In the 1980's, in what should be remembered (along with slavery, torture and internment camps) as one of our nation's most shameful moments, Ronald Reagan put an end to psychiatric hospitals for the poor, claiming psychiatric care was "enabling" mental illness. Strict laws were enacted protecting the "rights" of Americans with mental illness (making it that much harder for relatives to insure their proper care) even as they were thrust permanently into the street. At the same time, federal mandatory minimum sentences were established for drug possession and related crimes and convicts were permanently barred from federally funded public housing.
America established enforced homelessness for Americans with brain disorders, even if those disorders were incurred through military service to our country.
Today, in many communities, county and municipal jails serve as the only "supportive housing" facilities for individuals suffering from untreated mental illness, developmental disabilities and learning disorders. Unlike the old state psychiatric institutions where patients were housed in private or semi-private rooms with some opportunity for privacy and treatment, in jails, inmates are housed in "pods." There may be a large number of individuals housed in a single pod. Showers and toilets are open and in the same room as the bunks and seating area. An inmate cannot take a shower or a shit without everyone else in the pod watching.
The temperature is frequently humid and uncomfortable due to poor ventilation in rooms that house showers. There is nothing constructive to do. Inmates remain in the pods 23 hours a day, seven days a week. They can remain there for years. Guards have very little training assisting them to recognize and cope with mental illness. Jail budgets are often too tight to support training. The mentally ill are supposed to "learn their lesson" and not come back.
The very seriously mentally ill are often placed in special units where they can be observed by the guards. It is not unusual to see six or seven men sharing a poorly ventilated 10 by 12 cell with a single glassed in window in the door. This is what we do with individuals who are suffering from schizophrenia instead of treating them. They are kept in this room 23 hours per day, 7 days a week. If they are lucky, a psychiatrist visits them occasionally and they are allowed to take meds.
Counties and municipalities have very little choice. Mandatory minimum sentencing requires them to jail individuals with brain disorders including mental illness, PTSD and addiction.
When inmates are released from jail, their pockets are nearly empty. They have nowhere to go. If they have been convicted of certain felonies they are permanently barred from public housing. Many have had their drivers' licenses revoked. They are not allowed to keep company with other felons so they can't carpool to get to treatment. They rarely have access to psychiatric medications. Employers don't want to hire them.
Is it surprising that they often end up right back in jail? Can anybody tell me why our jails are superior to a genuine psychiatric facility? Does anybody out there other than me see the resemblance to the "psychiatric institutions" we abhorred in the Soviet Union?
We have been fighting in Iraq and Afghanistan for ten years. General Casey says we will be there another ten years. I have no idea why we are there. But I know that when Congress and the President start talking about cutting the deficit, they are not going to cut funding for the war that is creating the deficit.
Our state just zeroed out all funding for preventive services for substance abuse, mental illness, teen pregnancy, suicide, HIV/AIDS, STDs, learning disorders, hypertension, diabetes, etc. I haven't noticed the alcohol industry cutting back on their marketing to youth in communities of color. And who is going to fight this war for us? Who is going to become the victim of a war-induced mental illness? The children of our Senators and President?
I think not.
When the states further slash their budgets for schools, who is going to be hurt? Who will develop behavioral issues to mask their second grade reading level? The children of our Senators and President?
I think not.
I have no wish to replace our Democratic Congress with freaks like Sarah Palin and Sharron Angle. But I want to know: why are we spending trillions to make Afghanistan look like Ohio, even as Ohio and every other state in the US has come to resemble the Soviet Union?
HUD is facing shortfalls. They are actively working to eliminate small rural housing authorities, creating new homeless. I guess our jails will house these families, too.
Cross-posted from BPICampus.com