The Challenges of Involuntary Commitment

The Washington Post (November 28, 2007) features an informative article about the challenges related to involuntary commitment procedures for people with mental illness. Most states require those exhibiting symptoms of mental illness to pose an "imminent threat" to themselves or others before they are committed to a mental health facility against their will.

Here's an excerpt from the article:

"The imminent danger standard arose in several states in response to the previous governmental practice of building large asylums and then dumping the mentally ill there without due process or adequate resources. As squalid conditions and sordid practices were uncovered in the 1950s, the pendulum swung toward patients' rights: Hundreds of thousands were "deinstitutionalized," or released from the asylums, and new legal standards -- "imminent danger" in many states -- were installed.

In 1955, 558,239 patients were in public psychiatric hospitals. By the mid-1990s, the number had dropped to fewer than 72,000. By 2002, the total had fallen below 50,000.

But the same states that implemented the imminent danger standards rejected them over the past decade, most often because of incidents that involved the mentally ill. "

Read the full article.

Sugar Land man found not guilty of by reason of insanity

According to the Houston Chronicle (November 29, 2007), Tristan Williams, a 20-year-old man accused of fatally stabbing his mother, was found not guilty by reason of insanity by a Fort Bend County court. Williams, who was 17 at the time of the slaying, will be sent to a maximum security mental health facility for treatment, according to court documents. He was arrested May 21, 2004, for stabbing his mother Alice Williams 39, at a Sugar Land home where she worked as a housekeeper.

"Assistant district attorney John Hawkins said evidence, including testimony from mental and medical experts, showed Williams had a history of mental disorders. The defendant's aunt told the court the family did not want him sent to prison but felt he should be in mental health facility.

Hawkins said the state presented no evidence contesting the defense position that Williams was not guilty due to insanity.

The trial was held in the court of state District Judge James Shoemake. and the not guilty verdict was reached Monday."

Read the full article.

League of Women Voters of Texas Oppose Death Penalty for the Mentally Ill

The League of Women Voters of Texas' position on the death penalty includes a call to prohibit the execution of the mentally ill. The League's Fall 2007 newsletter, "Texas Voter," features a comprehensive article about mental illness and the death penalty and encourages League members to obtain a copy of a new Mental Illness and the Death Penalty Organizing Packet and postcards.

You can read the article here: http://www.lwvtexas.org/Voter%20Nov%202007.pdf.

Many thanks to Gloria Suarez-Sasser, the Capital Punishment Program Chair, for her support of this public education campaign.

House Committee Passes MIOTCRA

Here's an update from the Consensus Project on the Mentally Ill Offender Treatment and Crime Reduction Reauthorization and Improvement Act (MIOTCRA):

"On November 7, 2007, just a week after the introduction of the bill, members of the full House Judiciary Committee passed H.R. 3992, the Mentally Ill Offender Treatment and Crime Reduction Reauthorization and Improvement Act. The bill will now be sent to the House floor for consideration, which sponsors say could take place later this month. The Senate sponsors intend to move the companion bill, S. 2304, before Congress breaks for recess.

During the mark-up of the bill, lead sponsors Representatives Bobby Scott (D-VA) and Randy Forbes (R-VA) spoke about the need for continued collaboration between criminal justice and mental health agencies. The bill will make a significant commitment to addressing the needs of both the criminal justice system and the mentally ill offender population. It offers grants to communities to develop diversion programs, mental health treatments in jails and prisons, and transition and after-care services to facilitate reentry into the community.

"I am pleased to be the lead cosponsor of a bi-cameral, bi-partisan legislation," Representative Scott said. "The MIOTCRA will not only provide for appropriate responses to mentally ill offenders, but save localities money in avoided jail and prison costs.

"With bipartisan support in both the House and the Senate, the legislation will raise the authorization level of MIOTCRA from $50 million per year to $75 million per year and will extend the authorization through 2013. The bill will also reauthorize the Mental Health Courts grant program, (Public Law 106-515) and require a study to be completed on the prevalence of mental illness in prisons and jails."

"60 Minutes" Segment on Mentally Ill Inmate in Tennessee

Last night, the CBS News program "60 Minutes" featured an interview with Gregory Thompson, a severely mentally ill man who has been on death row in Tennessee for more than 20 years. His lawyers did not raise evidence of his mental illness during his trial. Thompson had an execution date in 2006, but a federal appeals court ruled that a lower court should examine evidence that Thompson was mentally ill at the time of the crime. Later, the Supreme Court narrowly overruled the decision, saying it was too late to raise that issue.

