Our son's been assaulted in jail — again. Ty was threatened for an entire week before he could inform us. I knew he was declining mentally, but didn't know about the abuse he was enduring. He got punched several times. One time his neck snapped back. Ty didn't know how to protect himself. Last night the abuse and threats escalated. Other prisoners, violent offenders, called him a snitch. Therefore, he's been moved back into the disabilities unit. This is what it takes for a jail intervention?
Tomorrow, I'll email another letter to Sheriff Poulin. I'll bring in Ty's psychiatric report which declares him criminally insane. I admire all of you who've been doing this year after year. Hope one day we'll have real choices. Choices where we can actually protect our mentally ill loved ones.
Our son was in a hospital. They released him in one week, still sick and in a state of psychosis. Shortly after, Ty was arrested and charged with his second trespassing. He was sleeping on our neighbor's sofa. The day before he was arrested, we'd asked county mental health to help us invoke Kevin's Law (assisted outpatient treatment). They denied us. We'd asked for a supervised group home several years earlier. County mental health denied us that as well. They never gave us a denial letter, which is illegal. We found out later, that Ty did qualify for a group home. By then, it was too late. Ty was already incarcerated.
A supervised group home costs about $1200.00 a month. Jail costs about $50,000.00 a year and more for a mentally ill person. Taxpayers aren't saving money. Politicians are taking contributions from prison corporations that spend billions of dollars lobbying them. Corporate corrections companies contract for food, medical services, forensic units, phones, commissaries, visitations, guards, equipment, construction, electronic monitoring, and everything else to run jails and prisons. It pays off big. Prison corporations took in 70 billion dollars last year.
A judge deemed Ty an incapacitated person. The criminal court didn't recognize this. They mentioned placing him in security. What does that mean? Isolation? Isolation can escalate mental Illness/brain disorders. We notified the sheriff, "Ty can't protect himself. Please, don't place him with violent offenders. He should be placed with non-violent offenders. He's autistic, has psychosis, is seriously mentally ill, and has several other neurological disorders. We're his guardians."
During our recent video visit with Ty, we noticed his black eye. We wanted to reach through that computer screen, hug him, and never let him go. Dads and Moms, if your kids and adult children are with you physically, hug them like there's no tomorrow. It's precious to have them near you. Even if you have rough days.
Ty's scared. Appreciate Prayers.
Ty at 14