillows for Jeff to lay his head

instead of the stark, cold, plastic pad he's been sleeping on for months.  

I want Jeff to go to sleep at night and dream sweet dreams, 
not the haunting nightmares that make him scream out in terror 
that he's been living for more than half his life.  

No more walking the plank.  No more forced drugging.  No more criminalization.
If only we were there as a country...as a people...but sadly, we are not.  Yet.  

But Jeff's legal case may get us there!
We are working very hard and putting it all on the line to see real change happen.

For today, Jeff is out of jail.  Though the charges have NOT been dropped.  We finally got some help after many calls, many posts, many emails and many suggestions of communicating with the likes of the Tulsa County Commissioners, and all kinds of people that can and should make a difference.

So many players in this complex story.
Some are stepping up.

And I can't post without saying that tomorrow is Jeff's 49th birthday - January 25th.
Another special day in another facility....  #SuperSad  #WeLoveHim

Peter Pan and TinkerBell...
Neverland should be a good place.
The pirates have taken up residence, but good will win in the end.  I still believe.......
And that JAIL (DLMCJC)... and their lack of care for MY brother's mental issues, well...they can stay forever in the bad part of Never NEVER LAND.

I hope Jeff NEVER EVER GOES THERE AGAIN.

#MagicWand
#GoodOverEvil
#ShipsConstitutionsBattlesWars
#ThisIsNoFairytale
#BELIEVE
#NeverGiveUp
#JeffJailedWAY2ManyTimes4BeingSick

For more information, go to:
https://www.madinamerica.com



To donate to help change the system, go to:
https://www.youcaring.com/forjeffweltonlegaldefensecosisteradvocate-1059842?fb_action_ids=10156269498815955&fb_action_types=youcaringcom%3Adonate

Thank you. 

Jackie Welton DiPillo

OLD IRONSIDES (poem) 

by Oliver Wendell Holmes Sr.

Aye tear her tattered ensign down
Long has it waved on high,
And many an eye has danced to see
That banner in the sky;
Beneath it rung the battle shout,
And burst the cannon's roar;—
The meteor of the ocean air
Shall sweep the clouds no more.

Her deck, once red with heroes' blood,
Where knelt the vanquished foe,
When winds were hurrying o'er the flood,
And waves were white below,
No more shall feel the victor's tread,
Or know the conquered knee;—
The harpies of the shore shall pluck
The eagle of the sea!

Oh, better that her shattered hulk
Should sink beneath the wave;
Her thunders shook the mighty deep,
And there should be her grave;
Nail to the mast her holy flag,
Set every threadbare sail,
And give her to the god of storms,
The lightning and the gale!