WHO: Some fifty concerned citizens, including attorneys, social workers and mental health professionals and three panelists: Rockingham County Sheriff Bryan Hutcheson, Sarah Albrecht, licensed professional counselor at the Community Services Board and David Rawls, psychologist at Western State's 45-bed forensic unit (serving persons convicted of some crime).
WHAT: A forum on the treatment of mentally ill and suicidally depressed inmates at our local jail.
WHEN: Tuesday, March 6, from 12-1:30 pm.
WHERE: Massanutten Regional Library meeting room.
WHY: To consider humane alternatives to the use of the restraint chair or the padded isolation cell for suicidally depressed inmates (see blog on this topic), including the use of volunteer mental health professionals to be available to be with such persons on a rotating, round the clock basis if necessary.
Sheriff Bryan Hutcheson agreed that the restraint chair should be used only in cases where an inmate is out of control and in danger of harming him or herself or others, and that being confined to the padded cell (where suicidally depressed inmates are stripped of their clothing and given only a paper gown to wear, and are without any reading material, bed, mattress or blanket, and with a hole in the floor for a toilet) should only be an option of last resort. However, he stressed that jail security and the protection of inmates is his first priority, along with the need to follow strict Commonwealth of Virginia guidelines and to avoid the risk of liability if any volunteers assisting such individuals were injured.
Sarah Albrecht, LPC, reported that the CSB is able to provide the equivalent of about 1.5 mental health counselors or psychiatric nurses (a full time equivalent number that was only her estimate, so it could be higher) for an overcrowded facility which houses 345 inmates who have little or no outside human contact or access to any other mental health resources. This is no fault of the CSB, of course, which also offers several educational groups led by the five part time CSB persons who make up that 1.5 or more number (including the psychiatric nurse practitioner who oversees the use of meds) but little counseling is offered.
Psychologist David Rawls reported that at Western State padded cells are no longer used for the patients from other jails and prisons housed there, but suicidal inmates are given one-on-one oversight, and the restraint chair is used only when there is an incorrigible patient. He also reported the use of trained peer support persons assigned to suicidal inmates in some prisons, but offered no details.
In summary, given the perceived risks, I left the meeting with little hope for any significant change in the near future in how our local jail deals with mentally ill inmates. However, Sheriff Hutcheson did say he is always open to at least meeting with any concerned citizens to hear their concerns, and stated that more training of jail personnel is a priority, with one deputy already being specifically assigned and trained to work at coordinating services to inmates with mental health needs.
I remain interested in generating a list of people who would be willing to further investigate workable and humane options that would not strain already stretched personnel and resources at the jail. My goal would be to both offer support to our new sheriff and promote better services to those citizens to our community who are behind bars.
Meanwhile, it would be interesting to know how many of our local inmates are actually being confined because they are guilty of violent crimes, and what percentage are in fact being detained for no crimes at all, but for technical parole violations, failure to pay child support, etc. I would also like actual statistics on the number of unarmed persons holding Sunday services or offering classes at the jail who have ever been threatened or harmed.
Your ideas are welcome, and please let me know if you are interested in being a part of further conversations with the Sheriff on this and other jail related concerns.
Showing posts with label prisons. Show all posts
Showing posts with label prisons. Show all posts
Wednesday, March 7, 2012
Friday, February 24, 2012
We're All Being Robbed
Addiction to prescription drugs has reached epidemic proportions in this country, a problem made worse by prescription medications being marketed constantly on TV and in other media. These ads, paid for by drug companies who are making huge profits from increased sales, promise a sure fix for depression, anxiety, erectile dysfunction and for whatever ails us, adding to the mindset that there is a pill for every problem.
People who get hooked on the effects of opiates like those contained in products like Percocet and OxyContin will do almost anything to satisfy their addictions. Aside from stealing them, some go to hospital emergency rooms on weekends or evenings after hours and complain of a severe tooth ache, kidney stones, or other conditions, and leave with a prescription they either use themselves or sell on the streets for a profit. And some physicians are all too willing to prescribe such drugs for people who seek help for real or faked chronic pain.
