Yale Psychiatry Grand Rounds: April 16, 2021
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Yale Psychiatry Grand Rounds: April 16, 2021
April 16, 2021"Our Role in the Development of Mental Health Services in Corrections"
Raymond F. Patterson, MD, DLFAPA, Faculty, St. Elizabeths Hospital Department of Behavioral Health, Washington, DC
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Transcript
- 00:00Special Day for the
- 00:01Department of Psychiatry every year,
- 00:03which is the Yochelson
- 00:05lecture which has been,
- 00:06I think, one of the Premier.
- 00:10Lectures in in forensic psychiatry
- 00:12events in forensic psychiatry.
- 00:13Certainly in our community,
- 00:15but I think if you look at the
- 00:18list of speakers historically.
- 00:21Uh, an event of national significance.
- 00:25We're we're thrilled to have
- 00:27three members of the Yochelson
- 00:30family with us today to remember
- 00:33the legacy of Doctor Yochelson in
- 00:36our Department and in the field.
- 00:39John Yochelson,
- 00:41Bonnie Yochelson and Laura Yochelson
- 00:43representing the. Out with the
- 00:47original Doctor Yochelson three generations,
- 00:49which is a very special thing, and.
- 00:53And we're also thrilled to
- 00:56have Doctor Raymond Patterson
- 00:58as the ground round speaker.
- 01:01I will not try to. Be the introducer.
- 01:06I will leave that to to Howard and also.
- 01:15And perhaps others who
- 01:16might want to comment, but.
- 01:19John, if you'd like to make just a few
- 01:22comments about about the legacy of your
- 01:24father and the significance of this lecture,
- 01:27and then Howard can introduce
- 01:29our grand round speaker.
- 01:30Thank you so much John.
- 01:33I'm I also see looking at things that
- 01:36my daughter, Lisa, who is in transit today.
- 01:39She is is listening.
- 01:41We can't see her but but she's also very,
- 01:45very committed to this very, very proud of.
- 01:50Of the of the lecture and the and
- 01:53the tremendous work that cowards
- 01:56and Anna has done over the years,
- 01:59Dad passed away.
- 02:01I don't want to go over the material
- 02:04that Howard is going to go over,
- 02:08just really to say that that it has been
- 02:12a source of enormous pride for us to
- 02:15see of such remarkable practitioners,
- 02:19researchers, scholars.
- 02:20Uhm?
- 02:26Older, older forum of this of this quality
- 02:29and it never would have taken place without
- 02:34without doctors amanus of leadership.
- 02:37This wasn't this was an event that meant
- 02:40a great deal to my mom Catherine who
- 02:44participated with Bonnie and me into her 90s.
- 02:47He passed away in 2005 and I'm wanting
- 02:50to say that she was that she part that
- 02:54she was in the audience in the 2000s.
- 02:57I think Bonnie brought her up
- 03:01from from New York so.
- 03:03This means a great deal to our family
- 03:06and we we greatly look forward to Doctor
- 03:09Patterson's remarks and and we really
- 03:12appreciate the it's remarkable looking
- 03:14at who's on the call and so many familiar
- 03:18names that we in years past that we've
- 03:21had the pleasure of meeting weather at
- 03:24the grand Browns or at the dinner before.
- 03:27But the spirit is still there and
- 03:31I would again like to just thank.
- 03:34Howard, Banana and the team really
- 03:38is awesome is awesome team.
- 03:42We always hear from Madeline and from Pat,
- 03:45who made the arrangements for us.
- 03:47It's a great group of people and
- 03:50we're very proud to be part of it.
- 03:52Thank you.
- 03:56OK, so maybe I'll jump in here.
- 04:00And say this. This is something we
- 04:04look forward to at this point and.
- 04:07I'm very pleased the history
- 04:10is goes back almost to 1980 or
- 04:13so when the family made this
- 04:15contribution for this lecture.
- 04:18Started out as a lectureship.
- 04:22And has helped form and
- 04:25guide the program in a way.
- 04:29I think our program in law and
- 04:32psychiatry is one that is heavily
- 04:35focused on public sector work.
- 04:38And that forms the core of what we do,
- 04:43and we've had a now over 125 fellows
- 04:46that have graduated from the program
- 04:49and moved in positions of leadership
- 04:53around the country as well as
- 04:56staying on here in Connecticut.
- 04:58And it's been a joint operation and
- 05:01apart between our division between
- 05:04Yale and the State of Connecticut.
- 05:07Which has been enormously supportive
- 05:10through the Connecticut Mental Health
- 05:13Center and in funding four Fellows a year.
- 05:16Which is a enormous cost for which
- 05:19they don't get a lot of direct
- 05:23return in terms of service,
- 05:25but our program has helped.
- 05:29The Department of Mental
- 05:30Health and Addiction.
- 05:31So I think over 20 of our people
- 05:34have stayed on in the state system.
- 05:37For substantial period of time.
- 05:40So that hopefully is the kind of
- 05:43payoff that helps both of us and
- 05:46we both work together with the
- 05:49Department and legislation and a
- 05:51variety of other fora for working
- 05:54on care of the chronically mentally
- 05:58ill and set up programs in the
- 06:01Mental Health Center as well.
- 06:04So let me just say,
- 06:06certainly at the beginning that the yokels
- 06:09and story is a very interesting one.
- 06:12Samuel Yochelson went to Yale and was
- 06:15in the psychology Department and did
- 06:18extremely well in that Department.
- 06:20But he went through at a time when
- 06:24positions in the Department were
- 06:26governed or were governed by quota
- 06:29on the number of Jews it could
- 06:33be in the Department.
- 06:35But they offered a support for
- 06:37him to go to medical school.
- 06:40Uh,
- 06:41in lieu of the appointment which he
- 06:43did and then was in Buffalo for a
- 06:45while and then went to Saint Elizabeth's
- 06:47where he did a lot of this work.
- 06:50Let me share my screen for a minute up.
- 06:55And.
- 06:59Hopefully I'm sharing the right
- 07:02one here. Uh. So as you see,
- 07:06this is the is the 25th.
- 07:09A lecture that we have had
- 07:12over the course of the years.
- 07:15Yale invested the money,
- 07:17which in there seemingly.
- 07:23Sorry, I don't know quite how to put it,
- 07:26but they get a really good return
- 07:29for their investments and.
- 07:31That has allowed us to expand
- 07:33what was a single lecture.
- 07:36To inviting a scholar and.
- 07:40Visiting person to come for
- 07:42a week and spend time both.
- 07:44Here in our Department seeing
- 07:47the the PG two residents in
- 07:50class and talking with them,
- 07:52meeting with the psychologists in our
- 07:55program and having case conferences.
- 07:58And going up to CVH and doing a case
- 08:02conference in a grand rounds up there
- 08:04as well as participating in our other
- 08:07programs and the grand rounds here.
- 08:10So that's made for a nice ability
- 08:13for us to have people to get to
- 08:16know us a little better and for us
- 08:19to get to know them and establish
- 08:22nice connections that that continue.
- 08:25Uhm?
- 08:28So Doctor Yochelson was interested in the
- 08:32criminal personality and first started
- 08:35with more of a psychoanalytic approach.
- 08:38And then felt that was not very
- 08:41useful in thinking about how
- 08:44to affect people's change. Uhm?
- 08:49He was started in 1961 and was
- 08:51joined by a psychologist.
- 08:54Doctors saying Sam and al.
- 08:57And they looked at 255 ********
- 09:00criminals supposedly and the subjects
- 09:02included both drug users and nonusers.
- 09:07Went over 17 years and they began to
- 09:10look at and describe what they thought
- 09:14were certain kinds of thinking and
- 09:17patterns of thinking rather than just
- 09:20psychoanalytic or diagnostic approaches.
- 09:22The. The work has waxed and waned in terms
- 09:27of how people have thought about it.
- 09:30There are, you know,
- 09:31certainly as John mentioned,
- 09:32where some problems around.
- 09:34Some of the things about controls
- 09:36and other kinds selection, but.
- 09:39It certainly served as a basis for people to
- 09:43stimulate other kinds of research as well.
- 09:46Uh, the family has been involved
- 09:49since the beginning of this,
- 09:51and have been enormously supportive.
- 09:54These are the list of prior scholars
- 09:58who have come and lectured.
- 10:00Test. As you can see,
- 10:03if you know anything about
- 10:05forensic psychiatry.
- 10:06These are sort of the leading
- 10:10lights in the field.
- 10:13Beginning with the burner Diamond,
- 10:15Allen Stone, Alan Dershowitz,
- 10:18Paul Appelbaum and.
- 10:19All the way down. Uhm?
- 10:24So let me just say a little
- 10:26bit about Doctor Patterson.
- 10:29He's currently a part of the clinical
- 10:32faculty at Saint Elizabeth Hospital.
- 10:34Where he's been off and on
- 10:37throughout the years, he's also,
- 10:39and it's been associated associate professor.
- 10:42Whoops little typo at the University,
- 10:45Howard University, and Georgetown University,
- 10:47and the University of Maryland.
- 10:50Uh.
- 10:51And certainly been at Saint
- 10:55Elizabeths for a substantial period.
- 10:59And also in private practice.
- 11:04He went to northwestern and
- 11:06went to Howard University,
- 11:07College of Medicine and did an
- 11:09insurance turn ship in his first
- 11:12year residency and then went
- 11:14to Saint Elizabeth Hospital.
- 11:16I say Elizabeth has a
- 11:18long interesting history,
- 11:19which he gave up for awhile for
- 11:22initially involved a lot of the
- 11:25Federal 6 center and dealt with
- 11:27the military and then became back
- 11:30and forth with with DC and varying
- 11:33political things that I'll let
- 11:35Ray talk about if he needs to.
- 11:38But it was an interesting talk
- 11:40and I think they recorded it.
- 11:43I don't know will have access to it.
- 11:47He's currently on the AP, a council,
- 11:50and psychiatry in the law.
- 11:52Been president of the Washington DC
- 11:55Psychiatric Society for the AP A.
- 11:58Several times is done a number of
- 12:01invited lectures and we're enormously
- 12:03happy to have him and I like to
- 12:06leave the rest of the time for him.
- 12:08If we can.
- 12:11So thank you Ray. The floor is yours.
- 12:16Thank you so much, Howard.
- 12:18I appreciate that very much and and
- 12:20Doctor Crystal and John Yochelson
- 12:22and and Doctor Buchanan and I could
- 12:25just go on and on Doctor Banowski.
