The criminalization of the mentally ill: A mother speaks for her son

The following is a letter from a friend, who has had to deal with a son suffering from mental illness for some time. I have witnessed the tremendous strain this puts on an individual in a country in which social services are a disgrace and deteriorating daily.  She has written the letter on behalf of her son. She is a single mother and working. If you wish to contact her send an e mail to we_know_whats_up.blogspot.com and we'll pass it on.  If you want the source notes, do the same. I have removed the name to protect her privacy.


June 28, 2011
This is a mother’s open letter on behalf of my son, who is dual-diagnosed with mental illness and drug addiction.

I am writing again on behalf of my son, who is being held in Santa Rita Jail in Dublin, California, after again being arrested on a warrant for violating his felony probation. At this point, it’s unclear what will happen to him since the U.S. Supreme Court declared on May 23, 2011 that California’s state prison system violated the Eighth Amendment banning cruel and unusual punishment, and the state has a two-year deadline to end the inhumane conditions from overcrowding and the lack of adequate medical care. (1) I am clear, however, about the role that I am able to play as I continue to advocate for him within a system that is not designed or adequately funded to address the emotional, physical, spiritual, and mental dis-eases of my son and individuals like him. We need and deserve a social system that makes public and environmental health a top priority.

This is a brief summary of my son’s life’s tragic trajectory and an open appeal for common sense and fiscal responsibility to prevail so that the money currently being spent to imprison people can instead be spent on more humane practices, especially when treating people with mental illness and/or addictions. It is my opinion based upon my family’s experience that society’s current method of treating people with a medical mental diagnosis within a penal system compounds their symptoms and entangles them and often their families in unrealistic probation requirements and court fees, and almost ensures a continuing downward spiral due to the stress that this scenario inevitably has on the affected individuals and their families. While I am waiting to hear from Santa Rita Jail’s representative to schedule a tour of the facilities/environment inmates are kept in, my visits with my son and research about California prison facilities leads me to believe that there are few “corrective” or “rehabilitative” opportunities provided to inmates, especially those with the additional challenge of mental illness.

Prison statistics show that the majority of inmates are incarcerated due to drug-related, non-violent offenses; and my son is but  another victim of the “failed” war on drugs and the defunding of mental health and other social services. On their website www.curbprisonspending.org, the organization Californians United for a Responsible Budget stated in an open letter to Governor Brown and Secretary Cate of the Department of Corrections and Rehabilitation after the recent Supreme Court decision referred to above that, “Over the past three decades, spending on Corrections has grown from around two percent of General Fund spending to ten percent, draining resources away from life-preserving and life-enhancing social services and health programs and forcing massive increases in fees at all three branches of the state’s public higher education system.”

On June 2, 2011, the Global Commission on Drugs Policy, a panel of heads of state and other eminent persons released a report calling on the world’s governments to dramatically change the way they deal with illicit drugs. The report begins with “The global war on drugs has failed, with devastating consequences for individuals and societies around the world.” (2) A validation to this report’s findings is the clinical research and practice of Dr. Gabor Maté, the staff physician at the Portland Hotel Society, which runs a residence/harm reduction facility and North America’s only supervised safe-injection site in Vancouver, Canada, home to one of the world’s densest areas of drug users. Dr. Maté is a bestselling author, including his latest book, In the Realm of Hungry Ghosts: Close Encounters with Addiction, which proposes new approaches to treating addiction through an understanding of its biological and socio-economic roots. In an interview with Reporter Amy Goodman on Democracy Now, Dr. Maté stated that, “…the hardcore drug addicts that I treat…are, without exception, people who have had extraordinarily difficult lives. And the commonality is childhood abuse. In other words, these people all enter life under extremely adverse circumstances. Not only did they not get what they need for healthy development, they actually got negative circumstances of neglect…And that’s what sets up the brain biology of addiction. In other words, the addiction is related both psychologically, in terms of emotional pain relief, and neurobiological development to early adversity.”