In 2009, according to the National Survey on Drug Use and Health, 16 million Americans age 12 and older had taken a prescription pain reliever, tranquilizer, stimulant, or sedative for nonmedical purposes at least once in the year prior to being surveyed. A NIDA-funded 2010 Monitoring the Future study in 2010 showed that 2.7% of 8th graders, 7.7% of 10th graders, and 8.0% of 12th graders had abused Vicodin and 2.1% of 8th graders, 4.6% of 10th graders, and 5.1% of 12th graders had abused OxyContin for nonmedical purposes at least once in the year prior to being surveyed.
Here are some ways we all might help address the problem:
1. Limit our personal use of pills to a bare minimum, and focus on preventive medicine and more healthy lifestyles as our preferred ways of feeling better.
2. Teach our children by word and example that happiness can’t be found in a bottle, and that there are no quick fixes or easy solutions for everyday life problems.
3. Insist on legislators banning all media advertising of prescription drugs, already the case in most countries. Our lawmakers are subject to intense lobbying by drug companies to maintain the status quo.
4. Promote having a special Drug Court in every jurisdiction to respond to crimes involving misuse of both prescription and illegal drugs. Such courts are already in place in many urban areas.
5. Provide drug treatment programs for non-violent offenders instead of overcrowding our prisons with more and more our addicted population at a cost to us taxpayers of over $26,000 a year per inmate (in Virginia), enough to pay for a year of college.
Our present approach to drug problems isn’t working. And it’s robbing all of us.
Wednesday, January 18, 2012
Jail is no Place for the Mentally Ill
According to a 2008 Virginia state mental health commission report, an estimated 15 percent of inmates in our prisons and jails are suffering from some form of mental illness. Since the number of patient beds in state mental institutions like Western State Hospital has been drastically reduced through the deinstitutionalization initiated in Virginia several decades ago, available space for mentally ill adults in such facilities has dropped from over 10,000 to fewer than 2000.
Unfortunately, far too many of these citizens have ended up in prison as a result of their inappropriate behaviors or threats of harm to themselves or others. Our jails and prisons are ill-equipped to handle such cases.
For example, in dealing with inmates who are suicidally depressed, our local jail has seen itself having only one of two options, the restraint chair or the padded isolation cell.
The restraint chair is one in which an inmate is strapped and kept in an upright position for hours on end, without access to mental health treatment or any kind of normal human interaction.
The padded isolation room, unlike a regular solitary confinement cell, has no cot or mattress and no sink or commode, only a hole in the floor to be used as a toilet. Before being placed in the cell, the person is stripped and given only a paper gown to wear. No reading or writing material is provided, and human contact is limited to jail personnel bringing in food (with no utensils, for safety reasons) and some strips of toilet paper when requested.
From the perspective of jail personnel, they feel they have no other options. They don’t have the staff, training or budget to provide mental health treatment. Someone from the Community Services Board may be called in for an assessment, but actual counseling help is normally not available.
Understandably, the jail’s primary responsible is to ensure inmate safety and security. But a caring community as rich in resources as ours can do better than that, given the fact that, for an emotionally ill person, this kind of restraint and isolation can only serve to worsen their mental condition.
I have no easy solution to offer, but I am pleased to say that in a meeting I had yesterday with our new sheriff, Mr Hutcheson, he has agreed to be a part of a community forum at the Mssanutten Library Tuesday, March 6, from 12-1:30 to explore constructive options.
For starters, I suggest they might include the following:
1) Whenever possible, confine suicidal persons to regular segregation cells, with trained community volunteers (through our Community Services Board?) present for designated shifts around the clock to assure safety and provide for human interaction. These could include people like graduate level counselor interns and retired mental health professionals or clergy.
2) Provide appropriate reading and writing material.
3) Offer professional therapy on a regular basis through the CSB or with trained interns from JMU’s or EMU’s Masters in Counseling programs, always looking for practicum sites.
