Reclassifying Schizophrenia: A Conference in Florida

Linda Stalters, founder and CEO of Schizophrenia And Related Disorders Alliance of America, invited me to be a panelist at a SARDAA conference on reclassifying schizophrenia to be held in March 2020 in Hollywood, Florida. What follows are my current thoughts.

There is now a national conversation on mental illness and criminal justice reform. I may have had a hand in that starting back in May 1998 by submitting articles to IMprint, a Mensa newsletter, but more recently by reaching out to elected officials and John Jay College of Criminal Justice since 2013. Those stories some other time.

In 1979 I was 25 years old when I had my first battle with schizophrenia. I lost that battle. My wife died, and I severely injured my then-infant son. I went to trial, but the jury saw that I was suffering from an illness and acquitted me Not Guilty by Reason of Insanity. I then spent four years in a psychiatric hospital and, a couple of decades later, spent another three years in another such facility, always under the jurisdiction of the court.

Will reclassifying schizophrenia help people like me who are involved with the law as a result of psychosis? At present, it seems that I am a criminal, a miscreant, a behavioral problem in the eyes of the law. There are suggestions for diversionary action for those who break the law but seem to have brain illness. These suggestions are meant to avoid putting them into the criminal justice system. This is a start but having been through a trial in 1980 and under court supervision since that time, 40 years of good behavior has not softened the heart of the judge. The issue, as she has expressed it, is that there is currently no cure for schizophrenia and that increases the chance of relapse and menace to society, so I remain under court supervision.

But wait. Today’s medicine has brought us gene therapy, and the research of Dr. Deborah L. Levy, Director of the Psychology Research Laboratory at McLean Hospital which is the largest psychiatric affiliate of Harvard Medical School, provides a proof-of-principle demonstration of symptom relief by targeting a specific genotype and links an individual structural mutation to the pathophysiology of psychosis and treatment response. This is a hopeful discovery in that if we find one mutation that affects a small number of people there is hope to find more. It would be a great opportunity for personalized treatment and prevent specific brain diseases.

But it is only a start. Money is needed for further research. Reclassifying schizophrenia will not only bring that money, but it will also provide more hospital beds and reduce the number of those who are incarcerated for their illness. According to Alisa Roth, a journalist and author of Insane: America’s Criminal Treatment of Mental Illness, the three largest providers of mental health care are not hospitals but jails: Los Angeles County Jail, Cook County Jail, and Rikers Island in New York City. More recently, this last one is to be closed in a few years because of the mistreatment of its inmates.

So, will reclassifying schizophrenia help me and those like me? Yes.

2019 SARDAA Overview/ White House Coalition Meeting

From Linda Stalters:

SARDAA 2019 Initiatives

It's hard to believe that the year is coming to a conclusion so quickly, but we have much to reflect on and share.  Please view some of the initiatives SARDAA has been leading.

• Our recent "Brains on Broadway" Symposium and Reception in NYC exceeded our expectations.  As you know. we have built a broad coalition of people working together to change the treatment paradigm for people affected by psychosis brain syndromes.  Based upon the very strong feedback from attendees and our panelists, we are actively planning a follow-on event in March to continue this important dialogue with additional families and stakeholders. I will share additional details over the next few weeks. 

• SARDAA's Reclassification framework was referenced within the House of Representatives Energy and Commerce Committee budgeting process.  Chairman Walden referenced my official statement within budget mark-up activities. He talked about the increasing need for better treatments for psychiatric conditions and the advances in better understanding in the underlying biology. He then went on to say that he agrees with SARDAA, and called us out by name, and included our talking points regarding serious concerns about future access to innovative therapies. 

• I was invited by the White House's Domestic Policy Council lead staff to meet discuss SARDAA's work and mental health policies. Our meeting was very encouraging and Steve Wagner, Deputy Director of the Domestic Policy Council at the White House and Leslie Ford, Special Assistant to the President for Domestic Policy Council shared that we provided them with new information.  Please read the talking points here.

On December 19, 2019 our CEO Linda Stalters and Board Member Dr. Tim Murphy will represent you at the White House Summit on Transforming Mental Health Treatment to Combat Homelessness, Violence & Substance Abuse.

Also:

SARDAA Leadership to Participate in White House Coalition Meeting

SARDAA Founder and CEO, Linda Stalters, along with SARDAA Board of Directors member, Dr. Tim Murphy, have been invited to participate in the upcoming White House Summit on Transforming Mental Health Treatment to Combat Homelessness, Violence & Substance Abuse. Meeting on Thursday, December 19, 2019.

