I'M PREPARED FOR JOEY'S DEATH by Rebecca Reinig

I hope I can find some comfort in knowing I’m not alone.

My son, Joey, was just sent to Patton State Mental Hospital after spending seven months in San Diego County jail for trying to break into a car. (He’d been living in transient camps in San Diego County.) He makes $640 a month on SSI, not nearly enough to cover rent, basic needs, and food. He refuses to live at home because "I am an adult,” and he doesn’t want to be a burden.

At the jail, he was found incompetent to stand trial. I was reluctant about Patton but hopeful that maybe he would receive some long-term help. And maybe, just maybe, he would receive the care and education he needs to maneuver this world as a person with mental illness, and to be at peace with the wonderfully different person he is.

Come to find out, the only care and assistance Joey will receive, beyond medication, will be how to participate in court proceedings — not to yell out during court, not to speak unless spoken to — and how to understand the charges against him . That’s it. No life skills, no education on his condition or how to recognize triggers, nothing. My son sleeps all day and doesn’t have to participate in the court school, but that will make his stay longer.

My hopes were quickly deflated and we’ll be in the same boat as prior to this arrest and many others. Joey will go to court, be found guilty of another felony, released on time served (it’s already been close to a year for a felony that, at the discretion of the court, could have been reduced to a misdemeanor because his attempt to break into the car failed). He will be released, again, to the streets. There is literally no where else for him to go — except home with us which he refuses to do.

A vicious cycle. I’m prepared for Joey’s death, which is the worst and most helpless feeling. I don’t know what the answer is. I do know, for me, it’s not over until he’s at peace, healthy, and living the best life possible for him. He deserves at least that.

How Joey looks now and during his last stay in the hospital just prior to being arrested.

URGENT: AN OPEN LETTER TO JUDGE HICKS IN MICHIGAN by Anne Francisco

April 3, 2018

Honorable Judge Hicks
c/o Attorney Jason Kolkema
40 Concord
Muskegon Michigan 49442

RE: Tyler West – upcoming trial

Dear Judge Hicks,

I write on behalf of an ill brother in this world, Tyler West, requesting that you extend mercy in your judgment at his upcoming trial. You have all the facts. I do not, since I have never met Tyler West or his family. I do know that he has been diagnosed with autism and schizophrenia and has suffered greatly because of his neurological disorders. He has and continues to suffer terribly at the hands of a correctional system that cannot and does not provide adequate treatment for his illnesses. 

I’m fairly certain that every judge across our nation has been confronted with the horrific problem that the U.S. failed mental health care system has produced. The Tyler Wests of this world have been stuck between the revolving doors of treatment and incarceration, a situation that worsens the problem rather than providing healthy solutions. Tyler needs and deserves humane care in a setting that promotes health and healing, not punishment for symptoms of an illness.

I speak from personal experience. My son was incarcerated for symptoms of bipolar and schizoaffective disorders. He was never violent, never hurt anyone. Yet, he also got caught between the revolving doors of treatment and jail and prison. Four months after he entered prison (for a nonviolent crime while untreated in a state mental hospital, and because there were no other sources of help for him in the state of Missouri), he took his own life while correctional officers went about their business. He had lost all hope that anyone cared about him. His death has been devastating to us, and to all who know his story, even the judge and court system. We must change the way we treat those with neurological disorders in this country. We must quit looking the other way while others suffer.

Please do not sentence Tyler West to the same fate as my son — prison, helplessness, hopelessness. 

Very respectfully,
Anne Francisco

NOTE: If you would like to send a letter to Judge Hicks on Tyler's behalf, please send it, as above, c/o Attorney Jason Kolkema. Tyler's family goes to court with him today for his plea. In May, he'll be sentenced. The judge can sentence him from 20 months to 15 years.

Read more of Tyler's story on this blog:
Walk a Mile in Our Shoes by Kimberlee Cooper West - August 22, 2017
The Failure of Kevin's Law by Kimberlee Cooper West - Jan 10, 2018

Ty

THE FAILURE OF KEVIN'S LAW by Kimberlee West

Michigan has passed Kevin's Law. The first time it passed was in 2004. Then it was updated, by lowering requirements, in 2017. Kevin's Law,  basically, allows the court to order outpatient treatment. Court orders can include a mandatory long acting antipsychotic shot, usually once a month, for a seriously mentally ill person — especially for those who lack insight into their own illnesses (anosognosia).