These are only some beginning suggestions, and any long term solutions must include having more bed space at institutions like Western State Hospital.
Meanwhile, if we work together, we can find humane solutions for mentally ill prisoners that will neither overburden the jail’s budget nor its personnel.
Unfortunately, far too many of these citizens have ended up in prison as a result of their inappropriate behaviors or threats of harm to themselves or others. Our jails and prisons are ill-equipped to handle such cases.
For example, in dealing with inmates who are suicidally depressed, our local jail has seen itself having only one of two options, the restraint chair or the padded isolation cell.
The restraint chair is one in which an inmate is strapped and kept in an upright position for hours on end, without access to mental health treatment or any kind of normal human interaction.
The padded isolation room, unlike a regular solitary confinement cell, has no cot or mattress and no sink or commode, only a hole in the floor to be used as a toilet. Before being placed in the cell, the person is stripped and given only a paper gown to wear. No reading or writing material is provided, and human contact is limited to jail personnel bringing in food (with no utensils, for safety reasons) and some strips of toilet paper when requested.
From the perspective of jail personnel, they feel they have no other options. They don’t have the staff, training or budget to provide mental health treatment. Someone from the Community Services Board may be called in for an assessment, but actual counseling help is normally not available.
Understandably, the jail’s primary responsible is to ensure inmate safety and security. But a caring community as rich in resources as ours can do better than that, given the fact that, for an emotionally ill person, this kind of restraint and isolation can only serve to worsen their mental condition.
I have no easy solution to offer, but I am pleased to say that in a meeting I had yesterday with our new sheriff, Mr Hutcheson, he has agreed to be a part of a community forum at the Mssanutten Library Tuesday, March 6, from 12-1:30 to explore constructive options.
For starters, I suggest they might include the following:
1) Whenever possible, confine suicidal persons to regular segregation cells, with trained community volunteers (through our Community Services Board?) present for designated shifts around the clock to assure safety and provide for human interaction. These could include people like graduate level counselor interns and retired mental health professionals or clergy.
2) Provide appropriate reading and writing material.
3) Offer professional therapy on a regular basis through the CSB or with trained interns from JMU’s or EMU’s Masters in Counseling programs, always looking for practicum sites.
These are only some beginning suggestions, and any long term solutions must include having more bed space at institutions like Western State Hospital.
Meanwhile, if we work together, we can find humane solutions for mentally ill prisoners that will neither overburden the jail’s budget nor its personnel.
Tuesday, August 30, 2011
Locked up on Liberty Street
As we choose our candidate for County Sheriff this fall, we need to remember that one of their major responsibilities is the operation of the local Harrisonburg-Rockingham Regional Jail.
Located on 25 South Liberty Street, the HRRJ remains beyond overcrowded with some 300 men and women inmates, and is efficiently managed by a dedicated and overworked staff. But like most institutions of its kind, there are plenty of problems to be addressed. How can an experience behind bars best rehabilitate offenders?
In parenting classes I stress the importance of time-outs as a good consequence for misbehaving children. Perhaps incarceration can be thought of as a humane kind of “time out” for misbehaving adults, certainly preferable to public stocks, floggings and other past forms of torture and humiliation.
But as with any good consequences, a first word to keep in mind is Reasonable. The most effective punishment is not necessarily the longest or harshest. This is an issue for which courts are responsible rather than the sheriff, of course, but we should all be asking, If a three month sentence is good for a given offender, is a year in the same steel cage really four times more effective? The law of diminishing returns sets in at a point where the resentment an offender feels outweighs the learning value of the punishment.
I am not in favor of pampering prisoners, but one might also question the reasonableness of charging local inmates $1 an ounce for coffee, 75¢ for a styrofoam coffee cup, and 10¢ for a plastic stirring spoon. Maybe offenders should be glad for any coffee, period, no matter how expensive. But it’s usually innocent family members who have to pick up the tab. Our jail is among the few in the state that charges $1 a day for a room and board fee as permitted by Virginia law. Until at least half of that is paid in a given month, inmates can’t purchase a single canteen item, not even a pricey 11¢ packet of ketchup for a hamburger. This results in families either having to pay a $365 annual levy, plus cash for the steeply priced canteen items, or having their inmates doing without things as basic as deodorant. Is that reasonable?