- 12:27There's a lot of folks that I would
- 12:29like to say thanks to an an my
- 12:32appreciation for being invited and at
- 12:34long list that you just put up Howard.
- 12:37It's it's. It's pretty compelling
- 12:38when you see the folks listed there.
- 12:41I'm I'm very happy to be included
- 12:43in that list.
- 12:44I will say just a couple of things
- 12:47and then we'll go to the slides but.
- 12:50In fact, I'll put up the slide 1st
- 12:52and make sure that I've got it right,
- 12:54because if I don't then I know that
- 12:56there will be efforts to make sure that
- 12:59my being challenged is handled well.
- 13:01So let's see if we can make that happen
- 13:05first. And assuming that we can.
- 13:09Here we are, whoops.
- 13:12That looks great.
- 13:13Are you seeing that looks great?
- 13:16Outstanding thank you so much.
- 13:18I wanna make sure and I somehow
- 13:21I'm not being able to advance the.
- 13:25Slide that's not helpful.
- 13:27Let me make sure I'm not.
- 13:30Read, make sure your cursor
- 13:32is on the the
- 13:34slide presentation, yes.
- 13:40Rather than the zoom screen.
- 13:48Well, I actually thought that it was made,
- 13:50but I'm gonna stop for a minute.
- 13:51And let's do this again.
- 13:53Oh, there you are. It says OK.
- 14:11How's that, no? OK can you see what
- 14:15I see, yeah. Oh no, that's not good.
- 14:34You still don't have it.
- 14:35Did you hit the share screen?
- 14:37I did, but let's make sure I do
- 14:40it again and do it right. OK.
- 14:51Erekose good.
- 14:55And. When last comma.
- 15:01How's that that's
- 15:02good now. Can you advance it?
- 15:05I can't excellent
- 15:06thank you so
- 15:08much. I have several
- 15:09skills. This is not one of them,
- 15:11so thank you for bearing with me,
- 15:14but let me just say a little bit about
- 15:16today and you can see the evolution
- 15:19of correctional mental health care.
- 15:21Actually, it's our role in the evolution
- 15:24of correctional mental health care,
- 15:25but modified the slide
- 15:27because it's not just us.
- 15:28Meaning mental health
- 15:29professionals and psychiatrists,
- 15:30but a lot of other professions as well.
- 15:33They get involved in this,
- 15:35so I want to make sure we include everyone.
- 15:39But let's talk for a minute
- 15:42about why me and why now.
- 15:44The 1st 20 years I joined the Saint
- 15:47Elizabeth System as a resident.
- 15:49As Howard mentioned in 1979,
- 15:51so I missed the Samuel Yochelson years
- 15:54as Doctor Yochelson passed away in 1976.
- 15:57But just before we started presentation
- 15:59had a moment to talk about having talked
- 16:03with people who knew him when he was there,
- 16:06not only some of the staff,
- 16:08but some of the patients that were still with
- 16:11us and the division of forensic programs.
- 16:15So I say that to say that the 1st
- 16:1820 plus years of my career were
- 16:21spent an public mental health.
- 16:24Meaning mental hospitals both in
- 16:26Saint Elizabeth's and in Maryland,
- 16:28and particularly in forensic services.
- 16:31In both of those states that
- 16:33Commissioner in mental health in
- 16:35DC and Superintendent equipment.
- 16:37Perkins Hospital,
- 16:38which is our Maryland sister
- 16:40forensic Hospital in Maryland.
- 16:42So that was my beginnings.
- 16:45And as time went on,
- 16:47as as some of you may know,
- 16:50Saint Elizabeth also served as
- 16:52a receiving hospital for the DC
- 16:54jail and then Lord in prison,
- 16:56DC no longer has a prison so that
- 17:00anyone who is convicted of a felony.
- 17:04DC goes to the federal system, which,
- 17:06as those of you who are focused on aftercare,
- 17:10planning and reintegration into
- 17:12the community,
- 17:13makes it particularly difficult.
- 17:14But that is reality.
- 17:16So during the course of my
- 17:18being at Saint Elizabeth's,
- 17:20that became more and more involved with
- 17:23corrections and learn things that looking
- 17:25back at it seem pretty simplistic,
- 17:28but I never quite understood them until
- 17:31I was working behind the walls now.
- 17:34Give you one quick example.
- 17:36The example is how is it that
- 17:38someone shows up at the Community
- 17:40Mental Health Center or hospital
- 17:43emergency room having been charged,
- 17:45released from prison and having been
- 17:48involved in mental health care or
- 17:50released from the jail and just showed up?
- 17:53How does that happen?
- 17:55Why is there not a connection?
- 17:58Why is there not in an effort to try
- 18:01to make sure they receive aftercare?
- 18:04And I learned that with jails
- 18:06sometimes they don't know when
- 18:08someone is going to be released,
- 18:10and therefore that individual
- 18:11just doesn't come back from court
- 18:13and they don't know that that's
- 18:15going to happen with prisons.
- 18:16I thought that if someone
- 18:18had a 10 year sentence,
- 18:20that meant that they served 10 years
- 18:22and I had. And so how hard is that?
- 18:25You know what date they came in?
- 18:27You know what day is 10 years.
- 18:29So how can you not know when
- 18:32they're leaving except there?
- 18:33Such things as good time, credits, and.
- 18:35Other things that happen behind the
- 18:38walls that those of us who have not been
- 18:41there don't know or don't understand.
- 18:43So I am giving this presentation
- 18:45largely to take it look what is
- 18:48happened within corrections that has
- 18:49to do with mental health care and
- 18:52this also extends to medical care.
- 18:54But obviously my focus is going
- 18:57to be more on mental health.
- 18:59So historically.
- 19:03How were the mentally ill housed?
- 19:07Before the mid 19th century,
- 19:09and there's some interesting
- 19:11documents and and history to read
- 19:14through that has to do with when a.
- 19:16I think one of the quotes has to do
- 19:19with a colonial soldier who became ill
- 19:22and it was the responsibility of the
- 19:25family to provide housing to erect a
- 19:29structure on the family property in
- 19:31order to house the mentally ill person.
- 19:34So it was largely up to the family.
- 19:38And whoever may have been in that community,
- 19:42if you will,
- 19:43using a term loosely to try to
- 19:46provide something for someone who
- 19:49was not acting appropriately,
- 19:51not behaving appropriately before
- 19:53all of the diagnostic categories
- 19:56that we think about.
- 19:58So if home not available, what was?
- 20:03The arms, houses and prisons.
- 20:06This is a photograph of Eastern
- 20:10State Penitentiary in Philadelphia,
- 20:12and strikingly,
- 20:14this penitentiary was constructed
- 20:17and opened in 1829.
- 20:20And it functioned for a very long time,
- 20:23but if you notice in the photo
- 20:25right in front of the penitentiary
- 20:28is a sign that says open for tours.
- 20:32Is for tourist because it is alleged
- 20:34that the penitentiary is haunted
- 20:36and therefore there is interest in
- 20:39touring it from that perspective.
- 20:41But those of us who have been in
- 20:44institutions and institutional
- 20:46practice tend to look at it in
- 20:49a different way like this.
- 20:51Those who are typical units
- 20:53or wards within that war.
- 20:56It's been units within the prison
- 20:58and the housing of the mentally
- 21:01ill or those who might have been
- 21:05disruptive was essentially no
- 21:07different than it was for else.
- 21:10And it was,
- 21:11excuse me,
- 21:12the determination of who was housed where,
- 21:16and such correctional terms as
- 21:18the whole meaning segregation
- 21:20or somewhere out of sight,
- 21:23out of mind where disruptive behavior
- 21:26could be managed and not as impacting
- 21:29on the operations of the institution
- 21:32was indeed part of the process.
- 21:35And in that process many times people were
- 21:38placed in various forms of segregation,
- 21:42etc.
- 21:42Based on what one their
- 21:45behaviors and attitudes.
- 21:46But I raise that question
- 21:49with the of at the end.
- 21:52Behaviors and attitudes of
- 21:53who of whom was it the inmate?
- 21:57Or was it the staff?
- 22:00Who decided what behaviors were
- 22:02inappropriate and needed to be
- 22:05managed in a way that was different
- 22:08than every other inmate within
- 22:11the facility and the attitudes,
- 22:13the stigma mental illness has never
- 22:17gone away continues with us not,
- 22:19but consider this that if someone
- 22:23is locked up and
- 22:25I hear this from inmates
- 22:28frequently when I am.
- 22:30I'm involved in my current activities now.
- 22:32I'll say a little bit about
- 22:34that in just a moment, but the.
- 22:37Report or information coming back is
- 22:40that they treat us badly differently
- 22:43because they don't understand us.
- 22:46They don't understand what we're
- 22:48doing or how we're thinking,
- 22:51or how we're acting,
- 22:53or why we don't do the things
- 22:56that they think we should do.
- 22:59And throughout history of reviewing
- 23:02some of the interactions between
- 23:04staff and inmates that I'm
- 23:07talking about corrections now.
- 23:09You'll see quotes of things like they
- 23:12expect us to behave like adults,
- 23:14but they treat us like children.
- 23:17They don't allow us to be adults.
- 23:19They don't expect that we're humans,
- 23:22and that's when someone is
- 23:24lucid enough to talk about it.
- 23:26But let's consider someone who may
- 23:28not be very lucid who indeed may
- 23:31be responding to hallucinations
- 23:33or too delusional beliefs and
- 23:35therefore is not In Sync.
- 23:37With what is going on scuse me within
- 23:40the environment and the environment
- 23:42is a correctional environment.
- 23:44Uh,
- 23:45I I started to say a bit about what I do
- 23:48now and that has been impacted by covid.
- 23:51Just as almost every part
- 23:53of our lives has been.
- 23:55And for the virtual process as
- 23:58we experience it right now,
- 24:00consider what it's like for someone
- 24:03like me who is a court appointed
- 24:07monitor to attempt to do a virtual
- 24:10on site visit to a jail or prison.
- 24:14It almost sounds oxymoronic on its face,
- 24:17because part of the evaluation assessment
- 24:20process has to do with talking to
- 24:24not only the system meaning the policy's,
- 24:27the procedures,
- 24:28the actual documentation of
- 24:30what is supposed to happen,
- 24:33or what is proposed to happen,
- 24:36but also to the individuals
- 24:38who carry that out.
- 24:41That means talking to officers,
- 24:43to deputies to people who are involved with
- 24:46clinical care and how that's being provided.
- 24:49How does that work?