HHS Secretary Alex Azar, HUD Sec. Ben Carson, White House Counselor to the President, Kellyanne Conway, advocates for people with serious neurological brain illness and local and state leaders are expected to address an audience of approximately 140 mental health leaders from around the country.

Submitted by David E. Geiger, MEE, PE

Hatred: Where Does it Come From?

(This is from a previously unpublished 2017 article.)

Checking Google for information leads predominantly to dictionary definitions. As such, the Urban Dictionary gives us this: “Haters gonna hate.” This is a colloquial expression meaning that “people who don’t like you will always find a reason to dislike you no matter how stupid that reason may be.” Also, hatred is often associated with feelings of anger, disgust, and a disposition toward hostility.

This is all well and good, but where does hatred come from? Well let’s look at this: Like love, hatred begins at home. They believe they are right. Why do they believe they are right? Because they belong to a larger group of people who think the same way and believe they are right as well. We must break this cycle. Do they feel threatened? Challenging them on the issues will only make them angrier. Angry, in their estimation, at always getting the short end of the stick? Executing one of them is not going to solve the problem. It threatens them and only makes them herd closer together.

The recent tragic terrorist attack in New York City (Nov. 2017) brings out these elements. From personal experience, I would say people like that belong in a psychiatric hospital, not to face execution.

Next Step Stories

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.

Rikers Island

Today’s article relies heavily on The New York Times article “NYC Votes to Close Rikers. Now Comes the Hard Part” (Oct. 17, 2019) by Matthew Haag

According to Alisa Roth, a journalist and author of Insane: America’s Criminal Treatment of Mental Illness, Rikers Island in NYC is one of the three largest providers of mental health care in the country – and it is a jail. New York City voted to close Rikers by 2026.

NYC Mayor Bill de Blasio said, “This is about valuing our people, no longer condemning people and sending them on a pathway that only made their lives worse and worse… Today we made history: The era of mass incarceration is over.”

There is much criticism about the plan as being unrealistic, and there are many NIMBY arguments. There are questions about how the City is going to reduce prison population by about half to not overfill the four new prisons that will take the place of Rikers. The fear is that it will require putting dangerous offenders back on the street, jeopardizing public safety. 

In recent years, New York State repealed the Rockefeller Laws – 1970s anti-drug legislation making mandatory minimum prison sentences for non-violent, low-level drug offenders. As part of the jail plan, the City also announced $265 million in new spending on efforts intended to keep people out of jail and to support those who have been released. From the Times article, “many of those incarcerated at Rikers are awaiting trial and cannot afford bail... Many are grappling with mental health issues or drug addiction. Critics say Rikers does a poor job of helping them to overcome these challenges.”

“When the new jails open, officials said, they will be safer, smaller and more humane and will make New York’s corrections system a model for the rest of the country. Detainees will be provided job training, mental health counseling and education services.”

Ydanis Rodriguez, a councilman who represents parts of northern Manhattan and voted “yes” on the closing, said, “This plan is only the beginning, not the end.”

The Prisoner Re-entry Institute of John Jay College of Criminal Justice works in NY State. I first contacted them in December 2013 and communicated with them since that time. I sent them my published book In the Matter of Edwin Potter: Mental Illness and Criminal Justice Reform in December 2016. I also sent my book to Chirlane McCray, First Lady of NYC, in March 2017 and received her response that June. I like to think sometimes that I play a part in things like this.

Reclassifying Schizophrenia – A Conference

This past November 4, 2019 SARDAA held a symposium in New York City regarding the reclassification of schizophrenia as a brain illness. Presently it is seen as a psychological/behavioral problem. Evidence was presented showing that it is a spectrum illness as much as cancer, autism, depression, and other similar disorders are spectrum illnesses.

Schizophrenia is not getting its due. Why is that? Dr. Deborah Levy of McLean Hospital, a Harvard Medical School Affiliate, stated that insurance companies have carved out a model based upon behavioral health rather than the spectrum of illnesses that it is. For people in my situation, this means that when my attorney, doctor, and I go to court, we must fight the judge against this stigma before we can even talk about my case.

Dr. Robert Laitman stated that systemic changes are needed to improve the treatment and payment for medical treatment. Presently, if certain actions/treatments are not followed, it is seen as negligence. Legislators in the room introduced legislation and fought for years to change laws with only minimal success.

“We don’t have a healthcare system. We have a healthcare BUSINESS,” stated Dr. Jeffrey Lieberman, Columbia Psychiatry.