A second word associated with good consequences is Respectful. To humiliate either a disobedient child or a lawbreaking adult is not a good way to get positive results. At our local jail, simple respect might mean not requiring inmates to be in handcuffs and wearing blaze orange prison suits when brought into the visitor booth--a small room with no escape exit and where inmates and guests are separated by a wall of solid concrete, steel and glass. Even state penitentiaries don’t impose this kind of indignity.
A third R of good consequences is Restorative. Any corrections facility should seek to rehabilitate and correct rather than simply punish, and should see to it that offenders make full restitution for their wrongs. This means more provisions being made for nonviolent prisoners to be under house arrest, in jail work-release programs, or on well supervised parole or probation (and regularly undergoing drug testing) while being required to work to support themselves and their families and otherwise pay off their debt to society. Otherwise it is you and I as taxpayers who get to pay for their crimes.
The latter, of course, is another matter over which a sheriff has little direct control, but his or her willingness to provide the necessary supervision for such programs is critical. But in the end, it is up to all of us citizens to help make our system of correction more reasonable, respectful and restorative.
Which, by the way, is an approach that could also save us taxpayers a bundle.
What do you think?
Located on 25 South Liberty Street, the HRRJ remains beyond overcrowded with some 300 men and women inmates, and is efficiently managed by a dedicated and overworked staff. But like most institutions of its kind, there are plenty of problems to be addressed. How can an experience behind bars best rehabilitate offenders?
In parenting classes I stress the importance of time-outs as a good consequence for misbehaving children. Perhaps incarceration can be thought of as a humane kind of “time out” for misbehaving adults, certainly preferable to public stocks, floggings and other past forms of torture and humiliation.
But as with any good consequences, a first word to keep in mind is Reasonable. The most effective punishment is not necessarily the longest or harshest. This is an issue for which courts are responsible rather than the sheriff, of course, but we should all be asking, If a three month sentence is good for a given offender, is a year in the same steel cage really four times more effective? The law of diminishing returns sets in at a point where the resentment an offender feels outweighs the learning value of the punishment.
I am not in favor of pampering prisoners, but one might also question the reasonableness of charging local inmates $1 an ounce for coffee, 75¢ for a styrofoam coffee cup, and 10¢ for a plastic stirring spoon. Maybe offenders should be glad for any coffee, period, no matter how expensive. But it’s usually innocent family members who have to pick up the tab. Our jail is among the few in the state that charges $1 a day for a room and board fee as permitted by Virginia law. Until at least half of that is paid in a given month, inmates can’t purchase a single canteen item, not even a pricey 11¢ packet of ketchup for a hamburger. This results in families either having to pay a $365 annual levy, plus cash for the steeply priced canteen items, or having their inmates doing without things as basic as deodorant. Is that reasonable?
A second word associated with good consequences is Respectful. To humiliate either a disobedient child or a lawbreaking adult is not a good way to get positive results. At our local jail, simple respect might mean not requiring inmates to be in handcuffs and wearing blaze orange prison suits when brought into the visitor booth--a small room with no escape exit and where inmates and guests are separated by a wall of solid concrete, steel and glass. Even state penitentiaries don’t impose this kind of indignity.
A third R of good consequences is Restorative. Any corrections facility should seek to rehabilitate and correct rather than simply punish, and should see to it that offenders make full restitution for their wrongs. This means more provisions being made for nonviolent prisoners to be under house arrest, in jail work-release programs, or on well supervised parole or probation (and regularly undergoing drug testing) while being required to work to support themselves and their families and otherwise pay off their debt to society. Otherwise it is you and I as taxpayers who get to pay for their crimes.