- 24:51That also means talking
- 24:53to detainees or inmates,
- 24:55whether their own health caseload or not,
- 24:58and particularly if they are in
- 25:01segregation or isolation because of
- 25:03the impact that that has on mental health.
- 25:06So doing it virtually makes that
- 25:09component very difficult to capture.
- 25:11And it's also what I think most of us
- 25:15who do clinical practice to check.
- 25:19Who had any institutional environment can
- 25:22can sense and I hate to say it that way,
- 25:25but it's a feeling.
- 25:27It's when you're walking on a unit.
- 25:29You can sometimes feel the
- 25:31temperature of the level,
- 25:33the interaction, what's going on there,
- 25:35and I'll give you 2 extremes.
- 25:37You're welcome to segregation
- 25:39unit and it is loud.
- 25:41People are screaming their banging there.
- 25:43There's all kinds of what
- 25:45would best be to Scott.
- 25:47There's described as
- 25:48noise and sometimes chaos.
- 25:50And sometimes that's expected,
- 25:52depending on how kind,
- 25:53how the operations are running.
- 25:55I'll give you the other extreme.
- 25:58When I walk on a juvenile unit.
- 26:01If that's quiet, I get really concerned.
- 26:05Because juveniles aren't quiet,
- 26:07they aren't just sitting in the
- 26:09cell doing nothing or not making noise.
- 26:11If they don't come up to the cell door or
- 26:14to the window and start asking who's this,
- 26:17who's in the suit?
- 26:18Who's who's out here? Then?
- 26:20I expect that that's something that's going.
- 26:23No, regularly they are interacting,
- 26:26but if it's absolutely quiet
- 26:28and you hear crickets chirping,
- 26:30that raises concerns,
- 26:32so that's kind of an extra sense if you will,
- 26:36of trying to take a read of what's
- 26:39going on in that environment.
- 26:42But what happened in the early years
- 26:45of mental health or mental mentally
- 26:48ill people being placed in jails
- 26:51and prisons more times than not?
- 26:54If their behaviors or attitudes did
- 26:56not match with what was necessary
- 26:59to maintain control,
- 27:00such things as the rule of silence,
- 27:03not talking, standing up for count,
- 27:06if you hallucinate ING,
- 27:08don't stand up for count,
- 27:10you get a write up, you get a disciplinary.
- 27:14Those kinds of things that don't take
- 27:17into account mental health factors.
- 27:19So what happens when there is
- 27:22not an understanding?
- 27:24Or appreciation of the impact of mental
- 27:28illness on behaviors and attitudes.
- 27:31Usually the default position is isolation.
- 27:35Segregation restraints,
- 27:36use
- 27:37of force and punishment.
- 27:40And that has been historically
- 27:42the default position for quote,
- 27:45bad or mad behavior behind
- 27:47the walls. Now, saying
- 27:49a little bit about how that this
- 27:53or doesn't fit into correctional
- 27:55goals and practices because we
- 27:58have to keep in mind, we come from
- 28:02a different. It's a different place
- 28:05in terms of clinical practice,
- 28:08particularly, and I'm
- 28:10not really other folks,
- 28:12but particularly docs,
- 28:14physicians, psychologists,
- 28:15social workers, psychiatric nurses.
- 28:17We are trained to look at the individual.
- 28:21How is the individual doing?
- 28:25How do we provide individualized treatments?
- 28:28How do we structure what we're doing
- 28:31to reflect our information and
- 28:33knowledge of the individual? Then you
- 28:37switch that over to a
- 28:39correctional environment and it's
- 28:40not about the individual.
- 28:41One of the things that is striking for
- 28:44many of us, when you first walk
- 28:46into corrections is that people
- 28:48don't have names. Inmates sometimes
- 28:51may have a last name.
- 28:54Smith, Jones, whoever.
- 28:57But many times it's numbers.
- 29:00The identity issue of who you are
- 29:04starts to get lossed in the process
- 29:08of maintaining order control.
- 29:11An in some instances safety,
- 29:14but if those things are
- 29:16not adequately achieved, these what's on the
- 29:20slide right now. Isolation
- 29:22slash segregation restraints
- 29:24use of force and punishment tend
- 29:27to be the default positions,
- 29:29and therefore people who are
- 29:32engaging in mad or bad behavior.
- 29:35And I use those terms purposely rather
- 29:38than to get into diagnostic categories.
- 29:43Are more likely than
- 29:44not to have these kinds of interventions.
- 29:48So what happened? Why did it
- 29:51change what, what? What made a
- 29:54difference within corrections
- 29:56and when I started going into
- 29:59correctional facilities regularly?
- 30:01At first it was very clear that both
- 30:05administrative folks as well as line staff,
- 30:08officers, deputies you notice,
- 30:10I say officers and deputies, not guards.
- 30:14I say that because just as we pride
- 30:19ourselves in our achievements,
- 30:21correctional professionals also see
- 30:23how we refer to them as important.
- 30:27So when we say, well,
- 30:29the guarded isn't a good idea,
- 30:32that if you're involved in
- 30:33that particular system, you
- 30:35can pretty much count on not having
- 30:38a great deal of respect because
- 30:40you're not showing a great deal
- 30:42of respect to counterparts who,
- 30:44quite frankly have more contact
- 30:46with the individual than we do.
- 30:49So that rather than setting
- 30:51up an unnecessary barrier.
- 30:53It is important to try to set
- 30:56up a collaborative relationship
- 30:57is difficult as that may be,
- 31:00particularly when you're in
- 31:01a system where there is not
- 31:04adequate resource in various
- 31:05areas and therefore things are not
- 31:08happening in the way that you
- 31:10would think or want them to happen.
- 31:13So what happened to change
- 31:16that perspective of lock him up,
- 31:18lock him down, get him
- 31:20out of our sight so that we
- 31:23don't have to deal with them several
- 31:27things first. Go back to before
- 31:30this time period a little bit, but
- 31:33it still be Gamble 1976 landmark
- 31:36case not involving someone
- 31:38with mental illness but is
- 31:40frequently cited as the case that.
- 31:43Brought out the issues of
- 31:46constitutional requirements,
- 31:478th and 14th Amendments.
- 31:50And the term deliberative
- 31:52indifferent subsequently.
- 31:53But I also mentioned here Bow
- 31:56Ring versus Godwin 1977,
- 31:58because that is a mental health case,
- 32:02a mental health counterpart if you will,
- 32:05to a stab Estelle V Gamble that requires.
- 32:10That individuals who are in correctional
- 32:13institutions and not just there and
- 32:15will expand on that in a moment.
- 32:19Are required to have adequate health care.
- 32:24And when I talk with folks
- 32:26outside of Corrections, an ask,
- 32:28particularly when it's mental health
- 32:30providers or sometimes in in school systems
- 32:32or colleges who's entitled to health care,
- 32:34who's entitled to see a Doctor Who's
- 32:36entitled to get medications if you need it.
- 32:39Who is that?
- 32:40And I get all kinds of answers like,
- 32:42well, kids. Certainly kids.
- 32:44Well, you know,
- 32:45old people certainly owe people when they
- 32:48look at me when they say that nice smile.
- 32:51Or, you know,
- 32:52somebody who's who's got a mental illness or.
- 32:54Or maybe you know there there are
- 32:57and I'll use the old term because
- 32:59that's how it usually comes to me.
- 33:02Well, they're they're mentally
- 33:03******** so they they don't know much.
- 33:05You know,
- 33:06they can't rather intellectually disabled,
- 33:08but rarely do I hear prisoners.
- 33:13And when I say no, it's not any of
- 33:16the categories you just mentioned.
- 33:17It's prisoners as people who are
- 33:19locked up and I get. Why is that?
- 33:22Wait a minute, hold it.
- 33:24Those are criminals are bad people.
- 33:25They how do they deserve something that I
- 33:28can't get that I can't get from my kids etc.
- 33:31And the basics of this have to do
- 33:34and that's why the slide is up with.
- 33:37The prisoner has no option.
- 33:40When the state has declared that this
- 33:44person cannot leave that they are
- 33:47involuntarily retained in this environment,
- 33:50they cannot leave.
- 33:52Then it is on the state to
- 33:55provide health care,
- 33:57and that includes mental health care.
- 33:59So that is how that breaks down an it is
- 34:03important to be able to articulate that,
- 34:06particularly to some of our counterparts
- 34:09who just don't understand why they have
- 34:12to do this and why they have to do this
- 34:16was not a part of the job description.
- 34:18I've had so many officers,
- 34:20and sometimes administrators say to me Doc,
- 34:23I didn't get into this to be.
- 34:26A social worker.
- 34:27I'm not here to hold hands.
- 34:29That's not what I do.
- 34:30That's not what I trained for.
- 34:33And they reinforce that
- 34:35correctional's environments,
- 34:36meaning jails and prisons were typically
- 34:39not constructed for the kinds of
- 34:42activities that those of us in mental health.
- 34:46Want to try to implement?
- 34:49They are not constructed
- 34:51for sound confidentiality.
- 34:53That is where the officers pardon me,
- 34:57can see you and the inmate
- 35:01or group of inmates.
- 35:04But they can't hear you,
- 35:06so it's sound confidential.
- 35:09But it also allows that there is visual
- 35:13site monitoring so that everything
- 35:16can remain under control and safe so
- 35:20they weren't constructed for that.
- 35:22And the idea of retrofitting
- 35:25and sometimes in installing
- 35:28glass etc to be able to see into
- 35:32particular rooms all that becomes.
- 35:35Apart of attempting to accommodate
- 35:38those kinds of interventions that
- 35:41we feel are so important but within
- 35:45beyond the constitutional requirements,
- 35:47of course are legal actions
- 35:50and illegal actions.
- 35:52Individual and class action lawsuits.
- 35:57And the number one
- 35:59legal action that has
- 36:01historically been filed against
- 36:03psychiatrists and mental health.
- 36:06Are suicide, or or preventable suicides,
- 36:09but suicides in any in any case
- 36:12that is shifted in corrections to
- 36:15be more focused on isolation and
- 36:18segregation because of the impacts
- 36:20of isolation and segregation.
- 36:22And I am, I guess,
- 36:25senior now I remember the days at Saint
- 36:29Elizabeth and in other hospitals that
- 36:32I had been to where you could write
- 36:35a 24 hours occlusion.
- 36:38Restraining order 24 hours.
- 36:40Today, that would be unheard of.