I hear people who are in the healthcare field, and they all agree to this.

“Too little resources are put toward a problem that can be solved,” said Assistant Secretary of Health and Human Services for Mental Health and Substance Abuse Dr. Elinore McCance-Katz. Suicide efforts increase with substance abuse disorders (SUD). An aside: This means that the use of marijuana can lead to increase in suicides. So, part of the strategic plan from SAMHSA’s point of view is to start educating the children, provide crisis intervention, and use data to guide program development.

Targeted Treatment Reduces Symptoms of Psychosis

One thing that holds me back from having my case dismissed by the Court is the concern that schizophrenia is not curable. We’re talking about 40 years since 1979 being in this situation, but now there is hope. Researchers have found the potential for “targeted treatment that reduces symptoms of psychosis” according to a study published in the journal Biological Psychiatry by researchers from McLean Hospital and other institutions. From the hospital press release:

“The study was led by Deborah L. Levy, PhD, director of the Psychology Research Laboratory at McLean Hospital, the largest psychiatric affiliate of Harvard Medical School. The research provides a proof-of-principle demonstration of symptom relief by targeting a specific genotype and links an individual structural mutation to the pathophysiology of psychosis and treatment response.

“In the last decade, significant progress has been made in identifying genetic factors underlying schizophrenia, bipolar disorder, and other psychiatric disorders. Hundreds if not thousands of common genetic variants are collective risk factors for schizophrenia and other psychotic disorders. However, the impact of each individual variant is both very small and indecisive in determining risk.

“Rare genetic variants, on the other hand, can have large effects on risk. These variants are thus assumed to impact core pathophysiological processes.

“Large-effect mutations are individually rare, with even the most recurrent impacting relatively few individuals. Some are so rare that they are private mutations, known to occur in only one or a few families. This is the case for the mutation described by Levy and her colleagues.”

From the SARDAA press release:

“According to SARDAA’s Chief Executive Officer Linda Stalters, MSN, APRN (retired), the organization is honoring Dr. Levy for her recent work demonstrating that treatment can be targeted in individuals who experience psychosis who have a specific structural genetic mutation. “This example of groundbreaking research could pave the way for other personalized treatments for people with life-altering neuropsychiatric brain illnesses,” Stalters said.

            “What Dr. Levy has done is profoundly important,” Stalters stated. “We know that schizophrenia isn’t one illness, and we also know that genetic mutations are likely to impact brain levels of neurotransmitters and to alter brain structure. We hope that the work that Dr. Levy and her colleagues have done will encourage the discovery of other mutations that may be medically actionable and studies of the therapeutic effectiveness of other targeted treatments.”

This is not a cure for schizophrenia, but I asked Linda Stalters what this means. She emailed me:

“It is only a discovery for one mutation that only affects a small number of people.  It is a hopeful discovery in that if we find one there is hope to find more.  It would be a great opportunity for potential personalized treatment and prevent specific brain diseases.”

Dr. Levy will be receiving the 2019 Valiant Researcher Award from SARDAA on Nov. 4, 2019 at the Westin New York at Times Square.

Mental Illness and Criminal Justice Reform

Things are quiet on the TV news since we heard Lester Holt do his series “Justice for All” on NBC Nightly News in September 2019. No more word of criminal justice reform. Why? Did the problem go away?

No, the problem has definitely not gone away because the TV news shows us in abundance that murders still happen in spades, and their only solution is to incarcerate the perpetrators. We know that doesn’t work. They show us that every night. This is where SARDAA comes in. They recognize that there are people who have brain illness problems and, because they don’t receive any treatment, their problem gets worse to the point where the result is catastrophic. People die. According to Linda Stalters, CEO of SARDAA, “There are fewer murders by people with brain illness than people who ARE criminals. However, substance use disorder is also a brain illness.  Most of the time it’s domestic, gang or theft related.”

SARDAA and I work together on educating the public about this. SARDAA is also working with the CDC and other organizations to reclassify schizophrenia and related disorders so that there will be more money for research and beds for treatment. As I quoted Alisa Roth, author of Insane: America’s Criminal Treatment of Mental Illness, several times before, “The country’s three largest providers of mental health care are not hospitals but jails” (LA County Jail, Cook County Jail, Riker’s Island).

Sometimes we are not able to stop a crime from happening, and people end up in jail. This is where my book comes in: Once they are in there, what do we do with them? My book gives answers. And it has been studied and documented that these things work, for example, the Prisoner Re-entry Institute at John Jay College of Criminal Justice in NYC has researched education and mentoring and found that they work. I recommended these back in May 1998.