The latter, of course, is another matter over which a sheriff has little direct control, but his or her willingness to provide the necessary supervision for such programs is critical. But in the end, it is up to all of us citizens to help make our system of correction more reasonable, respectful and restorative.
Which, by the way, is an approach that could also save us taxpayers a bundle.
What do you think?
Tuesday, January 25, 2011
Justice Gone Awry
A judge I spoke with recently told me that without the use of plea bargaining, where a deal is reached in which a defendant receives a lesser sentence in exchange for a guilty plea, the courts would be hopelessly backed up with more cases than they could handle.
When a defendant is actually guilty, I can see such an arrangement saving time and court costs and perhaps living up to its name as a “bargain.” But when a defendant is not guilty, should he or she, while under oath to tell “the truth, the whole truth and nothing but the truth,” feel coerced into giving up their right to due process that might exonerate them, simply because of the threat of receiving a dreadfully long prison sentence?
It reminds me a little of a practice once known as "tavern justice," where the attorneys on both sides of a case would get together with the judge over some ale the night before a trial and work out some kind of agreement without the defendant actually being present. They would then go through the motions of a hearing the next day with the outcome already determined.
A sobering case of injustice that made national news earlier this month involved Cornelius Dupree Jr., who on the basis of DNA testing (made possible by the Innocence Project), was finally released after spending 30 years in a Texas prison.
Dupree had refused to plead guilty when convicted at age 20 in a Dallas rape and armed robbery case because he knew he wasn’t guilty--even though that would most likely have resulted in a lesser sentence. And as a model prisoner he had several opportunities to make parole if only he would admit he was a sex offender. For example, in 2004 he was all set to be released, but he was told he would have to attend a sex offender treatment program based on "four R's," recognition, remorse, restitution and resolution. He couldn't get himself to agree to even the “recognition” part, knowing he hadn’t committed the crime.
After his release, a dozen Dallas men who had also been exonerated after having served a collective total of over 100 years of time for crimes they didn’t commit came out to celebrate his freedom. In each of their cases, like Dupree’s, they were convicted on the basis of eyewitness misidentification in a police lineup, a common cause of wrongful conviction.
And might Dupree’s original sentencing also have been influenced by his race? There is no way to know for sure, but according to an article in the February, 2011, Sojourners magazine, there are more African-Americans in prison or on probation and parole than the total number that were enslaved just prior to the Civil War. And while people of all colors use and sell illegal drugs at similar rates, African-Americans are ten times more likely than whites to go to prison on drug charges.
To add to a list of concerns about our justice system, the Human Rights Watch organization recently estimated that there were currently three times the number of people who are mentally ill in U.S. prisons there are in U.S. mental health hospitals. Given the emotional stress a prison environment creates for even mentally healthy people, imagine what it must be like for people with paranoia, a bipolar or anxiety disorder, or suffering from clinical depression.
In graduate school I remember once having to meet in a small, narrow classroom where a large marker board took up most of the wall space at the end of the room from which the professor spoke. One day the board in question was badly tilted, with one end being lower than the other by at least six inches. I found myself so distracted by that crooked, askew marker board in my view that before the hour was over, I felt nauseous. My world was not square and upright in the way I was used to.
Which reminds be of a plumb line the Biblical prophet Amos once used as an illustration of his nation’s loss of integrity. She was no longer acting in conformity to the standard of divinely inspired justice. She was off center, leaning away from the plumb line of uprightness and integrity, favoring the rich at the expense of the poor, the powerful over the powerless, the haves over the have nots.
When that happens, we should all become sick to our stomachs, and actively join the prophets in calling for “justice to roll on like a river, and righteousness like a never-failing stream.”
P. S. As a dedicated supporter (and board member) of Gemeinschaft Home, a residential re-entry and recovery program in Harrisonburg, I invite you to join me in becoming a "Friend of Gemeinschaft" by writing a check of $50 or more and mailing it to Gemeinschaft Home, 1423 Mt. Clinton Pike, Harrisonburg, VA 22802. Or you can contribute online at http://www.gemeinschafthome.com as a way to personally help recovering people get a new start.
