Talk about schizophrenia and criminal justice reform is growing: radio, TV news, commercials, and PSAs – This is great! I believe I had a hand in this, but we are not done. Looking at the headlines will show you how far we have come.
From the Gotham Gazette (Dec. 3, 2019): “With a Push from Cuomo and Funding from Vance, New York College-in-Prisons Program is Flourishing.” I first wrote to NY State Governor Andrew Cuomo back in August 2014 on reducing recidivism. I sent him my article “Reducing Recidivism” (originally written in October 1999 for Mensa and titled ”The Crime Solution”) following his February 2014 announcement of providing education to those in prison. Gov. Cuomo’s action was not a popular move at the time. As a note, I sent him a copy of my book In the Matter of Edwin Potter: Mental Illness and Criminal Justice Reform in February 2017 with the “Reducing Recidivism” article rewritten and included as chapter 104. I received a favorable response from his office in March 2017.
Also from the Gotham Gazette (Dec. 8, 2019): “Letter to the Editor: Next Step for New York College-in-Prison Program That Turned My Life Around.” This is the story of Stacy Burnett whose own prison experience taught her that she is “proof there can be no rehabilitation in prison without education” and that funding for such programs “must be a top priority if New York is serious about building safer communities.”
The New York Times wrote about “The Rikers Coffee Academy” where Rikers Prison inmates learn a skill to get a job and a better future.
“[New York] City Prepares for State Bail Reform Law, Sees Jail Population a Record Low – 6000” from NY1 (Dec. 27, 2019). I wrote about the pros and cons in March 2019 and received a thank you from Ann Jacobs this past month for my efforts as an advocate. She is now the Executive Director of the Prisoner Re-entry Institute at John Jay College of Criminal Justice.
And so many more stories from around the nation that can be found in my SARDAA blog (www.sardaa.org). I think this is great, but so many articles leave out the mentally ill, those with brain illness. Are we seen as hopeless? I want to hear their stories. The public should hear them as well, and, to toot my own horn a little in an act of shameless self-promotion, they can start with my book, In the Matter of Edwin Potter: Mental Illness and Criminal Justice Reform, and begin to address the feeling of hopelessness that is so very often a part of having this illness.