Letter to The President of the US

By Linda Stalters, MSN, APRN (ret)
Founder and Chief Executive Officer
Schizophrenia And Related Disorders Alliance of America
2308 Mount Vernon Ave, suite 207 | Alexandria, VA 22301
(240) 423-9432 | www.sardaa.org

Submitted to POTUS on August 8, 2019 in response to his announcement that he wants to work to improve treatment for people with severe mental illness.

SARDAA - Improving lives affected by psychosis

Dear President Trump:

The Schizophrenia And Related Disorders Alliance of America represents eleven million Americans suffering from serious mental illness (SMI). On behalf of these Americans, thank you for your recent public commitment to help those with severe mental illness. We applaud your courageous leadership to address the problems directly.

Like you, we believe many tragedies can be avoided if we provide qualified and timely professional care. You have our commitment and ongoing support in achieving your goals of better prevention and treatment. Along with other supportive organizations, we respectfully request an opportunity to meet with you and/or the Vice President to help you achieve realistic and appropriate actions for preventing these tragedies.

With more accessible qualified professional care for those in need, we believe many tragedies could be avoided. More than twenty percent of Americans have a diagnosable neuropsychiatric brain illness (ranging from mild to severe) in any given year, essentially touching almost every American family. The vast majority of the affected Americans who receive treatment have no more propensity for violence than anyone else, indeed, they are more likely to be the victim of violence than others. However, at least 40%-50% of those with a serious neuropsychiatric brain illness are NOT receiving appropriate care.

Getting help is very difficult due to a critical shortage of providers (Half of the counties in the USA have no psychiatrist, no psychiatric nurse practitioner, nor psychologist), and a person with a serious neuropsychiatric brain illness is ten times more likely to be in jail instead of receiving treatment in a hospital or dies by suicide. Even where help is available, our HIPAA laws prevent communication between family members and providers, blocking valuable information from being shared about a patient’s risk or critical treatment needs.

It is a horrible commentary on our nation that the majority of those in our prisons have a brain illness, often remaining untreated, abused, and increasingly ill while incarcerated. Had these people received appropriate treatment, most would never be in jail, would be in the workforce and living with their families. Unfortunately, even when the family members beg to get their loved ones help, current laws tie the hands of providers. Doctors, police, and the courts cannot compel someone to be in treatment until they are an “imminent danger” to harm themselves or someone else. Opponents of compelled treatment argue for their “right” to refuse treatment, rather than to protect their “right” to get well. But when someone with a brain disease (serious mental illness) has committed a crime, they have no rights once put in jail. It is far more compassionate to treat them early rather than to wait for harm.

We need treatment to avert tragedy.

We suggest several clear paths of action directly helping millions of Americans who are impacted by severe neuropsychiatric brain illness:

1.     Fund access to quality brain (mental) health care.

2.     Build the psychiatrist, psychiatric nurse practitioner, and psychologist workforce by forgiving student loans for those working in underserved areas.

3.     Support school efforts to identify children at risk, get them professional help, and maintain community-based treatment after graduation. (NOTE: Half of serious neuropsychiatric brain illness appears by age 14, and 75% by age 24. Many suicides are in this age range when symptoms are first emerging, and early care is absolutely essential during this time.

4.     Support court-ordered Assisted Outpatient Treatment for those not ill enough to be hospitalized but who still benefit from remaining in treatment.

5.     Require more police to receive Crisis Intervention Training so they have the tools to de-escalate a crisis before it turns harmful.

6.     Increase support for criminal justice system diversion programs that facilitate patients to receive evaluation and treatment rather than be incarcerated with poor or no attention to their brain illness.

7.     Increase programs to prevent and address homelessness for individuals with a brain illness.

8.     Suicide rates among police are climbing. Funds are needed for first responders to receive counseling for their own post-traumatic stress.

9.     Reform HIPAA laws to allow very selective, compassionate communication between providers and responsible family members for those adult patients clinically unaware of their illness or are not following up on their own care.

Thank you again for your leadership and compassion for America’s families dealing with neurological brain illnesses referred to as severe mental illness.

With sincere gratitude,
Linda Stalters, MSN, APRN (ret.)
Chief Executive and Founder
SARDAA
Mobile: 240-500-6131

Linda.stalters@sardaa.org
www.sardaa.org

Is Slavery Still An Issue?