- 36:43Today without there being monitoring
- 36:45and specific requirements of someone,
- 36:47for example, was in restraints to have
- 36:50motion exercises to have nursing check
- 36:53on them every two hours at minimum
- 36:56to have a hand free to eat those
- 36:59kinds of things were not a
- 37:01part of parcel of how it used
- 37:04to be, so it's important to have
- 37:07some sense of where it was.
- 37:10And where it is to have an idea
- 37:13of where you going, the PLRA,
- 37:16the prison Litigation Reform Act.
- 37:19Is an act that essentially
- 37:23requires that prisoners try to.
- 37:27Achieve their resolution of their
- 37:31complaints or concerns through the.
- 37:34Process that is available within the system,
- 37:37so that usually means a grievance process.
- 37:41It means appealing various things
- 37:43that may be inappropriate within the
- 37:46system and in part it was also to cut
- 37:50down on what were considered quote,
- 37:53frivolous lawsuits, unquote.
- 37:54I'll give you an example,
- 37:56one that I've used when inmate filed
- 37:59a suit because they said that they
- 38:03only could eat chicken breasts.
- 38:05But could not eat chicken legs
- 38:07and therefore the system was
- 38:09discriminating against them.
- 38:10So there are some that are just out
- 38:13of bounds and there are others that
- 38:15are right on point and right on target
- 38:18and then become class action lawsuits
- 38:21which may result in monitoring,
- 38:23which we'll talk about in a little bit.
- 38:27The other.
- 38:29Listing on the slide is prior.
- 38:32The Prison **** Elimination Act and
- 38:34that is largely to protect prisoners
- 38:37from other prisoners and from anyone
- 38:40else within the institutional setting.
- 38:43And that doesn't mean staff.
- 38:46And that can be correctional staff.
- 38:49They can be clinical staff or visitors,
- 38:51volunteers, whoever is there to
- 38:53protect them from being assaulted.
- 38:55So there are legal actions that
- 38:58certainly are there but but why?
- 39:00Why so much emphasis on
- 39:02important corrections?
- 39:03Why jails and prisons?
- 39:05Uh,
- 39:06in in one of our earlier talks this
- 39:09week in talking about single is
- 39:11this hospital and how at one point.
- 39:14There were over 7000 inpatients
- 39:17at Saint Elizabeth Hospital.
- 39:20This is a little before my time,
- 39:22but while I was there was still
- 39:25him between 3 and 4000.
- 39:27And today,
- 39:28Saint Louis Miss is a 291 bed hospital.
- 39:32So it has decreased in size greatly,
- 39:36and in part because of the emphasis
- 39:40on community based care and attempting
- 39:44to reduce the size of hospitals
- 39:47and particularly the inappropriate.
- 39:51Retention of individuals in hospitals
- 39:54that could function with the right supports.
- 39:58In a community.
- 40:00During my early early years in Chinese,
- 40:03when I was in fact before I was
- 40:05there and moonlighting as an intern
- 40:08as a medical officer,
- 40:10I wasn't trained as a psychiatrist yet,
- 40:13but I was assigned to sleep
- 40:15overnight and on call essentially.
- 40:17But in the building for what was
- 40:20the asylum division and the Asylum
- 40:22division that was operated by Fuller,
- 40:25Torrey had within it.
- 40:28Probably about 120 or so patients
- 40:30and it no one was under the age of
- 40:3360 and I was able to read patient
- 40:36records during the time that I didn't
- 40:38see patients and I would stay overnight.
- 40:41So I had a fair amount of time to do that.
- 40:45And I would read records that had such
- 40:48things as the annual progress note.
- 40:51Now for those of us who are aware
- 40:55of documentation
- 40:56requirements to have quote the annual
- 40:58progress note is quite striking,
- 41:01but the information was very valuable
- 41:04to me because it allowed me to see in
- 41:08actual people what I had read about
- 41:11or continue to read about and would
- 41:15read about in the future in textbooks
- 41:18about various forms of treatment,
- 41:20insulin shock, hydro therapy,
- 41:22various medications, barbiturates, etc.
- 41:24Used before thorazine.
- 41:26Those are things that I learned from those
- 41:29records in addition to the literature,
- 41:31but why the shift well with the reduction?
- 41:35In hospital population,
- 41:37state hospital populations,
- 41:38particularly, there was the expectation
- 41:41that the communities would step up.
- 41:44They would provide the resources
- 41:46they would be able to manage.
- 41:49Individuals coming from these
- 41:51hospitals an it wasn't only NIMBY,
- 41:54not in my backyard that got
- 41:57in the way of that,
- 41:59but was also funding,
- 42:01essentially funding for the other supports,
- 42:04not just.
- 42:05Coming to the mental health
- 42:08clinic once or twice a week,
- 42:11or once or twice a month,
- 42:15but also housing and vocational
- 42:17activities and other kinds of activities
- 42:20to occupy the individuals time.
- 42:23So with the decrease of the state
- 42:27hospitals and the lack of resources
- 42:31and acceptance within communities.
- 42:33Many people consider the
- 42:35institutionalization to be more
- 42:37of a trans institutionalization
- 42:40from hospitals to homelessness,
- 42:43and jails and prisons,
- 42:46so looking at jails and prisons.
- 42:50A bit of statistical information
- 42:51and I want to I may move through
- 42:54these a little bit quickly because
- 42:56I wanna make sure we had time
- 42:58for questions and discussion,
- 43:00so I don't want to go too fast.
- 43:03But I also want to make sure
- 43:05that we're able to do that.
- 43:07This data is a little bit dated,
- 43:09but the trends are continuing and consistent.
- 43:12The population of Prisons as of 2014 and now,
- 43:16this outdated data from
- 43:18the Department of Justice,
- 43:20Bureau of Justice Statistics
- 43:22that will update this.
- 43:23But at that point,
- 43:251.5 million people in prisons
- 43:27and 800,000 in jails.
- 43:29And I put the big but because when
- 43:32DOJ and and the rest of us research
- 43:36community look at jails and prisons,
- 43:39we tend to look at them based on
- 43:42the average daily population.
- 43:45How many people are living in
- 43:48the jail or the prison today?
- 43:51And that's what that 800 means for the jails.
- 43:55But 11.9 million admissions.
- 43:57That's how many folks come through the jails.
- 44:00Some who are bonded out within 24 hours,
- 44:04some who are released at hearing,
- 44:07some where the families pick
- 44:09them up and take them home.
- 44:12But a lot that can't make Bill that
- 44:15can't that don't have supported families.
- 44:18And the mentally ill are overrepresented.
- 44:22And the number of people who can't.
- 44:24Make the necessary agreement with
- 44:27the court to return and to be able
- 44:32to leave so that 11.9 is striking
- 44:36and the reason I place it.
- 44:39Yes,
- 44:39because.
- 44:40It emphasizes the need for
- 44:43jails to be front in loaded.
- 44:47Jails really require clinical staff at
- 44:49the front door and in the first few days,
- 44:53two weeks a great deal more
- 44:55than prisons to prisons.
- 44:57Most of the time are receiving individuals
- 45:00who have been convicted and who have
- 45:03already been in a jail most of the time,
- 45:06sometimes not, but most of the time,
- 45:09and therefore there is some information.
- 45:11There's some record.
- 45:12There may be some history in terms of
- 45:16mental health and medications and.
- 45:18Other interventions or not, and therefore
- 45:21that is an important distinction.
- 45:24The distinction by race,
- 45:26the 47% Caucasian that is
- 45:29true or wise at that point.
- 45:31Certainly that the number, the numbers,
- 45:34the real numbers are that there are
- 45:37more white people locked up than
- 45:40African American or Hispanic people.
- 45:42But when you look at the percentages
- 45:46compared to the population.
- 45:48Meaning that if Blacks comprise
- 45:5012% of the population,
- 45:52but 34% of the prison population,
- 45:55or if there is indeed a much greater
- 45:58chance that a black person or
- 46:01Hispanic person will be arrested,
- 46:03than a white person,
- 46:05then that starts to tilt those
- 46:08numbers in the direction to reflect
- 46:10reality rather than the raw numbers.
- 46:13It's like saying the jails only
- 46:16serve 800 people a year.
- 46:18That is not true.
- 46:20They serve over 11 to 12 million
- 46:24people a year and you've got to
- 46:28understand how those numbers work.
- 46:31Males dominate 86% with females 14%,
- 46:35but continuing increases since 1999,
- 46:38and part of that relates to
- 46:41mental health because prisons,
- 46:43particularly in jails as well,
- 46:46are not set up.
- 46:48In such a way that there is
- 46:51necessarily equality of treatment
- 46:54availability an resources.
- 46:56What do I mean by that?
- 46:59Let's say you have two women's
- 47:02units in an institution.
- 47:04They each hold 50 beds.
- 47:07You have only 60 women in the institution.
- 47:12So 50 or one unit,
- 47:13perhaps an 10 or any other?
- 47:16Or even if you split them up 30 and
- 47:1930 it means it looks like you have.
- 47:2340 beds that are vacant.
- 47:26And the folks who cut the dollars.
- 47:28That means the prison or the
- 47:31jail has available beds.
- 47:32The reality is that those beds can
- 47:35only be used for women or women.
- 47:37So there may be overcrowding
- 47:40on the men's units.
- 47:42But under utilization on the women's
- 47:44and for those institutions that hold
- 47:46juveniles that cannot be housed with adults,
- 47:49the same thing applies.
- 47:51Small numbers of juveniles.
- 47:53That make it seem that there
- 47:55may be some empty beds,
- 47:57when in fact the empty beds cannot be
- 48:00occupied by anyone other than juveniles.
- 48:03That also translates to treatment.
- 48:05If you have 500 military than five juveniles,
- 48:08it would seem the five juveniles
- 48:10would be much easier,
- 48:12but not necessarily depending on
- 48:14how the resources are allocated.
- 48:16So all of those things factor in that
- 48:19at my point is that the basic number.
- 48:23Rarely tells the whole story.
- 48:27Only before estimates range between
- 48:2915% to 60 plus percent, and that.
- 48:36Filed in court monitoring for.
- 48:40I even hate to say it.
- 48:4225 years, let's be conservative,
- 48:44and I was a court monitor in California
- 48:47for 18 years and it still continues.
- 48:50I left that monitor ship that was the
- 48:52court suicide expert and after writing
- 48:55an annual suicide report every year.
- 48:57Frankly I needed a break because there are
- 49:01things that just needed to be improved.
- 49:03But the estimates of how the
- 49:06percentages of people that are mentally
- 49:08ill within corrections frequently
- 49:10years ago we would hear well.
- 49:12Two percent 5%.