According to CBS, "Thompson's lawyers are going back to federal court this month and hope to get a ruling that Thompson -- despite his medication -- is mentally incompetent and should not be executed. The Tennessee attorney general, who declined 60 Minutes' request for an interview, is expected to argue that Thompson understands why he is being punished, is not insane and,therefore, should be executed."

Here's more from CBS News:

"Thompson voluntarily takes a cocktail of 10 pills daily, plus two injections a month, and says he would "go lulu" without them. Episodes off the medications include attempting to kill guards he says appeared to be insects and aliens. But even on the medicine, he is delusional, says one of his lawyers, Dana Chavis. '[Medicine] doesn't take away his mental illness. He's always insane... but it hides that insanity,' says Chavis.

[Reporter Laura] Logan spoke with him in prison while he was on his medication, asking him if he's aware the medication increases his chances of being executed. "I made a choice years ago that if I were to get to that point, I'd rather be normal than insane," he says, "because it hurts. I'm tired of being mentally ill ...so if they want to kill me at the end, then they kill me at the end." Asked what would happen if he is executed, Thompson replies, "Well, I know that the dead can speak."
When asked if he would die, Thompson says, "I think it would be a horrible ending, because if the dead can speak ... you got thoughts going on in the grave. I don't know about that," he tells Logan.

Thompson also claims he received a check for $444,000 for writing songs for country western stars and gave it to his victim's family."

Video footage is available at: http://www.cbsnews.com/stories/2007/11/09/60minutes/main3481145.shtml

Congress Introduces the Mentally Ill Offender Treatment and Crime Reduction Reauthorization and Improvement Act

From the Consensus Project Newsletter, November 2007:

"This week U.S. Senators Edward Kennedy (D-MA), Pete Domenici (R-NM), Patrick Leahy (D-VT), and Arlen Specter (R-PA), and U.S. Representatives Bobby Scott (D-VA) and Randy Forbes (R-VA) introduced the Mentally Ill Offender Treatment and Crime Reduction Reauthorization and Improvement Act.

This legislation, which has received bipartisan support in both the House and the Senate, will reauthorize the Mentally Ill Offender Treatment and Crime Reduction Act or MIOTCRA (Public Law 108-414). Enacted in 2004, MIOTCRA created the Justice and Mental Health Collaboration Grant Program (JMHCP) designed to help states and counties design and implement collaborative efforts between criminal justice and mental health systems. Through appropriated funds, the Bureau of Justice Assistance (BJA) within the Department of Justice has awarded 53 communities in 35 states with additional resources to plan and implement collaborative efforts between criminal justice and mental health systems."

Here are some provisions of the new bill:

• Raises the authorization level of MIOTCRA from $50 million per year to $75 million per year and will extend the authorization through 2013
• Reauthorizes the Mental Health Courts grant program (Public Law 106-515)
• Requires that a study be completed on the prevalence of mental illness in prisons and jails

The Consensus Project reports that the bill is scheduled for consideration in the full House Judiciary Committee on November 7, 2007; it passed the Crime Subcommittee on November 1. The Senate sponsors intend to move the bill before Congress breaks for recess.

More information available at http://consensusproject.org/.

New resources addressing stigma and discrimination

The Substance Abuse & Mental Health Services Administration Center for Mental Health Services (SAMHSA) has redesigned its Resource Center to Address Discrimination and Stigma Associated with Mental Illness. The new library contains more than 600 resources.

The website at www.stopstigma.samhsa.gov features information and advice to help individuals and organizations counter discrimination and stigma associated with mental illness. It covers such topics as language, faith & spirituality, and policy & legislation.

New mental health program in Harris County jail

KHOU.com reports on a new program in the Harris County jail that will address the needs of inmates with mental illness.

"On any given day there are 9,000 inmates there. About 20 percent of them have a history of mental illness.

The jail has now formed a new mental health unit make up of 61 specially trained officers. The jail has also spent about $1 million converting 4 cell blocks into mental health housing. Inmates will be screened during intake instead of being placed immediately in the general population."

Read more about what experts are deeming a "revolutionary program."