Since I touched upon the subjects in May 1998, my emphasis has been on education and mentoring for the incarcerated and those with brain illness. But will they work? They seem to be working now, but that is the question that I ask now. Why? Because news sources such as the New York Times point out to us that slavery still exists in the US, and, to my mind, it is easy to come up with a crime – such as driving while black, walking while black, or just being black (Wikipedia) – to grab these guys off the street and put them into prison, mentored and educated or not. Even in the 13th Amendment to the US Constitution which abolished slavery in 1865 put in wording that said, essentially, that slavery is abolished unless the person is in prison:

“Neither slavery nor involuntary servitude, except as a punishment for crime whereof the party shall have been duly convicted, shall exist within the United States, or any place subject to their jurisdiction.”

Lester Holt recently did a piece on Angola Prison on NBC Nightly News where these things could be seen for themselves. He spent two nights in the prison and worked the fields harvesting carrots while doing research for his report called “Justice for All.”

So, where do those with brain illness fit in? Alisa Roth, a journalist and author of Insane: America’s Criminal Treatment of Mental Illness (2018), says they were moved back and forth from prison to hospital and back again throughout US history. Offenders were called “miscreants” meaning wrongdoers, villains. During my time in the hospital (1970s – 1980s), violent patients were released with no support or preparation to live on their own. At Trenton Psychiatric Hospital, a judge would just have the hospital open the door – to the maximum-security facility – and set them free. So, inevitably, they committed crimes and were then arrested and put into prison. I was fortunate to have a support system.

Wikipedia tells of the early days of Greystone Park Psychiatric Hospital in Morris Plains, NJ (circa 1876).

“Patients worked on the farms growing and raising food and performed hard labor tasks in the clearing away of building debris, excavating for roads, and sodding grounds… It was a widely popular belief that putting the insane to work in certain circumstances was beneficial to both the patient and the institution.”

Nowadays patients no longer do back-breaking work and are paid minimal amounts for their work to avoid the issue of slavery, but their families, children are taken away from them in more than one case.

All of this needs to be addressed.

A Melding of Brain Health and Criminal Justice

Today I want to write about the need for a consolidation of mental health organizations and the criminal justice system.

I have been in the courts for 40 years, and my current experience makes me angry. Last year the doctor recommended my release, and this year he reported there was no change. The order this year says that if it were not for the court and its supervision, I could very well have a breakdown. That is the court speaking, not the doctor.

The court treats me as though I am a felon. Instead of taking my children away from me by an order because I am sending them Hallmark cards, the court could have said to them (now 30 and 40 years old and on their own) that their father is experiencing signs of brain illness. Then we could argue about her qualifications to determine and treat brain illness. Several years ago, I was without a job, and I lost a job opportunity in New England because of the court’s unwillingness to decide. Of course, if I say too much the court will cite me for contempt, but something must be said. This is America.

I wrote to Alex Keoskey, an attorney familiar with my case and with brain illness in his own family, and this is what he had to say.

“I agree. I’m happy to say that the stigma of mental illness is finally being addressed by the public at large, mostly coupled up with addiction and the current problem we have with opioids. But more needs to be done and the criminal justice system is way behind. A judge should never substitute their opinion in place of someone with expertise. A consulting psychiatrist should be the only one who makes any determination regarding danger or no danger. A judge should always defer to that opinion, or at least ask for a second opinion. You are correct, the judge is treating you like a common criminal. How many years has it been that you have been stable and productive, not the slightest bit of harm to anyone? I don’t understand why she doesn’t take this into account.”

So much about me. I have already begun efforts in starting to get the two sides to talk with each other. I make efforts to keep both SARDAA and the Prisoner Re-entry Institute (PRI) at John Jay College of Criminal Justice aware of what the other is doing through my blogs, through our emails, and through our newsletters. My point is that there is a need for a third party to take part in the conversation, and that third party does not yet exist.

Special Message from SARDAA

By Linda Stalters, MSN, APRN (ret)
Founder and Chief Executive Officer
Schizophrenia And Related Disorders Alliance of America

The past few days at El Paso, Texas and Dayton, Ohio have brought an enormous amount of suffering and grief. We at SARDAA extend our sincerest heartfelt compassion and caring to all who have been affected in these and similar situations. Indeed, the families of the murdered and injured are profoundly suffering and the entire community and country are struggling with these horrific tragedies.  

There have been speculations that the shooters were “mentally ill”. Yet, we do not know that to be a fact. If that is the case, they too are victims, as are their families because they did not receive the care and treatment they required and now the consequences are catastrophic.