- 49:13And it would be a question how
- 49:16how do you derive those numbers?
- 49:19And most of the time it was an
- 49:22inadequate methodology to determine
- 49:23who actually is mentally ill.
- 49:25And in some instances,
- 49:27those determinations were not even
- 49:29made by mentali mental health staff.
- 49:31They were sometimes made by medical staff,
- 49:34sometimes made by corrections.
- 49:36So it was a number that didn't
- 49:39make a lot of sense,
- 49:41and I hope those of you who are in training
- 49:44finishing your training early career,
- 49:47and even some of the senior folks
- 49:50are hearing between the lines.
- 49:52My plea to you that we need you
- 49:55within correctional practice as.
- 49:57We have always needed you in hospital
- 49:59practice as well as community,
- 50:01but in corrections.
- 50:03You are the boots on the ground.
- 50:08Frontline folks who can inform the actual
- 50:11administrators and your colleagues
- 50:14in corrections, meaning officers.
- 50:16Deputies of wet mental illnesses.
- 50:20'cause they don't get it.
- 50:21A lot of the time.
- 50:22That's up to us to try to help
- 50:24them understand that and also help
- 50:26them understand what it's not.
- 50:28That if someone is essentially
- 50:30threatening and misbehavior and
- 50:32doing all kinds of bad things,
- 50:34that does not necessarily mean
- 50:36their mental eel,
- 50:37but it certainly means that someone
- 50:39ought to give an opinion or try
- 50:42to assess if mental health or
- 50:44mental illness has something to
- 50:46do with the behavior.
- 50:47Those numbers of 15 or 60%.
- 50:50The 60%'s are particularly relevant to women.
- 50:53That women incarcerated women,
- 50:55which is much higher of those who
- 50:58have serious mental illness or who
- 51:01have mental illness that might not
- 51:04qualify under the definition of SMI.
- 51:07But then again,
- 51:08it very well might,
- 51:10and PTSD is a major concern within the
- 51:14female populations of many jails and prisons.
- 51:17But in terms of mental illness and impact.
- 51:21Jail deaths the number one cause of
- 51:24jail deaths in the country is by suicide.
- 51:32Jails are different than prisons
- 51:34in many ways, but one way.
- 51:38Is that individuals coming into the
- 51:41jail are coming from the street?
- 51:44They're coming from the community.
- 51:47Individuals coming into the prison may
- 51:49most of the time, as I've mentioned,
- 51:52be coming from an institution of some type,
- 51:54usually a jail.
- 51:56So when someone's coming from the street,
- 51:59that means the head originality and
- 52:02I genetically of that population
- 52:04is quite striking.
- 52:06You have people who.
- 52:07It's their first time of being incarcerated,
- 52:11and that sometimes it is irrelevant of age.
- 52:14Mean. Think of yourself if you've never been
- 52:19locked up and you suddenly wake up in a jail.
- 52:24It may or may not remember how you got there.
- 52:26It may or may not have been justifiable,
- 52:28but there you are.
- 52:30And you not been there before and maybe
- 52:33you haven't worked in a such a place.
- 52:35So it has an impact on how you feel and
- 52:38what is going on with you, and you could be.
- 52:4318 and you could be 58.
- 52:46And it could be the first time
- 52:49and it make a major impact on
- 52:52your desire to continue to live.
- 52:54So you have jail suicides as
- 52:57the number one cause of death.
- 52:59And that means that jails really
- 53:01have to be intensive in their
- 53:04screening and referral processes
- 53:05at the front door starts with the
- 53:08officer with the booking officer
- 53:10and in fact it should start before
- 53:13that with the arresting officer.
- 53:16Most booking screening forms have a
- 53:19question on them that has something to
- 53:22do with the arresting officer Reportes.
- 53:26That the individual arrestee was
- 53:28behaving bizarrely or did this,
- 53:31or did that or something.
- 53:34That gives the booking officer
- 53:37some idea that something was going
- 53:39on before this man or woman or
- 53:42juvenile came into the facility.
- 53:44But after that then medical has a
- 53:47role in screening and identifying what
- 53:49kinds of issues may be of concern,
- 53:52both from a medical Anna Dental Anna
- 53:55mental health perspective and that's
- 53:57where the triggers both of the booking
- 54:00officer and the medical screening begin
- 54:03the process of involving mental health.
- 54:05And that's where we come in.
- 54:08So we need you.
- 54:09You'll notice the number 240%
- 54:11within the first seven days.
- 54:13That's funny and loaded.
- 54:14That's adjustment,
- 54:15that's how am I gonna make it
- 54:18through this situation that I'm in.
- 54:20And if you already come in.
- 54:22Compromised in some way,
- 54:24you have a mental illness.
- 54:26Perhaps you were not on prescribed
- 54:28medication that you haven't been
- 54:30taking it for awhile and therefore the
- 54:33impact or effects of not taking it.
- 54:35Are impacting you now.
- 54:37Perhaps it was a substance or alcohol
- 54:40use issue an you are still intoxicated
- 54:44or withdrawing from a substance,
- 54:47so all of those things are happening
- 54:50in the first days of incarceration.
- 54:54Suicide deaths,
- 54:55almost half and general housing
- 54:58or population.
- 54:59That's where people sometimes
- 55:01get lossed because in population
- 55:04we don't have eyes on them as we
- 55:07would in a mental health unit.
- 55:09And some places don't have
- 55:11mental health units, so it's not
- 55:14something that has the attention.
- 55:16Or attentiveness that we would hope to
- 55:19have for someone we've identified with a
- 55:22serious mental health issue or problem.
- 55:25Suicide rate in jails increased.
- 55:29And it contains, as in,
- 55:31can't continue to increase,
- 55:32and as you see at the end to 50 per 100,000,
- 55:36that's where the jail population versus
- 55:39the jail admissions comes into play.
- 55:42Because those numbers are based
- 55:44on the average daily population.
- 55:47So if you have a jail of 100 people.
- 55:50And you have one suicide in that jail.
- 55:54That would give you a rate.
- 55:56Up 10 or I'm sorry.
- 55:59100 per 100,000.
- 56:02So you would be way up there with one
- 56:05suicide because you have such a small jail,
- 56:08so many of the folks who look at
- 56:11jails and who manage jails are
- 56:13concerned that little jails like that
- 56:16back are compared to mega jails,
- 56:18where there are thousands of inmates.
- 56:21I believe it was Doctor Tori and Company
- 56:24who published data that the largest
- 56:27mental health facility in the country
- 56:29at that time was the Ellee County Jail.
- 56:32Because if 10% of a 17,000
- 56:36population jail is mentally ill.
- 56:401700 that's bigger than most,
- 56:42if not all of the inpatient
- 56:45psychiatric facilities in the country.
- 56:48So that's why the suicide rates
- 56:51are measured in per 100,000.
- 56:54But with jails you gotta be careful that
- 56:58it represents the actual volume of an of.
- 57:03Of intakes and individuals coming into.
- 57:08You don't have to be as you can see
- 57:12from the slide in a jail for very long,
- 57:15and things can really happen badly.
- 57:18The suicide rate by race.
- 57:20The rates have been fairly consistent
- 57:22in that sense of who is got the
- 57:26highest rates in lower rates
- 57:27with the exception of Hispanics.
- 57:30Hispanic rates have been increasing.
- 57:32Over the years and the questions
- 57:35have largely to do with whether or
- 57:37not adequate treatment an assessment
- 57:40is happening for individuals who
- 57:42may not speak English or may not be
- 57:45able to communicate their issues
- 57:47as clearly as others.
- 57:50It's important to look at I mentioned
- 57:52earlier our training as mental health
- 57:55professionals an looking at the
- 57:57individual and then we come together
- 58:00as a treatment team treatment in
- 58:02mental health or different than
- 58:04the rest of medicine.
- 58:05Medicine generally works on a doctor patient.
- 58:08I'm sorry the doctor, Nurse,
- 58:10patient model.
- 58:12And the consultants an other kinds
- 58:15of information that comes through
- 58:17various testing etc are part
- 58:19of that model in mental health,
- 58:22which talking about a multidisciplinary
- 58:25team where everyone has expertise in
- 58:28their areas to bring to the table.
- 58:30That's how we generally are trained
- 58:33interest in the individual.
- 58:35But what about corrections?
- 58:37What are their mission statements?
- 58:39What are their visions?
- 58:41And these are representations
- 58:43of my own views, certainly,
- 58:46and reviews of various jails and
- 58:48prisons who typically had their mission
- 58:51and goal statements posted in their
- 58:54lobbies of administrative building,
- 58:56sometimes in their outline
- 58:58housing facilities as well,
- 59:00so that everyone has an idea
- 59:03of what they are about,
- 59:06what their purpose is,
- 59:08and I compiled some of this I.
- 59:12As I mentioned,
- 59:13I have been monitoring different places.
- 59:15Sometimes that means long flights
- 59:16and on one of those long flights
- 59:19I started counting just writing
- 59:20down 'cause I couldn't get to sleep
- 59:23when it was out it was one of those
- 59:26red eyes night.
- 59:27Just decide here,
- 59:28let me occupy my mind and what I
- 59:31did was started writing down the
- 59:32jails and prisons that I had
- 59:34personally been to at least once.
- 59:36And when I got to 100 I stopped.
- 59:39But in looking at what they state.
- 59:43As their purpose, number one custody,
- 59:45and confinement that when someone is
- 59:48committed to them, their primary purpose,
- 59:51in addition to some of the others,
- 59:54is to maintain custody and to
- 59:57maintain confinement that is, in part,
- 59:59why there's so many counts every
- 01:00:01day in any correctional system,
- 01:00:04there are counts,
- 01:00:06multiple counts.
- 01:00:06How many inmates everybody has
- 01:00:09to be accounted for.
- 01:00:10And if the count is off by 1.
- 01:00:15Many places shut down right now until we
- 01:00:18figure out where that one inmate it is,
- 01:00:21and I an if it is an escape,
- 01:00:25then the whole community becomes aware.
- 01:00:27An enterprise that something is
- 01:00:30going on the system.
- 01:00:33Turns on to find the missing
- 01:00:36inmate and I had the unfortunate.
- 01:00:39Situation to be in an institution
- 01:00:41where the count was off once
- 01:00:43and I happen to be there at the
- 01:00:46time. And the couple's off at lock down.
- 01:00:49And there was a meeting.
- 01:00:51Kind of a control meeting,
- 01:00:53and the representative from
- 01:00:54the unit was saying, well,
- 01:00:56yeah, we're off by one.
