The Legal System and Mental Illness – A Parent’s Perspective
First, let me make two things clear. I do not have an agenda to bash the legal system. I believe in the laws of this country and would live no where else on earth. Secondly, it is not my intent to infer that our son should not be accountable for what happened as a result of his mental illness. That being said let me take you on our journey through the legal system.
When our son’s business went bankrupt, due to manic spending, living in a small community, we felt the only thing we could do and still live here was to pay as much of the debt as we could, leaving some for him to be held accountable for. At the time, we were in such as state of shock, that we couldn’t even talk, let alone try to figure all of this out. We felt like bobbers in the water, occasionally being pulled under.
After our son’s dismissal from the psychiatric ward at the hospital, he went to a homeless shelter. While there, he cooperated with law enforcement persons who questioned him. He lived there for 6 months and with the help of an agency, was able to obtain an apartment and move to Cleveland, where he secured a job and was able to receive medication. It seemed like his life was back on the right path. He had to come back to our small county to appear before the judge. As I waited to enter the courtroom, a nice woman approached us and said that she was the victim advocate. I thought, Oh, thank God! Someone understands! Well, she then asked me if I was a victim of the defendant. I suddenly realized that it was not me she was there for!
As I sat there, with a Doctor who had treated him testifying and explaining bi-polar disorder, I felt calm that the judge would certainly understand that there was never any intent to take money from people. I imagined that he would have to pay the remainder of the money owed and be on some kind of probation. As the judge delivered the sentence, my heart went cold, it felt like pins sticking in every inch of skin as he ordered our son to serve 2 years in prison.
Our son was escorted out of the court room and friends and family who attended the hearing with me were in shocked silence. He walked down the sidewalk in the town where he went to high school to the county jail in hand cuffs.
Now what? I had no idea what was happening…this was the beginning of the nightmare.
He was taken to the county jail, but I had no idea if I was allowed to visit, call and was too ashamed and humiliated to try to find out. I waited and found out that he would be taken to the Orient Corrections Center for processing, but no one knew when. And for one month, I didn’t know either.
Finally, we received a call from a very distraught and confused young man. I wanted to visit, but it seemed there were many hoops to jump through before that would happen. Finally, I made the trip and was able to visit my son. It was the scariest experience I have ever had. The people there treated me like a second class citizen which made me feel even more like turning around and getting in the car and driving until I fell off the earth! But I didn’t.
He stayed there for awhile and then was transferred to a prison closer to home. He called constantly and I was at a complete loss as to what to say. You don’t just say get hold of yourself…I couldn’t even imagine what was happening there and the frantic phone calls didn’t help. One particular phone call was the most haunting and one that made sleep nearly impossible for a very long time.
Our son called and said that he had been sexually assaulted and was as you can imagine, extremely upset. Of course, thinking that this is prison and people are there for breaking the law…they wouldn’t be allowed to break the law while in prison, I thought my son was lying. But the nightmares stayed with me. I later found out that this was not a lie. This is my first issue with the legal system. How can this happen and WHO deserves this kind of punishment? No one does and certainly my son did not. Was this what the judge had in mind? So now, our son has another issue to deal with the rest of his life. People can debate what the consequences of what his actions should be, but I can tell you he doesn’t deserve that and neither does any one else.
It was a long six months, not receiving proper medication, being over medicated and losing consciousness, no therapy to speak of and then received judicial release. This was good and life could go on. Being incarcerated for 6 months had surely taught him a lesson! What was the lesson? You tell me.
I, still not quite understanding mental illness, went along with his return to Cleveland where life was good for our son. He secured a good job, made many friends, received awards for his accomplishments, and then suddenly, things fell apart. All of that landed our son back in the court system for parole violation.
Ok, by now, after 7 years, my husband has finally gained an understanding of mental illness. (That is a blessing beyond belief, but that is the topic for another entry). First, our son was appointed a court lawyer. Now, I am still naïve enough to think that any person who takes an oath to be a lawyer will do the right thing. So, I call this lawyer and speak to him and he assures me that he will take this case as seriously as he would any other case. With that being said, he never visited our son in jail to speak with him before his court appearance. He showed up late to court and when we spoke to him, he told us that the judge and the prosecuting attorney “sleep together” and that they were out to get our son and we may as well just accept it. We were mortified! By this time, a wonderful advocate from NAMI was with us every step of the way. She questioned him and he surely didn’t like that, but he said that if we were to continue, we would have to do the leg work and we couldn’t expect him to do this since he was only getting paid $400.00. I said I would do that and we parted and another court date was set. Between those two court dates, the lawyer never met with our son.
Meanwhile, the court appointed a psychiatric evaluation by of course, a court appointed psychiatrist. Never mind that our son had received extensive evaluations by 4 doctors who all concurred with the bi-polar diagnosis. This was all documented and prepared and available to the court. This probably cost the taxpayer a chunk of change. When I read the report, I soon realized that this report is probably a fairly standard report written to basically cover everyone’s behind. Nothing specific, just generalities. It appeared to me to be more of a form document. This is what the court used in making a determination on sentencing.
He did, however, agree to meet with my husband and I at his office as I had done the homework and was prepared to share it with him. We entered his office, where he threw the folder back at me, didn’t even look at it and said it wouldn’t matter. Meanwhile, he accepted not one, not two, but three phone calls…the last one was clearly a personal call as he discussed a ball game and how the person probably had a “tear in their beer” as a result of the outcome. He is laughing and talking on the phone while we sit. We stood up to walk out and he said that he was talking to his son…my husband said, good for you, be thankful that you can! And with that, we walked out and secured a criminal lawyer at our expense.
He was a little nicer, but why wouldn’t you be for that amount of money? He told us that he had many cases and some were more urgent than others and that we would have to understand that. Obviously, he didn’t consider our son’s case “that urgent”. Probably not to him, but certainly to us. He did, however, visit our son, show up in court and acted professionally, however, our son was ordered to serve the rest of his two year sentence for parole violation. Another 11 months in prison. He had now been incarcerated for 6 months already.
The whole thing makes me sick. Sick for what he has been through. Sick for what we have been through. But we are safe for now, our family is intact and the Lord has blessed us in many ways. What I am most sick about is what about the people who have no one to speak for them and give them any support. I have seen how people are treated. I am a professional person. I have been treated like a second class citizen. What are people treated like who do not have the ability and resourcefulness to rise above that treatment? More importantly, what happens to the person who is mentally ill?
Incarcerated, taken advantage of, offered drugs and alcohol while incarcerated, (as a taxpayer, that really infuriates me!.), released with $75.00, no support system, no coping skills learned while being “rehabilitated”, 14 days of medication, no way to get to a doctor who can prescribe you more medication that you will need to stay stable, no where to turn.
What would YOU do? I can tell you what you would do, and that is whatever you had to do to survive. And by virtue of survival, you will certainly be back in prison and the cycle continues. And the legal system as it exists today supports that cycle.
As a parent of a mentally ill person, the prison system is appalling. Please change the name as there is no rehabilitation there. If there is rehabilitation there, it doesn’t come from the prison system, it comes from above. Please stop spending taxpayer dollars incarcerating people who do not belong there. They need help and then they can lead productive lives. Help their families know how to support them. Help them use the abilities they have to lead their lives in the right direction. Educate people about mental illness. I understand this is a huge problem, but when we are basing prison contruction on 4th grade achievement scores, and we are paying for recidivism, this country needs to make a change. Even if you don't "get" mental illness, we all understand dollars and cents, and this is costing a lot of money.
This world is a world I never knew existed. I am ashamed of myself for that. It is my greatest hope that others will be spared what we have been through.