People with brain illnesses, “mental illness”, are NOT monsters or evil, they do not elect to have a brain illness any more than a person with Alzheimer’s or Parkinson’s diseases. People who have schizophrenia, schizoaffective and bipolar illnesses are amazing people and must not be labeled and feared, especially if they are receiving treatment. Without treatment people can be dangerous if they have certain delusions and hallucinations, thus, treatment is vitally important. Most people are amazing, kind, gentle, vulnerable and altruistic.

We MUST start providing appropriate care and treatment as soon as there are any signs or symptoms of “mental illness”, even if the person, due to their brain illness, is unaware of their illness. There are effective treatments for most people. People deserve to live!

We are working aggressively to drive reclassification of schizophrenia spectrum brain illnesses. NOW is the time for us all to come together to work on this. We can make a REAL change – contact us to learn how you can help: Info@sardaa.org

Submitted by David E. Geiger, MEE, PE

Making the Grade in Education

I reach about 2400 people with my blogs and newsletters. I take this responsibility seriously. Back in May 1998, I first advocated for education and mentoring for those in prison, before anyone else was doing it, and it is beginning to work. You may have seen the recent TV news advertisements regarding criminal justice reform and the positive results of education and mentoring for those incarcerated.

Back in 2013, I reached out to Ann Jacobs who is the Director of the Prisoner Re-entry Institute, a research organization at John Jay College of Criminal Justice, and I offered her some of my opinions that you read in my blogs. They have been successful. From the PRI July 2019 newsletter: 

On June 27th [2019] PRI celebrated the accomplishments of 31 College Initiative (CI) students who recently completed post-secondary degrees, including 9 associate degrees, 12 bachelor's degrees, seven master's degrees, one law degree, and one doctorate degree. CI supports formerly-incarcerated and court-involved men and women in enrolling and succeeding in college. 2019 was the largest class of degree-earning graduates since CI joined PRI, with CI students earning degrees at ten CUNY schools, four private colleges, and two SUNY schools. 

John Jay College President Karol Mason spoke at the graduation about the obstacles these graduates have already surmounted and the doors that a college degree will open. "Through their determination and hard work," said President Mason, "these students demonstrate the importance and value behind the pathways that College Initiative creates for individuals with prior criminal justice involvement.... with training, mentorship, knowledge, and support, the sky is the limit for these talented individuals."

Two of this year's CI graduates also previously took classes in PRI's Prison-to-College Pipeline (P2CP) at Otisville Correctional Facility with NYS Secretary of State Rossana Rosado, who provided the keynote address at the June 27th event. “Working with my guys—that’s what I call P2CP students—gives me a unique perspective on the strength and potential of people who have experienced the worst in our criminal justice system, and yet, they still rise," said Secretary Rosado. 

Prison Reform in Alabama

Back in February of 2019, I posted an article on SARDAA’s website regarding criminal justice reform in Alabama (“Finding Jobs After Life in Prison”). At that time, Cam Ward (R-Alabaster) was sponsoring a bill that would remove more than 700 sections of code from the Alabama constitution that restricts jobs that people can get after being released from prison. The idea was to make the individual a productive citizen and not a public safety risk. In April 2019, the Department of Justice released a report stating that Alabama’s prisons were violating the Eighth Amendment. (WHNT News 19; June 19, 2019)

Although Alabama has experienced tremendous economic growth during her tenure, Governor Kay Ivey “indicated she was preparing a plan to build three large men’s prisons” to address Alabama’s failing prison system. Alabama’s House Minority leader Anthony Daniels indicates “he will not vote for a plan that does not include comprehensive prison reform.”

“Brick and mortar do not solve the problem,” said Daniels. “I will not go into a special session focusing on construction. My focus will be on reform.”

“Daniels says he wants to see more programs like mental health for the incarcerated to help them get back into society after their release.”

There’s an App for That – Maybe

I read an article in the June 18, 2019 New York Times’s Science Times regarding a smartphone app that will gauge mental stress and “flag the user when an emotional crisis seemed imminent.” It “promised something that no drug or talk therapy can provide.” The venture is co-founded by a former director of NIMH and is in the experimental stage in Silicon Valley. It is to benefit those with suicidal urges and bouts of intense emotion by evaluating their screen activity.

