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On today's date in The Beacon archives, we published:
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 JANUARY 11 WOMEN’S MIDWINTER RETREAT 1:30 - 5 pm - Presented by: The Center Within Sisters of Charity Motherhouse, Mt. St. Joseph, situated on the hillside overlooking the Ohio River, offers us the beauty of winter. Winter is a time when the tree roots are growing in quiet hibernation, encouraging us as well to take time for prayer and inner reflection on the goodness and beauty of life within us. Come, join the circle of women on the journey of life during this midwinter season. We will together create sacred space, which includes: Song and Guided Prayer/ Reflection - Quiet Reflective time for Listening Within - Sharing our Stories (if you wish) - Celebrating our Lives Together in Ritual Led by: Kathleen Hartman Blackburn, Donna Steffen, SC, Mary Ann Humbert Held at: Rose Room at Sisters of Charity Motherhouse, 5900 Delhi Road, Mt. St. Joseph, OH 45051 - From River Road (50 West), turn Right onto Fairbanks, which becomes Delhi. Stay on Delhi until it deadends at the entrance to the Sisters of Charity Motherhouse. A parking lot is found just past the buildings. Use main entrance! Fee: $25. ($30. after Jan.3 (Mail Registration Below. Keep time, info, and directions. ) Checks/ Registration to: The Center Within, PO Box 6027, Cincinnati, OH 45206 Information: 513-751-3358, 513-681-8881, , http://www.TheCenterWithin.org |
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January 28 6 pm - 7:30 pm
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Friday, September 28, 2007
Not Jail Beds, but Treatment Beds
Posted by The Dean of Cincinnati
Guest article by Mike Shryock, Licensed Professional Clinical Counselor
With 38 years experience working professionally with the mentally ill, the addicted and the criminal justice system, I am very troubled by the notion of building a larger jail. It is well known that our current jail is filled mostly with poor people with nonviolent misdemeanor charges directly related to their medical conditions which we as a society have failed to address in the community.
Now the local political leaders want to make this jail issue seem a little sweeter by adding that they will offer some “treatment” in the new jail. Treatment in jail is inferior to community-based programs. And it is more expensive, because brain disorders like addiction and mental illness require a long-term program in a caring environment to give the brain time to heal. Jail does not provide either of these.
Jail does not change brain chemistry, so we currently have a recidivism rate of 70 percent as people with these conditions commit petty crimes like urinating in the park and smoking marijuana-and end up in jail over and over again. What does that cost the community? So we constantly have more victims. The purpose of the criminal justice system is to reduce crime and have fewer victims, not to see how many we can repeatedly lock up.
Hamilton County does not have enough treatment beds. To reduce crime, beds could be expanded by putting people in excellent programs like First Step Home, Joseph House, and Prospect House. Miami, Florida has a program called Passageways that serves the mentally ill as an alternative to jail. That program saves the souls of hundreds of people and saves money for the community. Why can’t we do that here?
About 1,000 people go to the University of Cincinnati Emergency Psychiatric Service each month. Ninety percent are turned away, and those who stay have to leave in a few days-so they end up on the streets or in jail.
In his book Crazy in America, Pete Early says, “We should not require a person with a brain disorder to commit a crime in order to get medical services…We have turned mental illness into a criminal justice problem instead of a community health challenge.”
The jail issue you will note on in November calls for about $200 million for the jail of which $2 million is for “treatment” (which in many cases means dispensing medications that may or may not be what is needed). Currently the budget includes $19 million for programs-so we will be going backwards! The mental health court we have had for four years only serves 37 people. We need one that serves hundreds.
Vote NO on Issue 27 so the Sheriff and the county’s political leaders will have to find real solutions instead of this band aid approach to public safety.
To learn more about alternatives to jail, attend the Interfaith Alliance Conference on Restorative Justice October 13 (9:00 a.m. to 1:00 p.m.) at the First Unitarian Church in Cincinnati. The event is free and open to the public.
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28 Sep 2007 at 03:40 pm | #
One question:
Can we force the mentally ill into treatment or not?
28 Sep 2007 at 04:33 pm | #
A person caught dealinga kilo of smack or meth is a nonviolent offender. Should they be out on the streets?
28 Sep 2007 at 07:06 pm | #
“We should not require a person with a brain disorder to commit a crime in order to get medical services…We have turned mental illness into a criminal justice problem instead of a community health challenge.”
With all due respect Mr. Shyrock, who the heck is criminalizing mental illness here? Those seeking to offer treatment to person’s waving red flags begging for help inside a court room or those working to deny them that help?
Your numbers are flipped on the services and you promote greater capacity in the mental health court, but you offer nothing other than a marching band carrying banners.
Only 1/3 of the funds raised will go to the jail construction - the greater majority goes to services and criminal justice reforms.
And you support the political status quo of marching bands and banners verses solutions?
28 Sep 2007 at 07:17 pm | #
Today, an 18 year old kid in court for a probation violation regarding a domestic violence offense, who had served 4 months, was asked why he didn’t complete his parenting classes. His response was that he didn’t have the money or transportation…
My question is: why didn’t he go through the classes while in jail for 4 months?
And, I’ve said this before but nobody paid attention, what in the real do you opponents think community-based services are? You really need to figure it out before you make attacks - expecially when you’re flying credentials
28 Sep 2007 at 08:50 pm | #
Mr Shyrock, you claim you’ve been in the business of helping the mentally ill for, what? 38 years?
In that span of 38 years, did it ever occur to you & the conditions present itself that some individuals do not want help? Some individuals haven’t fell that far down that they’ve had enough, genuinely want help & are dedicated to working for positive, productive change each & every day?