Thanks for your help!
P.S. Here are the lyrics to one of my son's recent songs on the subject: http://www.bradyoder.com/songs/jury-duty
When a defendant is actually guilty, I can see such an arrangement saving time and court costs and perhaps living up to its name as a “bargain.” But when a defendant is not guilty, should he or she, while under oath to tell “the truth, the whole truth and nothing but the truth,” feel coerced into giving up their right to due process that might exonerate them, simply because of the threat of receiving a dreadfully long prison sentence?
It reminds me a little of a practice once known as "tavern justice," where the attorneys on both sides of a case would get together with the judge over some ale the night before a trial and work out some kind of agreement without the defendant actually being present. They would then go through the motions of a hearing the next day with the outcome already determined.
A sobering case of injustice that made national news earlier this month involved Cornelius Dupree Jr., who on the basis of DNA testing (made possible by the Innocence Project), was finally released after spending 30 years in a Texas prison.
Dupree had refused to plead guilty when convicted at age 20 in a Dallas rape and armed robbery case because he knew he wasn’t guilty--even though that would most likely have resulted in a lesser sentence. And as a model prisoner he had several opportunities to make parole if only he would admit he was a sex offender. For example, in 2004 he was all set to be released, but he was told he would have to attend a sex offender treatment program based on "four R's," recognition, remorse, restitution and resolution. He couldn't get himself to agree to even the “recognition” part, knowing he hadn’t committed the crime.
After his release, a dozen Dallas men who had also been exonerated after having served a collective total of over 100 years of time for crimes they didn’t commit came out to celebrate his freedom. In each of their cases, like Dupree’s, they were convicted on the basis of eyewitness misidentification in a police lineup, a common cause of wrongful conviction.
And might Dupree’s original sentencing also have been influenced by his race? There is no way to know for sure, but according to an article in the February, 2011, Sojourners magazine, there are more African-Americans in prison or on probation and parole than the total number that were enslaved just prior to the Civil War. And while people of all colors use and sell illegal drugs at similar rates, African-Americans are ten times more likely than whites to go to prison on drug charges.
To add to a list of concerns about our justice system, the Human Rights Watch organization recently estimated that there were currently three times the number of people who are mentally ill in U.S. prisons there are in U.S. mental health hospitals. Given the emotional stress a prison environment creates for even mentally healthy people, imagine what it must be like for people with paranoia, a bipolar or anxiety disorder, or suffering from clinical depression.
In graduate school I remember once having to meet in a small, narrow classroom where a large marker board took up most of the wall space at the end of the room from which the professor spoke. One day the board in question was badly tilted, with one end being lower than the other by at least six inches. I found myself so distracted by that crooked, askew marker board in my view that before the hour was over, I felt nauseous. My world was not square and upright in the way I was used to.
Which reminds be of a plumb line the Biblical prophet Amos once used as an illustration of his nation’s loss of integrity. She was no longer acting in conformity to the standard of divinely inspired justice. She was off center, leaning away from the plumb line of uprightness and integrity, favoring the rich at the expense of the poor, the powerful over the powerless, the haves over the have nots.
When that happens, we should all become sick to our stomachs, and actively join the prophets in calling for “justice to roll on like a river, and righteousness like a never-failing stream.”
P. S. As a dedicated supporter (and board member) of Gemeinschaft Home, a residential re-entry and recovery program in Harrisonburg, I invite you to join me in becoming a "Friend of Gemeinschaft" by writing a check of $50 or more and mailing it to Gemeinschaft Home, 1423 Mt. Clinton Pike, Harrisonburg, VA 22802. Or you can contribute online at http://www.gemeinschafthome.com as a way to personally help recovering people get a new start.
Thanks for your help!
P.S. Here are the lyrics to one of my son's recent songs on the subject: http://www.bradyoder.com/songs/jury-duty
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