Criminal Justice & Invisible Disabilities Index

Preface to the Index

So to Us:

  • Casino City is the Criminal Justice System

  • The BIG KAHUNA OF HYPOCRISIES is refusing to recognize the significance of a DSM 5 determined to be "scientifically invalid" by the US National Institute of Mental Health (NIMH).
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  • The Mental Health profession, those in Criminal Justice, and our Society as a Whole need to step up to the challenge of OUR Ethically & Morally Challenging Times that possess both great knowledge and great unknowns.  
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  • Who should bear the burden of those unknowns?  We would vehemently suggest it is not indigent defendants.
Criminalization of "Mental Illness"
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  1. Disabled Black Lives Matter -- Huffington Post 
  2. EXECUTIVE FUNCTIONING DEFICITS MAY BE A MAJOR CAUSE OF THE MASS INCARCERATION CRISIS
  3. If John Oliver Can Get It, Why Can't the State
  4. Jailing Homeless CO Woman With Mental Illness For Contempt -- Out Of Order
  5. PUBLIC HEALTH AND THE EPIDEMIC OF INCARCERATION -- US Dept. Of Health & Human Services
  6. "Mental Illness Is No Crime" ---CNN Bi-Partisan Commentary (Republican Newt Gingrich & Democrat Van Jones)
  7. Our Hero: Florida Judge Lerner-Wren On The Criminalization Of People With Mental Illness As A Matter Of Human Rights ---Huffington Post
  8. Prosecutor As "Nurse Ratched"? Mis-Using Criminal Justice As Alternative Medicine ---By Gerald E. Nora/American Bar Association
  9. SAMHSA on Mental Health Criminal/Juvenile Justice Statistics
  10. Study finds 2/3 of Mesa County Jail Inmates Struggle with Mental Illness -- Grand Junction Sentinel
  11. Trashing of CO National Park by Homeless Man with Mental Illness, Sentenced to Prison
  12. U.S. Dept. of Justice on Prevalence of Mental Illness in Inmates in Jails & Prisons ​

Criminogenic​
Prison & Jails
(See also Criminalization of Mental Illness, & Jail Diversion Programs) 
  1. Bureau of Justice Statistics: Mental Health Problems of Prison & Jail Inmates
  2. Coloradans W/ Mental Illness Warehoused In Jails & Prisons --- Rocky Mountain PBS I-News Network
  3. Over 5700 People With Mental Illness In Colorado's Prison System -- Denver Post's Award-Winning Series On CO's Failed Mental Health System: "Breakdown"
  4. "Stop Placing Mentally Ill In Jail," NY Times Op-Ed, Vera Institute Of Justice

​Sheriffs
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Jail Diversion Programs
(See also Criminalization of Mental Illness, & Prisons & Jails)

​Vera Justice Institute
Neurobehavioral Disability 
​CO Legislative Oversight Committee for the Continuing Examination of the Treatment of Persons with Mental Illness who are Involved in the Justice System.

​CO Commission on Criminal & Juvenile Justice (CCJJ) The Mental Health / Point of Contact Through Jail Release Task Force 

​Office of the Independent Monitor of the Police & Sheriff Departments of the City & County of Denver.    ​https://www.denvergov.org/content/denvergov/en/office-of-the-independent-monitor.html
http://www.equitasusa.org/

Equitas and its partners work toward:
  • An end to mass incarceration of people with mental and behavioral challenges in the United States
  • A criminal justice system that ensures public safety and provides justice with unimpeachable equity, and that does not serve as the default system for mismanaging the nation’s behavioral health challenge.
  • A society that supports and cultivates all people’s efforts to find purposive and social integration within its neighborhoods and economy, from birth through the end of life–including the efforts of those people and their families who are most vulnerable and at risk for poor health and educational outcomes, persistent poverty, and criminal justice involvement.

Psychologists
FANTASTIC Website -- North Carolina County Commissioners Association Page on Mental Health Reform
  1. Reducing the Number of People with Mental Illness in County Jails
  2. Assessing Provider Capacity, Service Gaps, & Community Needs
  3. Etc.
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Media Commentator Amy Holmes
This really doesn't have a whole to do with Amy Holmes as an individual media professional & it has a whole to do with our conflicted attitudes about mental illness in the Criminal Justice System.

Our Regular Call Out of Confused Thinking on Mental Illness & the Criminal Justice System

Wednesday, September 11, 2018, on the Megyn Kelly Show, media commentator Amy Holmes commented both that:
  • Wanda Barzee is a "psychotic menace."  Barzee pled guilty in the Elizabeth Smart kidnapping, assault, and torture case.
  • Holmes then later in the Show said, "We don't know if Wanda Barzee is mentally ill or not."

Well a few things -- we don't have clear definitions of "mental illnesses" and we have a scientifically invalid diagnostic manual in the DSM 5-- that doesn't seem to bother too many people, including clinicians.  It bothers some researchers such as some of those @ the National Institute of Mental Health.

If we had a rational System of Justice, focused on safety and humane treatment, backed up with scientifically valid judgments, we just don't think there would be that conflict around these issues -- whether in the media, social media, the society, and even in the the Justice System itself.

But we don't have that.
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"Oh yes. I have a tbi been to jail numerous times​ and almost everyone in there has a tbi or mental issues. EVERYONE. Its unbelievably prolific in jails and prisons that [screening for Traumatic Brain Injury (TBI) in the Criminal Justice System] would for a most certain  fact help reduce crime or recidivism!!"​

                                       ---- Orchid Facebook Friend 
                                             

​Part I of Our Series: 
Unequal Justice  --
Laying Down Our Hypocrisies

Some of our common hypocrisies:
Failing to:
  • Recognize the mental health effects of alcohol and drug problems;
  • Recognize the mental health effects of racism & other forms of discrimination;
  • Recognize the problem of aggression in some Coloradans, including BOTH average citizens and law enforcement; 
  • Adequately fund humane treatment, placements, and housing @ the SCALE necessary.

We are going to have to lay down our hypocrisies if we want EQUAL JUSTICE FOR ALL.