As a professional and as someone who lived through attempted suicide, I don’t believe this hype. How are we going to program the app to do something that we ourselves don’t do so well apparently, “something no drug or talk therapy can provide”? When I attempted suicide 40 years ago, there were bigger things on my mind than typing on a keyboard. I was suffering from schizophrenia as well as paranoia. I couldn’t trust what I was seeing and hearing, and I certainly would not trust entering information into a smartphone when there is the possibility that people are listening, real or imagined. I doubt very much that an app would have changed the course of my life, and I am saying that a person who is suffering from paranoia as a major influence on his choice to commit suicide is not going to use the app.  

Be careful out there.

Ban-the-Box Update (2019)

If my research is right, I wrote my first ban-the-box article back on December 18, 2016. I did not invent the idea of banning the box, but the article is available.

Banning the box has to do with job applications, that is, there is a question on the application that asks, “Have you ever been convicted of a crime?” and there is a box to check if the answer is yes. Those who were convicted must check the box, otherwise they would be lying on the application – another reason they would be denied the job. So, either way, yes or no, a justice-involved individual cannot win, and they must turn to crime to support themselves and their families. Hence the laws that deny employers the opportunity to put the question on their employment applications are necessary. I was fortunate that I was not convicted of a crime. It was because of my illness.

A friend of mine from the Baltimore area sent me a May 29, 2019 article from The Washington Post by Justin Wm Moyer titled “DC employers pay nearly $500,000 under ‘ban the box’ law since 2014.” Our legislators are getting serious. They are beginning to learn that if a justice-involved person cannot get a job they must – again – turn to crime to support themselves and their families. From the article:

“The District government has filed more than 1,100 administrative charges against employers who continue to ask about criminal histories on job applications despite a 2014 law that banned the practice. Those charges have netted the city more than $500,000 in fines for failing to ‘ban the box,’ according to a report by the DC Office of Human Rights… More than 90 percent of the administrative charges against employers were related to criminal background questions that appeared on job applications, the report said, while less than 5 percent involved questions an employer asked during an interview.”

Our city officials are beginning to see the implications:

“Brian Ferguson, director of the city’s Office of Returning Citizen Affairs, said questions about criminal records were ‘ubiquitous’ on job applications before the law, often stopping those returning from prison from ‘getting a foot in the door’ with possible employers.

“Today, it’s a much different landscape, much more favorable to returning citizens… They can show their value.”

Trying to Get Ahead with Schizophrenia is Not Easy

“Aw, you want us to feel sorry for you after what you done?” 

“But it was an illness. The brain gets sick!” There is medical evidence for this.

I must live with the guilt of taking a life – 40 years this far and more to come. But the jury gave me my freedom, my life, so I must do my best. I want my book to be a success. I want people to understand and take action.

It’s hard. Family doesn’t always support the person who has mental illness. I was fortunate for the most part, but I saw it myself in the hospital that patients were abandoned by family and friends. Some guys never got visits. I, myself, was abandoned by my “friends” and adult mentors. I learned to live alone and be comfortable with it. I found in my dating years that the ones who were most unforgiving were those who had mental illness in their families. In general, others, the court among them, see you as a behavioral problem, as one who is mentally retarded, or a felon. Those who don’t have any understanding of the illness are afraid you will come sneaking through their bedroom window to kill them on some dark and stormy night.

There is other discrimination against those with mental illness. I can’t seem to get a good-paying job despite the credentials I have. Of course, that may be complicated further by age discrimination.

Talking about being mentally retarded – or intellectually challenged – I was always at the top of my class throughout my school years. I earned an Eagle Award in Boy Scouts. I graduated second in my high school class by less than a point. In engineering school, I graduated “with honor” or cum laude. Today I have a master’s degree in engineering and am a Professional Engineer licensed by the State of NJ. (Yes, they know about it). At the job, my team at Con Edison won a Team Award for completing an important $4 million project on time and on budget. We were all chosen for our superior performances on previous projects. I ran the project. I belong to Mensa and qualify for an organization called “Triple Nine Society” which is a high-IQ organization like Mensa but has a higher entrance requirement. I wrote a book called In the Matter of Edwin Potter: Mental Illness and Criminal Justice Reform. For a time there, I was homeless, and, just last year, I won the Albert Nelson Marquis Lifetime Achievement Award from Marquis Who’s Who.

As it was said in Jersey Boys, “If you want to get a hit record, it’s like the stations of the cross. You have to get past the record companies, the Program Directors, the DJs, and, if you’re lucky, you get to the people.” The same is true for those like me who want to make something of themselves. You have to get to the people.