- 01:00:58And the deputy was there too.
- 01:01:00And the deputy said, yeah,
- 01:01:02yeah, well, you know, I.
- 01:01:04I made the account and without that one
- 01:01:08there was a dummy in one cell hanging.
- 01:01:12Wasn't a dummy.
- 01:01:14It's those kinds of things that sober
- 01:01:18you when you are doing this kind of
- 01:01:22work and how important it is for us
- 01:01:26to be a part of the training and
- 01:01:29part of the reality that people who
- 01:01:32are charged with monitoring and and
- 01:01:35having control custody confinement.
- 01:01:38What they understand about the role of
- 01:01:40mental health and why it's important
- 01:01:42that we're involved with them.
- 01:01:44As I mentioned when I first
- 01:01:46started doing this, lots of times,
- 01:01:48people didn't want to see me.
- 01:01:50I finally realized that it was
- 01:01:52important for me to try to
- 01:01:54understand what they want it.
- 01:01:56And I found myself asking instead of when
- 01:01:59going on a segregation unit for example,
- 01:02:02instead of going there and
- 01:02:03saying I'm doctor Patterson,
- 01:02:05I'm gonna make rounds.
- 01:02:06I wanna see what's going on.
- 01:02:08I would go there and ask the duty officer,
- 01:02:12whichever it might be who your problem
- 01:02:14guys who give you the most trouble.
- 01:02:17And if I started it with that,
- 01:02:19I get responses like oh the guy up
- 01:02:21there on the second tier and cell
- 01:02:23number 12 he floods every night.
- 01:02:25He's banging on the door.
- 01:02:26The other inmates hate him because
- 01:02:28he's keeping him awake at night.
- 01:02:29It's it.
- 01:02:30That is valuable information for
- 01:02:32me to try to figure out what's
- 01:02:36going on with that guy,
- 01:02:38but it also establishes with that officer
- 01:02:41that what they're experiencing is important.
- 01:02:44And maybe there's something I can
- 01:02:46do to help with that disruption.
- 01:02:49And it's not locking him down.
- 01:02:52It's not putting him in restraints.
- 01:02:54It's let's seeing what's going on.
- 01:02:57Second issue,
- 01:02:58public safety and the public safety
- 01:03:00has expanded the public safety,
- 01:03:02largely applied to keeping
- 01:03:03the community safe.
- 01:03:04This is what we're here for,
- 01:03:06and you find this,
- 01:03:08or at least I found this.
- 01:03:11Uh,
- 01:03:11particularly important and prominent
- 01:03:14in some of the rural prisons
- 01:03:17because that prison maybe the
- 01:03:20the great the highest employer.
- 01:03:24Our people in that particular community,
- 01:03:26so it's not just that I work at the prison.
- 01:03:30My uncle works at the prison.
- 01:03:32My sister works in the prison at the prison.
- 01:03:35My Gran father used to work at the prison.
- 01:03:39My son's gonna work at the prison.
- 01:03:41It's that kind of investment and involvement,
- 01:03:44but it also comes with what can
- 01:03:46be the old way of doing business.
- 01:03:49We do it this way,
- 01:03:51'cause we've always done it this way.
- 01:03:55And we don't understand mental illness,
- 01:03:57but we really don't want to because
- 01:04:00we already know what to do with them.
- 01:04:03It's that kind of stigma that
- 01:04:05sometimes gets in the
- 01:04:06way of trying to have a reasonable dialogue.
- 01:04:10The public safety issue more often the
- 01:04:12safety for staff and inmates safety
- 01:04:14for inmates was not a high priority,
- 01:04:17and some of the legal actions we've
- 01:04:20already taken a quick look at alright
- 01:04:22in the service of trying to assure.
- 01:04:25That both staff and inmates are safe.
- 01:04:29In many systems.
- 01:04:30When I again 1st of this punishment
- 01:04:33was a part of the mission statement.
- 01:04:36It was not hidden,
- 01:04:37it was simply a part.
- 01:04:39This is what we do in most places,
- 01:04:42has been replaced by rehabilitation.
- 01:04:43The questions, largely for folks like us,
- 01:04:46is what does that actually mean?
- 01:04:48What do you mean by rehabilitation?
- 01:04:51Does it mean that you have a a work
- 01:04:54program and that you have some training?
- 01:04:57Now one of the women's prisons I went
- 01:04:59to had a women's welding training.
- 01:05:02Ann is one of the most fascinating
- 01:05:05things to walk into a workshop with
- 01:05:07women wearing these helmets that
- 01:05:10welders helmet San with torches
- 01:05:11in their hands doing work and
- 01:05:14there were no problems with it.
- 01:05:16There were no issues with it and
- 01:05:19it was very well managed so.
- 01:05:21There are ways to make this happen.
- 01:05:24Is that rehabilitation or do
- 01:05:26you mean something else and
- 01:05:28it is particularly striking?
- 01:05:30Sometimes the exclusions,
- 01:05:31people who are on the mental
- 01:05:34health caseload can have jobs.
- 01:05:36Well,
- 01:05:36people who are the middle or
- 01:05:39medication where they can make
- 01:05:40they can't go to a camp a level one
- 01:05:43meaning minimum security facility
- 01:05:45because you know they they they
- 01:05:48might not get their medication.
- 01:05:50We don't have a nurse out there
- 01:05:53so they can go out to a camp.
- 01:05:55So their actual placement within
- 01:05:57the security system of the prison
- 01:06:00may be influenced by the lack of
- 01:06:02staff to actually do treatment,
- 01:06:04rehabilitation etc.
- 01:06:05Humane and rehabilitative environment.
- 01:06:07Changing the environment.
- 01:06:08The prison that I showed you
- 01:06:11a little while ago.
- 01:06:13Philadelphia that prison model can be
- 01:06:15seen across the country just as state
- 01:06:18hospital models are similar in various
- 01:06:21places depending on when they were built.
- 01:06:24Were looking at Saint Elizabeths and
- 01:06:27compared to Connecticut Valley Hospital,
- 01:06:29they have similar kinds of histories,
- 01:06:32but they also have different histories,
- 01:06:34but in terms of the construction.
- 01:06:37And the way that the buildings are
- 01:06:40made sometimes they don't promote
- 01:06:42or rehabilitative environment.
- 01:06:44Sometimes they don't promote
- 01:06:46a Humane environment.
- 01:06:47Many new facilities replace
- 01:06:49bars with solid doors,
- 01:06:51their pluses and minuses to that.
- 01:06:54And if the solid door has a vision panel,
- 01:06:58a window that's.
- 01:07:004 by 4 inches.
- 01:07:03That's not helpful to anyone
- 01:07:04because you can't see in it an.
- 01:07:07The occupant really can't see much out of
- 01:07:09it except what's right in front of them.
- 01:07:12So if you're talking about perhaps
- 01:07:14having someone on a suicide precaution
- 01:07:16and you can't see in the cell or
- 01:07:19it's being done by camera watch,
- 01:07:21which is one of my particular.
- 01:07:24Problematic areas because sometimes
- 01:07:26people aren't watching the monitors
- 01:07:28or the monitors are broken or
- 01:07:31there are 20 cameras that
- 01:07:32someone is supposed to watch for
- 01:07:34six or eight hours at a time.
- 01:07:39Difficult. For people to do so,
- 01:07:41I have really issues with that
- 01:07:42which we can come back to.
- 01:07:44And Lastly, a positive reentry of offenders.
- 01:07:48Even the concept.
- 01:07:49That the jail or prison has anything to do
- 01:07:54with what happens after someone leaves.
- 01:07:57Is something that has been
- 01:07:59a hard sell in many places.
- 01:08:01Dot that's not our problem.
- 01:08:03We are responsible for when they
- 01:08:06hear what happens after they leave.
- 01:08:08Has nothing to do with us.
- 01:08:11There are some facilities and systems
- 01:08:13who have undertaken certain things
- 01:08:15that seem to make a lot of sense,
- 01:08:17like not releasing inmates in the middle
- 01:08:19of night at 12:00 or 2:12 o'clock in
- 01:08:22the morning 1:00 o'clock in the morning.
- 01:08:24What clinic is open if someone supposed
- 01:08:27to show up at a clinic and say here
- 01:08:30I've got this piece of paper from the
- 01:08:32jail or from the prison and says,
- 01:08:34look I I've used that I need some
- 01:08:37help and here's the person to call
- 01:08:39if you want some more information
- 01:08:42or the number itself.
- 01:08:43What time are they open?
- 01:08:45They're not open at one or two
- 01:08:46in the morning.
- 01:08:47What is open that wanted to in the morning?
- 01:08:49Well, most places the liquor store is open.
- 01:08:52Most places the pharmaceutical
- 01:08:55representative on the corner is open.
- 01:08:59But the treatment environments are not,
- 01:09:01so some systems have said no,
- 01:09:04we're not going to do that,
- 01:09:06will just release people
- 01:09:08during normal business hours,
- 01:09:09so that maybe they can complete
- 01:09:12some normal business.
- 01:09:13There are others that will not take
- 01:09:15people off of suicide precautions
- 01:09:18or watch on a Friday.
- 01:09:20Because they are short staffed,
- 01:09:22not just them,
- 01:09:23but corrections on Saturday and Sunday,
- 01:09:25so they know their monitoring
- 01:09:27of individuals is going to be
- 01:09:30less during the weekend.
- 01:09:31So sometimes they think
- 01:09:33it through and decide.
- 01:09:34We really shouldn't do that.
- 01:09:36Let's wait until our team is actually
- 01:09:39here rather than having to be an on call.
- 01:09:42Someone calling the on call Doctor Who
- 01:09:45doesn't know the person and saying what
- 01:09:47should we do so the actual integration.
- 01:09:50With the community both within the system,
- 01:09:54the prison system itself or the jail
- 01:09:56and the External Committee has advanced.
- 01:10:00But all these things.
- 01:10:02Have,
- 01:10:03for my perspective,
- 01:10:04kind of landmark things that happen
- 01:10:07along the way that made a difference
- 01:10:10in people getting adequate care within
- 01:10:13correctional correctional environments
- 01:10:15and remember it started with.
- 01:10:18If you didn't have someone to support
- 01:10:21you at home or in your community,
- 01:10:25you're more likely than not to
- 01:10:28be incarcerated by virtue of your
- 01:10:32mental illness and behavior.
- 01:10:34From that illness and the attitudes of
- 01:10:37whomever are observing that behavior.
- 01:10:40So what happened with that?
- 01:10:42Well in the free world?
