May 1998 was the first time that I advocated education and mentoring for those in prison. And they work as research at John Jay College of Criminal Justice in New York City shows. I tried to sell my ideas without success until in 2013 a friend recommended John Jay College. After several attempts, I sent them to Ann Jacobs who is now the Executive Director of the Prisoner Re-entry Institute (PRI) at the college. She responded with the comment that they were already working on some of those ideas, but there were others that seemed to have some merit. Symposiums at the school in the years following showed just that. In May 2013 I sent a CD copy of my book – In the Matter of Edwin Potter: Mental Illness and Criminal Justice Reform – to NJ Governor Chris Christie. I followed up with my article “Reducing Recidivism” in May 2014. In September 2014 Martin’s Place opened in Jersey City to much national fanfare. And this is where, in my estimation, criminal justice reform began its present-day approach of education and mentoring. Housing is also an issue.
Time passed, and I noticed from my experience of having mental illness and being involved with the courts that PRI was not addressing the aspect of brain illness that often goes along with criminal behavior although they are aware that many of those incarcerated suffer from this illness. In November 2016 my book was published, and I began to look for places to market it. I sent copies off to publishing houses, universities, media, and elected officials. In most cases I got no response, probably because of the stigma of having mental illness where we are still seen as criminals. I published articles which I still do today. I also did some searches online to find a relevant place to sell my book, and I found Schizophrenia and Related Disorders Alliance of America (SARDAA) whose CEO and founder, Linda Stalters, took an interest in my story. Their interest is in addressing brain illness, and where PRI was short on addressing that, SARDAA was short on addressing criminal justice reform. So, I sent both a copy of my book. PRI put it in their library, and SARDAA reviewed it and published that review in their newsletter. In early 2018 Linda asked me to write a blog for the SARDAA website, which I do today.
I keep both SARDAA and PRI informed of each other through their newsletters, and the world has not been the same since. I wrote to President Trump in March 2017, and in November 2018 I received his response regarding his interest in prison reform. A few months later, the First Step Act was passed with the help of Cory Booker (D-NJ) who I had also sent one of my articles as well as a copy of my book prior to that legislation. I thanked the President for his response but reminded him that he left out the need to address mental illness. Linda Stalters also wrote to him outlining the need to talk about mental health. SARDAA is presently working to reclassify schizophrenia as a brain illness rather than a behavioral problem and is working with major organizations such as CDC, NIMH, and SAMHSA. As a result, on December 19, 2019, there was a summit meeting at the White House “on transforming mental health treatment to combat homelessness, violence and substance abuse.” SARDAA was invited to attend that meeting. I watched online. By their own testimony, the panelists know what the problems are and how to fix them, but this is their first chance to do something about them.
Presently, Sandy Dimiterchik at SARDAA -who reviewed my book, by the way – asked me to consider becoming a group leader in NJ for those imprisoned with brain illness. I asked for more information, but part of what we need to do now as we have taken great steps already to reform criminal justice and the current healthcare system regarding brain illness is to begin to tell the stories – those underrepresented voices – of the lives of those who have suffered and survived these systems.