By David E. Geiger, MEE, PE (retired)
David E. Geiger Writes
My wife and I met former NJ Governor Jim McGreevey serendipitously at the Molly Pitcher rest stop on the NJ Turnpike back in August 2017. He was still Executive Director at Martin’s Place in Jersey City. I had just sent him a copy of my book In the Matter of Edwin Potter: Mental Illness and Criminal Justice Reform. When I told him who I was, he ran around the car to shake my hand.
Fast forward now, he was a guest columnist for the Star Ledger (my local newspaper) just recently on August 14th (?), 2021. He is Chair for the NJ Reentry Corporation (www.njreentry.org/). They are “a non-profit agency with a social mission to remove all barriers to employment for citizens returning from jail or prison.” He is urging the NJ Congressional Delegation to advocate on the behalf of the bipartisan Excellence in Mental Health and Addiction Treatment Act of 2021 (“the Excellence Act”) that “would offer every state in the nation the opportunity to apply to participate in the CCBHC program and receive funding to expand high-quality mental health and substance use services.”
The CCBHC program (Certified Community Behavioral Health Clinics) is a program that worked, according to McGreevey, providing expanding access to effective treatment for the mentally ill and overdose crisis “while providing a more cost-effective alternative to hospitals, expensive emergency departments, and jails for people in crisis.”
To read more articles, access David Geiger’s blog at www.davidegeiger.com
Read Goodreads reviews of In the Matter of Edwin Potter at www.davidegeiger.com
Read the preview at In the Matter of Edwin Potter: Mental Illness and Criminal Justice Reform: Geiger, David E.: 9780692797822: Amazon.com: Books
YouTube video: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=zXTtUecRTLU&t=3s
IMOEP is available at Amazon, Goodreads, Barnes & Noble, and www.davidegeiger.com
David Geiger is a licensed and retired professional electrical engineer who spent 7 years in psychiatric hospitals and over 40 years since 1979 in the courts as a result of his schizophrenia.