- 01:10:45There was a free World Hospital
- 01:10:47movement that is a virtue that
- 01:10:50Dorothea Dix and I that is there
- 01:10:53largely because Dorothea Dix had a
- 01:10:55great deal to do with the establishment
- 01:10:58of Saint Elizabeth Hospital.
- 01:11:01And in 1855 is when Saint
- 01:11:05Elizabeth's Hospital opened.
- 01:11:06And it's 7th patient which I
- 01:11:09mentioned earlier this week.
- 01:11:11Was Richard Lawrence,
- 01:11:13who who had attempted to assassinate
- 01:11:16President Andrew Jackson.
- 01:11:17So from its very beginning there
- 01:11:20was a relationship with the
- 01:11:23criminal justice system in that way.
- 01:11:26But Saint Elizabeth was largely a
- 01:11:29military was for military personnel
- 01:11:31during its most early days,
- 01:11:34and all the way through World War Two,
- 01:11:38and then shifted to actually
- 01:11:40being responsible for.
- 01:11:42Mental health care of individuals
- 01:11:44in the District of Columbia,
- 01:11:46as well as a number of other territories.
- 01:11:49And, as I mentioned earlier,
- 01:11:51or any of us,
- 01:11:53any citizen of the United States became
- 01:11:55mentally ill in a foreign country
- 01:11:58would be brought back to Saint Elizabeth's.
- 01:12:01Not necessarily to your home state,
- 01:12:04but to cenis.
- 01:12:05If you were in need of mental health care,
- 01:12:09so the Free World Hospital movement took off.
- 01:12:12In the sense of starting to move
- 01:12:15people from the incarcerated punitive
- 01:12:18environment to a hospital environment,
- 01:12:22that hospital environment was supported,
- 01:12:25and.
- 01:12:27Across the country and continue to grow
- 01:12:31until another important act and this one.
- 01:12:34The CMHS act.
- 01:12:36Community Community Mental Health Center
- 01:12:39community mental Health Systems Act of 19.
- 01:12:42Services act.
- 01:12:43I'm sorry in 1963 and that act
- 01:12:47essentially was enacted to try to
- 01:12:50reverse some of the atrocities.
- 01:12:52Some of the ugly or bad that
- 01:12:56it happened within.
- 01:12:58Hospital systems for a variety of reasons,
- 01:13:00but the intent was that there were people
- 01:13:04who didn't need to be in a state hospital.
- 01:13:07They had been there for too long.
- 01:13:10They have been there when
- 01:13:12they were functioning.
- 01:13:14When they could be in the community
- 01:13:16and this act was essentially to
- 01:13:19try to support the development of
- 01:13:22community services so that individuals
- 01:13:24could indeed get to the kinds
- 01:13:27of services they needed outside
- 01:13:29of a hospital and the overall.
- 01:13:34I guess description of that process
- 01:13:39was the institutionalization.
- 01:13:41And those of us who have been involved
- 01:13:44in this work in various capacities.
- 01:13:47Like myself, may tend to see
- 01:13:50that as the institutionalization
- 01:13:51versus trans institutionalization.
- 01:13:54Did we move people from one
- 01:13:58institution setting to another one?
- 01:14:01And the other two that come to
- 01:14:03mind are the streets, homelessness,
- 01:14:06the homeless population.
- 01:14:07And I will tell you there are
- 01:14:10people there were in my own
- 01:14:12history with Saint Elizabeth.
- 01:14:14The police would bring people to our,
- 01:14:17ER, psychiatric emergency room.
- 01:14:19And it wasn't until meeting with
- 01:14:21some of the police administrators
- 01:14:23that we understood that they did.
- 01:14:26They didn't want to bring him to the
- 01:14:29hospital because they had to wait.
- 01:14:32Four and five and six hours for
- 01:14:34the individual would be evaluated
- 01:14:36and whether the hospital was going
- 01:14:39to keep them so it was easier.
- 01:14:41For them, the police to take him to the jail.
- 01:14:45'cause they could drop him off
- 01:14:46at the jail and get back out on
- 01:14:49the street and fight crime.
- 01:14:50So why would they bring them to us?
- 01:14:53Well,
- 01:14:53we worked out an agreement that our
- 01:14:55own security would be responsible for
- 01:14:57the individual once they came to us
- 01:15:00and the police could get back out there.
- 01:15:02And the number of admissions that we got.
- 01:15:08Increased,
- 01:15:08I won't say exponentially,
- 01:15:10but certainly dramatically because
- 01:15:12we were getting people who indeed
- 01:15:15were sometimes intoxicated,
- 01:15:17sometimes were clearly clearly
- 01:15:19psychotic and in need of our help.
- 01:15:23And during the PCP epidemic that we
- 01:15:26had in Washington phencyclidine we
- 01:15:29were urine testing every admission
- 01:15:32that came to the hospital because we
- 01:15:36couldn't tell, was this PCP intoxication.
- 01:15:39Or delirium? Or was it schizophrenia?
- 01:15:42Wasn't bipolar disorder back then?
- 01:15:44Manic depressive disorder we couldn't
- 01:15:46tell because the behaviors were
- 01:15:49so similar it was only after a
- 01:15:51kind of dry out washout period of
- 01:15:54a few days that we could actually
- 01:15:56get a sense of who was.
- 01:15:59Intoxicated or withdrawing,
- 01:16:01and who was indeed had a primary,
- 01:16:04serious or persistent mental mental illness.
- 01:16:08So the homeless population
- 01:16:10continued to increase,
- 01:16:12but also the population in our jails.
- 01:16:15An our prisons.
- 01:16:18And for the jails.
- 01:16:21The meter fences, the kinds of things that
- 01:16:24we sometimes we call ticky, tack crimes.
- 01:16:26You go into 711 and try to steal.
- 01:16:29You know a box of Donuts.
- 01:16:32And get caught with that.
- 01:16:33Is that a jail offense?
- 01:16:35Well, yeah, it's breaking a law, it's theft.
- 01:16:38It's a misdemeanor.
- 01:16:40How many of those folks ended up in the jail?
- 01:16:44How many of them got a 711
- 01:16:46and ended up on the streets?
- 01:16:49So the trans institutionalization
- 01:16:50is a reality,
- 01:16:51but it can't simply replace some
- 01:16:54of the protections that individuals
- 01:16:56have about their their freedom.
- 01:16:58So the.
- 01:17:00Couple of cases just to keep in mind,
- 01:17:04but I took the Jones is a 1980
- 01:17:06case and it basically says that
- 01:17:09if you are incarcerated the state
- 01:17:12the system cannot simply send you
- 01:17:15to a mental hospital
- 01:17:16without due process without
- 01:17:18there being a hearing or process.
- 01:17:21Hopefully before but certainly if not before,
- 01:17:24within a reasonable time after
- 01:17:26a transfer to a hospital.
- 01:17:28So even then it extends prisoners rights too.
- 01:17:31Their own Freedom,
- 01:17:33Liberty to say I don't want to be in
- 01:17:36hospital I don't wanna go to the mental
- 01:17:38hospital I don't want to to have the
- 01:17:41guys here think I'm I'm mentally ill.
- 01:17:44'cause then they'll they'll treat
- 01:17:45me differently when I come back
- 01:17:48so the stigma is still there.
- 01:17:49Kansas V Hendricks gives some.
- 01:17:53Opportunity for corrections to
- 01:17:54Medicaid or treat someone when it's
- 01:17:57in the interest of the institution,
- 01:17:59so that gets into a fuzzy area.
- 01:18:02Visited the individual.
- 01:18:03Or is it the institution?
- 01:18:05And what does that mean and how is it?
- 01:18:08How is it in history?
- 01:18:10So these are again protections
- 01:18:12that are intended to make sure
- 01:18:15that someone is in the right place
- 01:18:17and that they have protections
- 01:18:19for being in the wrong place.
- 01:18:24Ray Ray after
- 01:18:25interrupt for a
- 01:18:26minute 'cause we're running out of time.
- 01:18:29People don't usually stay after 11:30 or so,
- 01:18:32so if they want you want any questions.
- 01:18:36We're going to only be able to take a couple.
- 01:18:39OK, that's fine.
- 01:18:40Let me stop here because the rest
- 01:18:42of this presentation has largely
- 01:18:44to do with monitoring and that an
- 01:18:46outbound ended with this point.
- 01:18:48However, just to make sure I mentioned,
- 01:18:50we need to all underground we need
- 01:18:52you in the institutions we need to
- 01:18:55actually providing that information.
- 01:18:56But we also need you in the role that I
- 01:18:59serve for several courts at this point,
- 01:19:02monitoring being able to look at the
- 01:19:04documents that the parties have agreed on.
- 01:19:07This is what should be happening
- 01:19:09within an institution.
- 01:19:10And here's the expert to come in and
- 01:19:12help the court determined that that
- 01:19:14indeed is happening or not happening.
- 01:19:16So I apologize for going so long,
- 01:19:18but I could spend the rest of
- 01:19:20the three days with you guys,
- 01:19:22so I'll stop there.
- 01:19:23Howard and we can open it.
- 01:19:30I just wanted to add to that one of
- 01:19:33the things that has helped us in
- 01:19:36the Department with the uncles and
- 01:19:38families they contributed to a prize
- 01:19:41that we give to some of our graduates
- 01:19:46who have shown themselves to be.
- 01:19:49Uh. Excellence in care and either
- 01:19:53click clinical and forensic work
- 01:19:56and this year we're awarding it
- 01:19:59to Doctor Vineeth Carvalho.
- 01:20:01Who worked in the prison system at
- 01:20:03the women's prison in Connecticut
- 01:20:05from 2006 until just a year or two
- 01:20:08ago when she moved to the state
- 01:20:10hospital and she made an enormous
- 01:20:13difference within that setting?
- 01:20:14She can't be here today.
- 01:20:16We usually give the award on Thursday night,
- 01:20:19but will do it a graduation.
- 01:20:21But I just wanted to take a minute
- 01:20:24to to let people know about that.
- 01:20:27Script.
- 01:20:42I guess we are. Anybody have any questions?
- 01:20:45Wake up, just unmute yourself.
- 01:20:56Doctor Patterson Smith and this is a
- 01:21:01informative and nicer great lecture.
- 01:21:03I really appreciate your time
- 01:21:06and talking with us today.
- 01:21:09I do gotta trained at Saint Elizabeth
- 01:21:12Hospital from 2002 to about
- 01:21:152004 and I just psychologist it,
- 01:21:18Howard Pavilion and really great.