The full interview goes on to talk about the biology of addiction, and that segment and the website source is at the end of this letter.3 Dr. Mate’s full interview reaffirms what I have come to believe, that this trend of diverting taxpayer-funded social and health care services while the state continues to fund the construction and operation of privately run prisons, along with the rising cost of living, the breakdown of the family and communities, and other environmental stressors are contributing to the explosion of mental health diagnoses in children and adults. For additional (appalling) U.S. prison statistics, visit http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/United_States_incarceration_rate.

My son is not a criminal. He was diagnosed with mental illness before he became entangled in the court system. How can he be held criminally liable when the condition he is being treated for identifies auditory and visual hallucinations as primary symptoms of his illness, along with lack of insight about his inability to think clearly? In his case, the mental health and penal systems have NOT addressed some of the underlying causes of his mind/body medical condition that existed prior to, yet ultimately resulted in his high-risk, ‘criminal’ behavior leading to his current situation.

As I have stated in a previous correspondence to many in receipt of this letter, my son has been given numerous medical tests that show he has gut dysbiosis, food allergies, and heavy metal toxicity, all of which are associated with neurological disorders, addictive cravings, and low impulse control partially due to hormonal imbalances. I believe that he has unhealthy habits of self-medicating and using high-risk behaviors in order to cope with his disorganized thoughts, short-term memory deficit, agitation, and insomnia, which are symptoms of his diagnosis and also potential side effects of strong anti-psychotic meds used to treat his mental illness. There are also studies that show stopping anti-psychotic drugs cold turkey contributes to withdrawal symptoms that mimic psychotic and disorderly thoughts and behaviors similar to symptoms associated with his mental illness. Since his mental illness diagnosis in fall the of 2004, he has gone off and on many different combinations of prescribed drugs without close supervision from a doctor. Please refer to the work of Dr. Peter Breggin, M.D., Psychiatrist, accomplished author and medical legal expert, who issues the following warning on his website about sudden and unsupervised withdrawal from psychiatric drugs: (4)
“WARNING: Most psychiatric drugs can cause withdrawal reactions, sometimes including life-threatening emotional and physical withdrawal problems." In short, it is not only dangerous to start taking psychiatric drugs, it can also be dangerous to stop them. Withdrawal from psychiatric drugs should be done carefully under experienced clinical supervision. Methods for safely withdrawing from psychiatric drugs are discussed in Dr. Breggin's books, Brain-Disabling Treatments in Psychiatry: Drugs, Electroshock and the Psychopharmaceutical Complex (New York: Springer Publishing Company, 2008) and Medication Madness: The Role of Psychiatric Drugs in Cases of Violence, Suicide and Crime (New York: St. Martin's Press, 2008). “

My son is suffering from both mental illness and drug addiction. That is why I am writing, to speak out against drug prohibition and incarceration that is causing a public health crisis for individuals and their families and communities, and to advocate that my government divert taxpayer money to fund safe, secure, structured, and professionally staffed housing and health care facilities, such as Psynergy Programs, Inc. (PPI) facility in Morgan Hill, California. The owners/operators of PPI provide an impressive model of interdependent living facilities that offer an array of on site support care services and activities at a monthly cost that seems to be a fair investment when compared to the relative costs for county and federal court and medical services that focuses primarily on the use of medication to counteract symptoms. Their website explains: “Psynergy Programs operates with the shared belief that recovery happens, especially when a cohesive set of supports and services are available to support and sustain it…Each facility offers a slightly different mix of programs and services that allow Psynergy Programs to tailor treatment and environment to suit individual needs. This way, we can emphasize the best elements of a community-living experience for individuals facing a variety of mental health challenges.”

As one of Psynergy’s Public Relations staff said to me during a recent e-mail exchange: “My hope is that you walk away knowing that it is possible that no matter what your economic situation, everyone can live in a safe, recovery-orientated and client-driven environment.” How encouraging that is to hear in these troubled times.

In closing, I contend that there are many cost-effective and humane solutions to these social problems that can be enacted. I am asking for the government and agency officials in receipt of this letter to please reply to me at the contact information below with answers to and/or comments on my concerns and the few solutions I have suggested. To all others in receipt of this letter, please contact me if you wish to be part of a momentum to reverse the direction and change the laws to support more effective and compassionate care being given to people who are mentally ill and/or drug addicted.

In solidarity to create a saner, more reverent human culture and a wonderful life for all children.