Witch Hunting

The Minneapolis Star Tribune reported on 9/7/08 that the cost of health care for people in jail (the article focused on Henn.Co, but included references to other Minnesota jails experiencing similar problems) is way up, driven by the demand for mental health care. The head nurse says the "mental health system is breaking down."

"IS breaking down"? Doesn't that imply that the health care system has been working and is only recently beginning to not work? The health care system has been broken down.

• Hospital capacity has been shrinking by 10% every year since 1980
• Shelters have been turned into psych wards
• According to Minneapolis Police Chief Olson, 40% of their calls were related to some sort of mental illness but hospitals are full so the only place for them to go is to jail.

Does that sound like a broken down system? It has not worked.

Most cops, though well-intentioned, have had only a few hours of sensitivity training, but they aren't mental health professionals and can't dispense meds - the only tool they have is to haul the preson to jail. This doesn't solve anyone's problems, least of all the person suffering from mental illness.

I would like to think that our society has progressed since the days of witch hunts but from the looks of it, we really haven't.

It's a Hoax. Part II

A few weeks ago, I responded to a Minneapolis Star Tribune series regarding Minnesota's Sex Offender Program (MSOP) which is located in Moose Lake.  The Strib says that the facts raise the question, "Is MSOP really mental health treatment, or just permanent incarceration?" This is a good question but I can think of some much better questions:

QUESTION 1 - Who gets "committed" to MSOP, and why?

• Eerily similar to Guantanamo, the Strib could only identify two-thirds of detainees.
  
• A couple, identified by the Strib, seem like pretty bad dudes:
  
• Dennis Linehan, famous enough that the Strib had a stock photo of him, bears, with missing teeth, a strikin resemblance to Hannibal Lechter.
  
• Lorenzo Sanchez raped and murdered a 12 year-old.  Why doesn't that deserve an old fashioned "life without parole" sentence to prison?

But others identified seem odd choices for a life sentence:

• 10 percent were juveniles when they committed their crime.
  
• Ben Alverson was in his early 20's when he had "consensual" sex with two girls ages 13 & 14. Where's the pathology here?  When I was 20, I was attracted to teenage girls who looked older than they really were.  Yes I understand there is no such thing as consensual sex between a 22 year old and a 13 year old (in this state) we have defined such acts as crimes (which is why I backed away when I found out how old the girls were).  But Alverson, now 32 years old, already served his prison sentence for said crime.
  
• Dwane Peterson was convicted of kidnapping an elderly man (the Strib didn't mention a motive, but it did not involve sex) and served his prison sentence for said crime.  Then, despite never having committed a sex crime, he was committed to MSOP because of fantasies he admitted to during therapy.
• Isaiah Swedeen was committed to MSOP after disclosing, during treatment, a vaguely homosexual incident from his past, unrelated to any crime he had been charged with.  And treatment officials admit that Swedeen doesn't respond to psycho-tropic meds - presumably because he doesn't have mental illness.

The legislature has the right, under the constitution to make kidnapping or sex with under age girls a capital offense.  But lets keep this debate in the criminal justice arena where it belongs.  Do we really want to live in a society where people can be confined indefinitely because of impure thoughts.  The Strib appropriately quoted Tom Paine on the subject, they could have just as easily quoted Solzhenitsyn.  

QUESTION 2 - Who Works at MSOP?

Stay tuned... 

Sex Offender Treatment? It's a Hoax

A month ago, I commented on criminalization of mental illness. Related to it, this week's topic is the pathologyzation of criminal behavior. The Minneapolis Star Tribune just began a 3 part series about Minnesota's Sex Offender Program (MSOP) located in Moose Lake. Here are the facts as reported by the Strib:

• MSP was created 14 years ago.


• 544 men and 1 woman are confined under MSOP
  - Technically, MSOP officials report holding 544 + 1; we don't really know what that means because the names of those detained in their "gulag" is a state secret.


• No one has ever been discharged. That bears repeating...NO ONE HAS EVER BEEN DISCHARGED!!!! Commitment to MSOP is a life sentence but it differs signifantly from a life-time prison sentence:
  - subjects have no right to a jury trial
  - the standard is "clear and convincing" evidence (well below "beyond reasonable doubt")
  - subjects are required to testify against themselves
  - subjects are "committed" to MSOP after they serve the prison term commensurate with their crime
  - and, of course, gang-bangers convincted of murder and sentenced to life are eventually paroled


• As implied by the Strib, the "treatment" is sort of a hoax. Matter of fact, a 2005 report commissioned by the Vermont Legislature concluded that Minnesota just warehouses sex offenders.

The Strib says these facts raise the question, "Is MSOP really mental health treatment, or just permanent incarceration?" REALLY?!?! That's the question? When the 35W bridge collapsed, did we ask if it was a good thing?