- 01:21:21Great experience for me and one
- 01:21:24of the things that was concerning
- 01:21:27to me was when I saw that the age
- 01:21:31requirements for working in the
- 01:21:34federal prisons is 30 under 36.
- 01:21:38Do you know if there will be any
- 01:21:40change in terms of the age requirements
- 01:21:42for psychologists to be working?
- 01:21:44Rather people to be working
- 01:21:45in the prison system?
- 01:21:47The federal prison system?
- 01:21:49Thank you Carolyn.
- 01:21:50I I I don't know if there's any
- 01:21:53any proposed change for that,
- 01:21:55and frankly it it surprises me if
- 01:21:58there would be any kind of age limit
- 01:22:01like that on on clinicians to to be
- 01:22:04involved with programs that that.
- 01:22:07From my perspective makes no sense,
- 01:22:09but I don't know if there's any
- 01:22:11plan to make a change in that so.
- 01:22:15Amazing. Yeah, thank you.
- 01:22:18You're welcome, you're welcome.
- 01:22:25Damn, you had some comments.
- 01:22:27Yes I am. I have worked in
- 01:22:31prisons before, not usually.
- 01:22:32I've never worked but formerly
- 01:22:35hired by a prison, but I worked.
- 01:22:38Both as a forensic social worker going
- 01:22:41into prisons to do evaluations on
- 01:22:44people and assessments for the court.
- 01:22:47Or I worked with serious people
- 01:22:50who were who were identified
- 01:22:52as serious juvenile offenders.
- 01:22:55You know they try to help get them out of
- 01:22:57prison for either for largely for problem,
- 01:23:00****** behavior.
- 01:23:01Uhm, and trying to, you know,
- 01:23:04educate people around risk and how
- 01:23:07you know the you know the some
- 01:23:10of the causes of pedophilia and
- 01:23:13****** abuse are not best remedied
- 01:23:17by putting people in isolation.
- 01:23:19Or locking them up,
- 01:23:21and I mean it's true for most every
- 01:23:23kind of problem behavior, right?
- 01:23:27So you know.
- 01:23:27So a lot of it was training
- 01:23:30people to do some of the work,
- 01:23:32but one of the things that I've found,
- 01:23:34I've also done a lot of reentry work.
- 01:23:37And in Connecticut,
- 01:23:38and worked a lot in in all of the
- 01:23:41different prisons in the state.
- 01:23:42And one of the biggest issues
- 01:23:46that I see in terms of.
- 01:23:49Having mental health professionals
- 01:23:51be more involved and have really
- 01:23:54any kind of influence in terms of
- 01:23:56the treatment that people receive.
- 01:23:58Is I mean the lack of funding for that,
- 01:24:01it's just not seeing? Is that important?
- 01:24:04In less, you know, we're going to put him on,
- 01:24:07you know,
- 01:24:07Thorazine or something that's going to,
- 01:24:09you know, make them. You know, stuporous.
- 01:24:12And you know, keep them from being at all.
- 01:24:15In datable,
- 01:24:16so I mean there needs to be so much
- 01:24:18education and and real education at
- 01:24:21the legislative level to increase
- 01:24:23funding so that we can provide adequate care.
- 01:24:26But I think quite honestly that
- 01:24:28you know an I realized that I may
- 01:24:31be preaching to the choir here,
- 01:24:33but I feel like we need to do
- 01:24:36things prior to that.
- 01:24:38Like we need to really explore and embrace.
- 01:24:42The idea of an as I said this and
- 01:24:44some of my comments of putting
- 01:24:47mental health professionals making
- 01:24:49as part of policing etc.
- 01:24:51I mean, I don't think policing is the answer,
- 01:24:54but you know having some other kind of
- 01:24:58service like we have services for people.
- 01:25:01Under the name of it,
- 01:25:02but where you're active in the community,
- 01:25:04working with the homeless,
- 01:25:06trying to engage the homeless.
- 01:25:08And you know to try to help get them.
- 01:25:11The mental health care they need
- 01:25:13before they get arrested for loitering
- 01:25:15or having you know what I mean.
- 01:25:17Doing something,
- 01:25:17disrupting the peace and being incarcerated.
- 01:25:19And I mean it goes on and on.
- 01:25:22But there's just so much education
- 01:25:24and then there needs to be a real
- 01:25:26commitment to it in terms of funding.
- 01:25:28Otherwise, it's just not gonna happen.
- 01:25:31And I think it goes hand in
- 01:25:33hand with the whole,
- 01:25:35you know,
- 01:25:36restructuring of how we think about
- 01:25:39police and the policing and the.
- 01:25:41The laws that allow them to you know to why
- 01:25:44do they have to pull a gun in every instance?
- 01:25:47Why do they have to?
- 01:25:48I mean it, it's so much bigger
- 01:25:50and I I could like the law so,
- 01:25:52but anyway it's just.
- 01:25:55It's just a major problem and I
- 01:25:57think funding and education have to be,
- 01:25:59you know, education. First,
- 01:26:01'cause that's how will get the funding,
- 01:26:03but they're just really needs to be
- 01:26:05a push if we're gonna see systemic
- 01:26:07change and less you know less trans
- 01:26:10institutionalization of people
- 01:26:11from you know hospitals you know.
- 01:26:14And making making that,
- 01:26:15making the prisons,
- 01:26:16dumping grounds for people that
- 01:26:18we don't really want to know more
- 01:26:20about it next society so families
- 01:26:22know they're great points.
- 01:26:24And I couldn't agree with you more and.
- 01:26:27Let me tell you, for for a short time
- 01:26:29I was Commissioner of Mental Health in
- 01:26:32DC and I from my Firenze background
- 01:26:34just as as most of us here on this line
- 01:26:37and done reviewed records in preparation for
- 01:26:39going to court and trials and hearings etc.
- 01:26:41And what do I find those records?
- 01:26:43A lot of disruption,
- 01:26:44family disruption, school stuff.
- 01:26:45So I started going to the schools
- 01:26:48as Commissioners say look,
- 01:26:49let me let me find out what's
- 01:26:51going on with these kids, right?
- 01:26:53So I went to high schools,
- 01:26:54realized it was too late so I
- 01:26:57started going to middle schools.
- 01:26:58Realize that this is I was.
- 01:27:01Too late, so when you say education,
- 01:27:03I agree with you.
- 01:27:04Educating policy makers,
- 01:27:05people control powers.
- 01:27:06I know that's what you mean,
- 01:27:08but I also expand that to include
- 01:27:11getting interventions early on before
- 01:27:12they get to us before they get to
- 01:27:14forensic before they get to corrections.
- 01:27:17How about you look at that stuff?
- 01:27:19But what I've also learned over
- 01:27:21time is that simply because it might
- 01:27:23be the right thing to do or good
- 01:27:26idea or right idea doesn't make
- 01:27:28it happen and I will give you a.
- 01:27:31Real life example.
- 01:27:32Right now Covid right now if you look
- 01:27:35across the spectrum of how correction
- 01:27:38institutions have responded to covid,
- 01:27:40there are some systems that have said,
- 01:27:43OK,
- 01:27:43let's get our inmates and our staff vaccinate
- 01:27:46their others where legislators or ever since.
- 01:27:49We're not paying for that for those
- 01:27:52damn criminals you know there we,
- 01:27:54we gotta get every so the inside
- 01:27:57of a Correctional Facility where
- 01:27:59people cannot leave but for age.
- 01:28:02It's not so different than
- 01:28:04the inside of a nursing home.
- 01:28:07Right, so how do we fund one?
- 01:28:09But we don't fund the other,
- 01:28:11so I understand what you're
- 01:28:13saying and part of our role.
- 01:28:16Is not only to talk about the
- 01:28:18science and say what we know
- 01:28:20and what we think we know,
- 01:28:22but also to talk about impact.
- 01:28:23And when I talk to folks about fund systems,
- 01:28:26what I say to them is you know what
- 01:28:29most of the guys and women in your jail
- 01:28:31or in your prison are coming home.
- 01:28:34They coming back here so it happens
- 01:28:36to them while they're incarcerated
- 01:28:38has certainly an impact on how they
- 01:28:41see the world and how they're going
- 01:28:43to be when they come back to you.
- 01:28:45So how about?
- 01:28:46We try to manage what we can manage
- 01:28:48and connect to the outside world,
- 01:28:51and there's some systems at
- 01:28:53Philadelphia's a good example I
- 01:28:55think where they try very hard and I
- 01:28:58think successfully to be able to get
- 01:29:01entitlements reestablished before somebody.
- 01:29:02What made you cut off all
- 01:29:04the funding they get out?
- 01:29:05They got no money.
- 01:29:08Well, that's happening in Connecticut,
- 01:29:09but it doesn't happen consistently,
- 01:29:11and it's a major problem 'cause people
- 01:29:12end up returning to the neighborhoods
- 01:29:14they don't have a place to live.
- 01:29:16There are all kinds of
- 01:29:18bands and restrictions.
- 01:29:18They get dropped off at 4:00
- 01:29:20in the morning or Whaley Ave.
- 01:29:23You know where there's
- 01:29:24nothing healthy happening,
- 01:29:25you know and they get caught right back up,
- 01:29:28back up and you know so it's just a set up.
- 01:29:32No, OK, I
- 01:29:33think we'll have to formally
- 01:29:36stop at this point and.
- 01:29:38If they want to take anymore questions,
- 01:29:41that's OK, but I have to give
- 01:29:43people permission to leave.
- 01:29:45I think at this point, so thanks a lot.
- 01:29:51Thank you everyone that has to go
- 01:29:53and I will stay here for however long,
- 01:29:55but thank you all very much.
- 01:29:57I appreciate it and again,
- 01:29:59I apologize if we went too far in this
- 01:30:01guy and not enough time for discussion.
- 01:30:03But again, that's part of what it
- 01:30:05is effect impacting by virtual.
- 01:30:07If we were all in the same place
- 01:30:09we right now be in the front
- 01:30:11of an auditorium or somewhere
- 01:30:13talking together and.
- 01:30:14Share it so I I regret that too.
- 01:30:17But again, I want to extend my
- 01:30:20appreciation once again to yell to
- 01:30:22everyone who's been involved with
- 01:30:23this and making sure this happens.
- 01:30:26Trischen and Company and trying to make
- 01:30:28sure that I'm not overly challenged.
- 01:30:30And of course the Yochelson
- 01:30:32family or making this process.
- 01:30:34And this this seminar of reality.
- 01:30:36So my thanks to you for that.