How POOR TREATMENTS Drive POOR REASONING in the JUSTICE SYSTEM

Conjecture

BOTTOM LINE:  Mental Health has often conflated whether they had a viable treatment to whether the person should be punished.

I think this has also been associated with the PRACTICAL PROBLEM of keeping someone at a Mental Facility with Clinicians who really don't know what to do and we're really at WAREHOUSING.

TRADITIONAL MENTAL HEALTH has a role --- BUT there is a BIG NEED to either EXPAND that ROLE or BRING IN OTHER PROFESSIONALS or maybe BOTH.

This issue of EXECUTIVE FUNCTIONING DIFFERENCES is not just about EDUCATING THE PERSON -- it's also EDUCATING OURSELVES, FAMILIES, COMMUNITIES, EMPLOYERS & POLICYMAKERS.

• AND "MODIFYING" some of our MODELS. 

 

• So PUNISHMENT from an HISTORICAL and  PRACTICAL STANDPOINT is very much related to whether:
  • we have the RESOURCES for INCARCERATION or SUPERVISION or
  • the person seems "REMORSEFUL" and sees the light or
  • in MODERN TIMES there is a VIABLE TREATMENT or at least "CONCEPTUALIZATION" that "TREATMENT WOULD BE APPROPRIATE IF WE HAD IT."
• BUT that is NOT the CURRENT "LEGAL REASONING" behind "PUNISHMENT" which is founded on this notion of MENS REA (BAD INTENT) + ACTUS REUS (BAD ACT) = Justification for Punishment.
• The "REASONING" in our Current Forensic Mental Health Profession is OFF.
  • The profession doesn't have a SCIENTIFICALLY VALID DIAGNOSTIC MANUAL--
    • As one might expect, that's throwing a lot of things OFF.
  • Most specifically, there's NOT AN UNDERSTANDING of the RELATIONSHIP between NEURO-DEVELOPMENTAL and PSYCHIATRIC DISORDERS.
  • THAT'S BIG.
• So from a PRACTICAL STANDPOINT what we have been prepared to "EXCUSE FROM PUNISHMENT" is MENTAL BREAKDOWN/PSYCHOSIS --- it's on the EXTREME.
  • And it is why you can "sometimes" get people who are plenty cognitively impaired or emotionally dysregulated in the Justice System "PRETENDING" to be "PSYCHOTIC."
  • And why Mental Facilities such as the Colorado Mental Health Institute at Pueblo might resist releasing such a person based on some statutory notion of "MENTAL DEFECT" --
    • because arguably THERE ARE ISSUES.
• WHAT ARE THOSE ISSUES?
  • There are often EMOTIONAL REGULATION as well as other aspects of EXECUTIVE FUNCTIONING.
• CONCEPTUALIZATION MATTERS
  • It matters for individuals
  • Families
  • Clinicians
  • The Legal System
  • Policymakers, and
  • The Community
• It matters with regard to what kinds of SYSTEMS WE DESIGN.
• If we know or have reason to believe that Defendants in the Criminal Justice System have Neuro-Developmental Differences that include EXECUTIVE FUNCTIONING DIFFERENCES ---
  • We're NOT going to set up PROBATION SERVICES that are going to set people up to FAIL.
  • We're going to look for "WORK-AROUNDS" and "ACCOMMODATIONS" for EXECUTIVE FUNCTIONING DIFFERENCES.
• We're going to build on STRENGTHS.
• It might be that "PRESSURED SPEECH" is or might be a sign that the person is OUTSIDE the person's INDIVIDUAL RANGE of HOMEOSTASIS for EXECUTIVE FUNCTIONING.
• We're living in a Society with "PRESSURED SPEECH" and we have to have SAFETY.   
  

What makes something Kafkaesque?

Tayyab Rashid
"What Are You Good At?"

New Genetic Evidence Suggests a Continuum Among Neurodevelopmental and Psychiatric Disorders (2013)

Another BIG REASONING PROBLEM related to the FAILURE to appreciate the RELATIONSHIP between Neuro-Developmental Differences/Disorders and Psychiatric Disorders:

• A lot of people with Neuro-Developmental Differences/Disorders are labelled with a "PERSONALITY DISORDER"
  

Shared Genes & Psychiatric Disorders

To me this is really a SECULAR SOCIETY'S MORAL JUDGMENT against problematic behavior and greatly abused within the CRIMINAL SYSTEM ---

• Especially under the guise of Anti-Social Personality Disorder
  • There are often anti-social acts,
  • BUT understanding that there are often Neuro-Developmental Challenges under that
    • can change the community's perspective AND
    • the individual's perspective.
      

This idea of "NARCISSISM" is really really big and "delusions of grandeur" are seen as symptoms of Bipolar Disorder.

• If you start to recognize that people with Neuro-Developmental Differences often also have some BIG STRENGTHS that are also the result of RAMPED UP SENSORY PROCESSING ---
• I think it can be possible to EXPLAIN these DIFFERENCES in PERCEPTION.
  

To me, it's not that people with BIG WEAKNESSES can't have BIG STRENGTHS or vice versa ----It's that they often do and those BIG STRENGTHS are often COMPENSATORY.

• If we ELEVATE Neuro-Diverse people with BIG STRENGTHS---
• We're generally ELEVATING their WEAKNESSES as well.
• If we "PUNISH" the Weaknesses of Neuro-Diverse people
  • we're often making it impossible for them to use their strengths and
  • we're NOT providing VIABLE WORK-AROUNDS or ACCOMMODATIONS for DEVELOPMENTAL EXECUTIVE FUNCTIONING CHALLENGES.
  • And if people get pushed outside of HOMEOSTASIS or just WANDER outside of that or get ELEVATED outside of that ----
    • That can look PATHOLOGICAL.
      

Image Credit:  Nurse Leader
Workarounds: The Hidden Pathway to Excellence

I think a lot of Neuro-Diverse people whether they are:

• incarcerated or
• homeless or
• "COVERING UP" their EXECUTIVE FUNCTIONING CHALLENGES or
• living with "INTEGRITY" but STRESSED OUT OF THEIR GOURDS or
• BURNING OUT or
• BREAKING DOWN

Need to look for some "Work-Arounds" for Planning, Organization, Short-Term Memory Issues, etc. as they are also doing MORE THINGS THAT THEY ENJOY AND ARE GOOD AT.

Trey Kennedy & Jake Triplett
Do Less God Bless