My elderly aunt has recently sought the services of NAMI her 47-year-old son was diagnosed with schizophrenia in his early twenties. He’s been arrested for petty crimes such as vandalism and disorderly conduct. NAMI is currently working to educate her about schizophrenia. NAMI also provides family to family support., where people who have family members with mental illnesses support people who‘s loved one’s have just been diagnosed. Along with all of the support programs that NAMI provides, they will also give families a better understanding about how the court system works when it comes to crimes committed by the mentally ill.
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.
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.
