Goldman Sachs Stands to Profit From Keeping Massachusetts Residents Out of Jail
Denver has used Social Impact Bonds successfully. If we are going to get out of our CRIMINAL JUSTICE/DISABILITY CRISIS we are probably going to have to use social impact bonds on a MASS SCALE.
Denver has used Social Impact Bonds successfully. If we are going to get out of our CRIMINAL JUSTICE/DISABILITY CRISIS we are probably going to have to use social impact bonds on a MASS SCALE.
It is probably going to take a Billion Dollars
to Address the problem of People with disabilities in CO's Criminal justice System
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That Billion Dollars is not likely to come in 1 Legislative Session -- AND we can't wait 20 years for it to come. That is why we need a PLAN to deal with this.
The reality is this isn't just Mental Health -- it is also:
& often a combination of the above. This paragraph urging the State Legislature to "ADEQUATELY FUND IN-PATIENT & OTHER MENTAL HEALTH SERVICES" is probably the most important paragraph of the entire Denver Post column -- we have to bring Psych Beds and Intensive Medicaid Mental Health Treatment to Scale.
We can't put up with the State of Colorado deeming the MOST ESSENTIAL Intensive Community Mental Health Treatments such as Residential Services, Assertive Community Treatment, & Intensive Case Management ---"Alternative Services" that they don't have to make available to everyone who qualifies under "Reasonable Medical Necessity." Further, it is not clear to us that HCPF has had ENOUGH PEOPLE to make the reforms necessary. 
Ruth Simmons is the current President of Prairie View A&M University. She previously served as the 18th president of Brown University, the first African American president of an Ivy League institution. -- Wikipedia
Colorado, like most states, is in CRISIS MANAGEMENT mode. They probably felt like they couldn't avoid doing that -- and we're NOT suggesting that the State or anyone else ignore crises. BUT if one doesn't get to the underlying ROOT CAUSES of those crises -- you just end up having a lot more crises. Is the underlying ROOT CAUSE of our mental health crisis that we need to amend the Civil Commitment Statutes? That would be an EASY FIX if that were the answer -- and, of course, we have amended the Civil Commitment Statutes a lot . As one Colorado Probate Judge said, the biggest problem is -- "RESOURCES, RESOURCES, RESOURCES." Also, a lot of mental health professionals are applying these Civil Commitment Statutes on a pretty routine basis. If one isn't doing that -- it can be pretty intimidating NOT ONLY for Mental Health Professionals BUT for Law Enforcement as well. We need to be providing 24/7 support to Mental Health Professionals, Law Enforcement & the Community in applying these Civil Commitment Statutes. Finally -- we don't have a problem with saying someone who is "psychotic" is "gravely disabled." Now that has to be defined -- BUT it is pretty ridiculous that it is NOT clear to everyone that someone who is detached from "reality" is "gravely disabled" and that person has a RIGHT TO CARE & TREATMENT. There are so many reasons why we have the current MENTAL HEALTH DEBACLE -- and one of the most uncomfortable is for many people we don't have great treatments. We really need the Research Institutions & the National Institute of Mental Health [NIMH] to Lead on this. NIMH has already said the DSM 5 lacks "scientific validity" and they are working on something else under the Research Domain Criteria Program. Okay -- what about the interim? We have called out the mental profession for their "unscientific" ways --- BUT they are going to need a lot more support than what they are getting to make the changes necessary. IN THE MEANTIME, WE NEED AN INCLUSIVE GROUP OF STAKEHOLDERS, the STATE & LEGISLATURE TO COME UP WITH A PLAN TO BRING MENTAL HEALTH & OTHER DISABILITY BED SPACE, HOUSING, INTENSIVE TREATMENT RESOURCES TO SCALE -- TO PROTECT THE COMMUNITY & PROTECT COLORADANS WITH INVISIBLE COGNITIVE DISABILITIES. |
Over the past few weeks, Colorado public defenders have filed 64 requests to remove mentally ill people from jails around the state. Deemed incompetent to stand trial, these individuals must await treatment before their cases can continue. Many are being held for low-level offenses and would have had their day in court by now if they were mentally competent. Instead they are being held in jail without a conviction. The Colorado Department of Human Services is supposed to get such individuals into treatment within 28 days of being declared incompetent to stand trial but officials claim there is not enough facility space to take them. One man has spent 270 days in jail awaiting treatment. These mentally ill men and women need access to treatment not only so their cases can be adjudicated but because they need help and cannot help themselves. Over the past year, a growing awareness of the problem of severe mental illness has led to legislative action. During the 2018 session, the Colorado General Assembly passed a bipartisan bill to establish a statewide program to help individuals in crisis get treatment after a 72 hour involuntary mental health hold in a hospital. In November, Denver voters passed a .25 cent sales tax for mental health and addiction treatment services. These are good steps but more action is needed because there are people with severe mental illness languishing in jails and on the streets. In 2019, the state legislature should more adequately fund in-patient and other mental health services for mentally ill Coloradans. Additionally, legislators should consider how to ensure mentally ill persons in jail receive timely treatment to restore competency so their court cases can move forward and mental health services are available for those who are convicted and serving time. Lastly, the General Assembly should review the legal criteria for involuntarily commitment. It may be too difficult to get people into inpatient facilities in the first place leaving them vulnerable to life on the street and in jail. Under current law, individuals can be involuntarily committed for up to 72 hours if they are deemed a danger to themselves or others. A person deemed “gravely disabled” because his mental state seriously hampers his ability to care for himself can also be committed. Certification by a court is required for commitments of three months or longer. The court can also mandate outpatient services. According to a recent 9 News investigation, some 35,000 people were placed on a 72 hour involuntary mental health hold last year. Another 5,000 experienced more than one involuntary hospital stay and 86 individuals were held six or more times. This suggests that some patients need more than 72 hours of inpatient care. Some parents of schizophrenic and severely bipolar adult children maintain that it is too difficult to get long term involuntary commitment for their loved ones. A series of Supreme Court decisions in the 1970s beginning with O’Connor v. Donaldson made it more difficult to involuntarily commit mentally ill people who are not a danger to themselves or others. The decisions were meant to curb real abuses and ensure civil liberties. There’s a reason the words “mental asylum” evoke scenes from the movie One Flew Over the Cuckoo’s Nest or even grainy photographs of Victorian era institutions where untreated mentally ill people and inconvenient spouses were warehoused. Investigations of abuse in modern institutions add weight to the belief that outpatient services are always preferable to institutionalization. This assessment ignores the improvements made to mental health facilities since the 1970s and the fact that not everyone who needs outpatient care will seek it. While most mentally ill people can get the help they need from community support and intensive outpatient treatment, some people will live their best life in an institution [Orchid: Probably NOT. This really goes to our basic misunderstanding that there is some bright line between the Community Treatment & Inpatient. As Babs Johnson who was a long-time disability advocate @ Atlantis/ADAPT -- pointed out so many times --- ANYBODY CAN LIVE IN THE COMMUNITY WITH THE -- RIGHT SUPPORTS]. For them, the alternative is a life on the street combing through garbage bins and occasionally running afoul of the law. Though technically free to live as they please, they are tragically bound by the chains of delusion. [Orchid: Well, the "chains of delusion" are NOT just in the mental health community --- They are in State Government, the Media & the Society as a whole. This is a very complicated problem and we are unlikely to get out of it without major expenditures or Social Impact Bonds and INCLUSION, INCLUSION, INCLUSION -- including people with lived experience of invisible disabilities in the Criminal Justice System. https://www.denverpost.com/2018/12/07/get-mentally-ill-coloradans-the-treatment-they-need/ |