Out of 2 million prisoners, 500,000 are mentally ill. My math isn’t the best but that makes 25%, right?
The mental illnesses are clinical and include manic depression (bipolar disorder) and schizophrenia. Prisons are not equipped to treat individuals who have been diagnosed.
was bipolar. He wasn’t given his meds and would appear in court incoherent. Chances are that he couldn’t offer much help to his legally blind attorney.
Fewer than 55,000 Americans currently receive treatment in psychiatric hospitals. Meanwhile, almost 10 times that number — nearly 500,000 — mentally ill men and women are serving time in U.S. jails and prisons. As sheriffs and prison wardens become the unexpected and often ill-equipped caretakers of this burgeoning population, they raise a troubling new concern.
The true, bewildering story of a young woman’s disappearance, the nightmare of a small town obsessed with delivering justice, and the bizarre dream of a poor, uneducated man accused of murder—a case that chillingly parallels the one, occurring in the very same town, chronicled by John Grisham in The Innocent Man.On April 28, 1984, Denice Haraway disappeared from her job at a convenience store on the outskirts of Ada, Oklahoma, and the sleepy town erupted. Tales spread of rape, mutilation, and murder, and the police set out on a relentless mission to bring someone to justice. Six months later, two local men—Tommy Ward and Karl Fontenot—were arrested and brought to trial, even though they repudiated their “confessions,” no body had been found, no weapon had been produced, and no eyewitnesses had come forward. The Dreams of Ada is a story of politics and morality, of fear and obsession. It is also a moving, compelling portrait of one small town living through a nightmare.
Facts You Should Know
Tommy Ward and Karl Fontenot were arrested and prosecuted by the same cops and prosecutors as Williamson. The same sloppy police work put these two men on death row. Waiting to die, they received another trial and their sentences were reduced. Tommy is serving a life sentence. Karl’s sentence: life without parole.
My passion to finish 30 Days to Justice grows stronger everyday.
From Wikipedia: In April 2003, in a speech at Kansas State University, Banfield raised concerns regarding media coverage of the conflict in Iraq. She also blasted “cable news operators who wrap themselves in the American flag and go after a certain target demographic”, specifically naming Fox News Channel as an example.According to a New York Times article, her speech angered NBC management who rebuked her and lowered her profile. She was fired in 2004.
Erika, a blog visitor, commented that The Exonerated is a good movie to watch regarding the death penalty. Click here to view it online.For those who can’t watch it, don’t worry.
I’m going to watch it over the weekend and provide quotable quotes on Monday. Thanks for the tip, Erika.
John Grisham found inspiration to write The Innocent Man while reading an obituary.
Quotable Quotes:
- Sloppy police work
- Wrongful convictions happen all the time in our country and some of them could be prevented
- A lot of innocent people in prison
- Stop and think twice about the death penalty and the system that we have
- The bible belt so in love with the death penalty. It doesn’t make any sense
- Morally opposed to state sanctioned killings
Fun facts about the book you won’t find in the interview I posted above. Ron Williamson’s lawyer was legally blind. He didn’t have an assistant to help him sort out evidence. He couldn’t review the forensic evidence and other important documents. No wonder Williamson was convicted and sentenced to death. Years later, Williamson had the benefit of hiring a lawyer with eyesight and his conviction was overturned.
This year I went to Paris. While there, I visited the Pablo Picasso Museum. His work is extraordinary – from his paintings to his sculptures. My favorite quote from him is, “My mother wanted me to become a doctor. Instead, I became Picasso.”
Picasso was born in Spain. As a result, his name has twenty one words - Pablo Diego José Francisco de Paula Juan Nepomuceno María de los Remedios Cipriano de la Santísima Trinidad Clito Ruiz y Picasso. Puerto Ricans and Spaniards share the tradition of giving their children the surname of both parents. This custom preserves the mothers surname in future generations.
As I develop characters, one will be known by his full name (twenty one names in honor of Picasso). That’s all I know about this particular character. I’m curious to see how he will come alive based on this one and only fun fact.