With all due respect, sir, I have had homeless individuals shuffle around the neighborhood who have urinated in my yard, turned my outside faucet on to do their laundry while I was at work, then proceeded to dry their soiled clothes on my shrubbery & help themselves to my porch furniture for a nap while the clothes were drying. You can imagine my surprise & absolute disgust at seeing this after arriving at my residence.
And that you consider “petty crimes”? I consider it being violated. I equate it with breaking into my home & going thru my personal things, helping themselves to a sandwich & not cleaning up the mess at the kitchen table, not putting the cap on the milk, & not washing their dishes. Oh yeah, watching a bit of TV, going thru my mail & making long distance phone calls. Not flushing the toilet. I felt very violated & it was a stretch at putting the incident behind me.
You’re in the same mold as these other so-called criminal-psychological analysts. You’ve put certain labels on crimes - violent & non-violent.
You should converse with residents who are under siege in our neighborhoods with the overall aspect of crime. Every crime committed carries a measure of violence. People become upset at that fact some dude is peeing in the park. It’s called betraying the trust of those in the community. It’s instilling a certain level of fear in the community.
I see plenty of individuals in the Court House & oh do they have a song & dance as to why they didn’t go for treatment assessment, why their urine drops were dirty, why they haven’t studied for their GED, why they missed their payment date, why they were late to Court, and so on. One of these days, I’m going to write a best seller based on the excuses the individuals are serving up. It’s called denial.
Until those afflicted in some way, any way, wrap their heads around the idea they want change in their lives, there isn’t a program that exists on this earth that will change their behaviors. Behavioral change begins with the accused individual, not with a magic rehab program. They have to desperately want that change. And for the change to start occurring, the individual has to seek out the help under their own volition.
29 Sep 2007 at 07:37 am | #
"It is well known that our current jail is filled mostly with poor people with nonviolent misdemeanor charges directly related to their medical conditions which we as a society have failed to address in the community.”
Should read: It is well known that our current jail is filled mostly with criminals with misdemeanor charges directly related to their propensity to commit crimes which their parents have failed to address in the home.
“Miami, Florida has a program called Passageways that serves the mentally ill as an alternative to jail. That program saves the souls of hundreds of people and saves money for the community. Why can’t we do that here?”
As long as enrollment and residence at the facility is mandatory; in order to stay out of jail, and it is part of the jail campus I might support it as part of the plan. We/The City, are currently working to keep a bunch of suburban faith based volunteers from cramming the countries largest homeless, mental health, drug and alcohol treatment, ect.., cluster fuck, called CityLink, in the middle of the downtown basin. I won’t go into everything that’s wrong with that plan; but two aspects that pertain here are; it’s not a secure campus and it is in the middle of the most densely populated part of the City.
“Currently the budget includes $19 million for programs.”
Which budget is that, and who said it was to be cut?
30 Sep 2007 at 05:56 am | #
Under current insurance reimbursement rates, hospitals lose money on inpatient treatment so most hospitals dont have a psych unit. Deinstitutionalization in the 70s caused massive releases from places like Longview into the community. At Longview, they had a safe place to live, had medical attention, therapy, nursing, medication, etc. It has been made clear over the past 25 years that there are some people who simply can not function in society no matter how much support they have and those people do indeed need a long-term facility (not group home) since most will be mentally ill for life. Faced with homelessness, some of them will chose jail over the Drop Inn Center. Will mental health experts now fight for re-institutionalization?
30 Sep 2007 at 02:29 pm | #
JFD,
Why dont you talk about how the wealthy Warrington’s didnt address Andrew’s propensity to kill his sleeping brother with a baseball bat? Oh thats right, you wont because he is rich, white, and crazy but he is not in jail and never will be.
01 Oct 2007 at 07:28 am | #
#8: “JFD,
Why dont you talk about how the wealthy Warrington’s didnt address Andrew’s propensity to kill his sleeping brother with a baseball bat? Oh thats right, you wont because he is rich, white, and crazy but he is not in jail and never will be.”
Let’s build the new jail for him and those like him. How’s that?
04 Oct 2007 at 02:37 pm | #
Ok, while we’re dealing the famous cards, I see Anon Again, you failed to include other individuals as Darius Myrick, who really should have been sentenced to life in prison by now. He’s living large in a plush sanitarium in Columbus, on the public dollar.
05 Oct 2007 at 05:45 am | #
Jones the latest troll, pay attention!
Myrick is just as crazy as the Warrington boy. Scary thought though is Myrick at some point in his past had it together enough to serve in the military, but when he returned he was mentally ill. Was his mental break caused by something he was exposed to in the Army? He will be tried when he is mentally able to stand trial.
The Warrington boy turned into a cold-blooded killer while just a mere 16. He had a long history of anti-social behavior and changed schools frequently. My educated guess is because he was kicked out for being weird, which goes directly to my point of placing the blame onto his parents who should have had him locked up in a treatment facility before he killed someone. He, unlike Myrick, will never stand trial for what he did and will one day soon be walking amongst us and maybe kill one of our relatives.
Oh, but my original comment addressed the parents not addressing their kids’ “propensity” to commit crimes. Wealthy whites are never responsible for their maladapted children, only poor ones are. What was I thinking?
05 Oct 2007 at 07:36 pm | #
Anon Again-- Myrick’s “mental illness” according to the mother of the child he murdered (and some say raped) was self-induced as a result of long-term crack cocaine use. She also claimed that he bragged and even wrote to friends that he wouldn’t do a day in jail.