A Suggestion to End Mass Shooting

Something should be done about mass shooters. Everyone says so. But the recommendations seem to be to take the guns away from the NRA. Apparently, this is not going to go anywhere, so more people will die as schoolkids did again in Colorado just a few days ago and again today as I write this. Something must give.

Let’s try this suggestion. This is my idea from a hard lesson learned. I had a schizophrenic breakdown resulting in the death of my wife back in the summer of 1979. My parents – my mother especially – saw there was something wrong with me, but they did not know where to go to get help or report the matter until it was too late. So, this is what I have to say: People can see when something is going wrong. If they see that someone is experiencing psychosis by collecting guns and saying that he is going to kill people, they should be able to report that with the result that he should be taken off the streets for a 30-day observation and evaluation.

 This is not a gun issue. The news reports following the shooting always indicate that the shooter has mental illness. Why, oh, why couldn’t we get him the help that he needed?

I was emailing a member of the Court just recently about this, and his remark was, “You are on point, but until this country is ready to seriously address the issue of mental health and provide the necessary resources to do so, things will not change.” 

Write to your legislator.

Pell Grants to be Reintroduced for Prisoners

Things are starting to happen quickly now on the vanguard of criminal justice reform, namely, educational opportunities for inmates. On April 20, 2019, National Public Radio reported “Congress Considers Making College More Accessible to People in Prison” by restoring Pell Grants to them. “Inmates are among the least-educated people in America. That’s despite research that shows education is one of the most effective ways to keep people from coming back to prison.” This will be done through the REAL Act (Restoring Education And Learning). The legislation was introduced by US Senators Brian Schatz (D-Hawaii), Mike Lee (R-Utah), and Dick Durbin (D-Ill).

From Schatz’s April 9, 2019 website, “The REAL Act would restore a program we know already works and give people a real chance to rebuild their lives.”

Justice-involved people lost access to Pell Grant assistance in 1994 during the President Bill Clinton era when the policy was to “get tough on crime.” As one involved with the law at that time because of my illness, I remember those days. We now have over 2 million people in prison who have no hope and no future. President Obama’s Education Department announced an experiment in 2015 called Second Chance Pell. This current legislation is meant to rectify the problem with the statistic being (from Schatz) “that people who participate in correctional education while in prison were 43% less likely to recidivate… [S]tudies have shown that each dollar spent on secondary education programs for prisoners reduces incarceration costs by $4 to $5 during the first three years after an individual is released.”

In late 2018 (when he wrote to me and told me he was going to do it) President Trump signed a criminal justice reform bill called the First Step Act.

This is good. Let’s hope to see the results we want.

Mentoring the Justice-Involved

Back in the late 1990s I began to write about criminal justice reform and what I thought would work based upon my own experiences. In May 1998 I wrote an article for IMprint – a Mensa newsletter – titled “How Do We Get to Peace?” I slogged it alone, but it is starting to work. Let me tell you this part of the story.

I had visited Northern State Prison in Newark, NJ with the Paterson Chamber of Commerce in 1997 as part of a training program. We walked among the inmates, and in that May 1998 article I wrote, “It is our belief that life as an incarcerated individual is a dead-end street…” Is it? I listed some items that I thought would help to change the situation, and two of the most important were education and mentoring. It has taken 21 years, but people are beginning to catch on. Read on.

John Jay College of Criminal Justice held two symposiums on the topic of mentoring justice-involved youth, one back in October of 2017 and a follow-up in April of 2018. (I wrote about both in IMprint – March 2018 and August 2018.) What they found in conjunction with the Department of Youth Rehabilitation Services in Washington, DC is that education is unparalleled in helping justice-involved youth succeed in society, and mentoring works best when the mentors are people who have gone through the system and hard times themselves and now want to share their experiences with the youths to keep them out of trouble. What they did not mention at the time is the need for a change in the laws that discriminate against or prevent a formerly justice-involved individual from getting a job.

Founder and CEO of Schizophrenia And Related Disorders Alliance of America, Linda Stalters, says the same is said to be true by those with serious brain illness who have been caught in the criminal justice system. Attending Schizophrenic Alliance support group meetings “while incarcerated was their most important help.”

John Jay College sent me a newsletter this past April 2019 called “The Lens: News and Views from PRI” with an article regarding a program at a maximum-security prison facility known as “The Rock” in Connecticut. It included video clips from 60 Minutes and 60 Minutes Overtime and aired March 31, 2019 where they found these things are true. Here is the link:

https://www.cbsnews.com/news/german-style-true-program-at-cheshire-correctional-institution-emphasizes-rehab-for-inmates-60-minutes/