Unfortunately if you walk into most county probate court offices, the staff won’t know about Kevin’s Law. They’ll tell you to call county mental health, hire a lawyer or just kick you out. This was my experience today at Muskegon County Probate Court. I asked “May I please have the forms to fill out for Kevin's Law.”

The clerks and a judge began to communicate lots of incorrect information. The judge was intimidating. His sheriff’s deputy, was standing next to him as he yelled, “Get an attorney.” 

I said, “I don't need an attorney.”

He said, “You have to go to Healthwest, County Mental Health.” 

I said, “Sorry, the law doesn’t say that. A parent, neighbor, friend, teacher, doctor, social worker, sister, brother, uncle, or anyone, can file Kevin's Law. My husband and I have guardianship and the record of an independent forensic psychiatric exam.”

The reality is, it’s the responsible thing for a parent and guardian to do. Apparently, they didn’t understand that. They shooed me away. The experience shook me up. Blame lack of education and training and Michigan's policy of underfunding important initiatives. What’s the point of passing a law that is improperly funded?

Our sweet 19-year-old bi-racial son, Tyler, is a graphic artist and a musical genius. He was born drug addicted and adopted through the state of Michigan as a medically fragile baby. He has autism, bipolar disorder with psychosis, ADHD, and has suffered six traumatic brain injuries.

The state knows Ty well. We were promised a medical subsidy whereby the state would help us with his medical and psychiatric care if it was an expense that our insurance or Medicaid didn’t cover. When he needed extra treatment, we were denied. When the time came that he needed a supervised group home, the state refused. Michigan Adoption Subsidy denied us all help. County Mental Health (CMH) failed to recognize our guardianship and failed to file for group home placement and residential treatment.

We found out mental illness with autism is considered a co-morbid disease. The state is required, by law, to help. We also found out all denials were required to be done in writing not orally. CMH did not comply with this requirement. 

We requested CMH to file Kevin's Law, through the Muskegon County probate court on Feb. 17th, 2017. CMH said, “We don’t know how to file Kevin's Law. We don’t know what it is.”

Our son was arrested and incarcerated while in psychosis, Feb. 18th, 2017. He was arrested for a home invasion as he was sleeping on our neighbor’s sofa. Our neighbor almost shot him but, in a split second, recognized him as the kid next door. This is the second time our son was almost shot. 

Tyler had an ER doctor diagnose him with acute psychosis. He’d tried to hang himself. He had intrusive thoughts. He was delusional. We were in the ER, doctors’ offices and psychiatrists’ offices, 15 times for emergencies. CMH canceled three psychiatric appointments. CMH workers tried to access crisis care with a doctor but the psychiatrist had quit or taken a leave of absence. CMH prescribing psychiatrists were not accessible by phone when medications interacted dangerously. Ty was hospitalized only twice, for short term treatment. 

The first time he was admitted, Ty was catatonic. He hadn’t eaten in almost two weeks. He was admitted to Pine Rest for a week. The second time he was admitted to Saginaw White Pines for a week. No one called us from Saginaw White Pines to say he’d be released even though HIPPA releases were signed. Our son was still in psychosis, still delusional. He was almost 4 hours from home and released without a phone call.

Our son has been found NGRI (not guilty by reason of insanity) by a forensic psychiatrist. He’s still awaiting trial. His trial's been postponed for almost a year. Speedy trials are not a reality for the mentally ill. Michigan has a rule that, after 15 months of incarceration, they can release NGRI inmates without ever providing treatment at the forensic center.

Our 17-year-old son, Ty, was in psychosis and incarcerated in February 2017 with adult inmates and assaulted. Today, I went to probate court, again, to request assisted outpatient services. Please, state of Michigan Governor Snyder,  and Lt. Calley, train your judges, mental health workers, lawyers, clerks, politicians, and doctors about Kevin’s Law. 

 We dream of the day our home is filled with Ty’s piano music again.

Note: Kimberlee West and her family have been informed that Ty has to undergo a second forensic psychiatric exam by the state — the first exam was "incomplete." It could take another 60 days for Ty to be examined. Ty's trial date had been set for January 23, 24, and 25, 2018. It's been postponed. Again.

Read more of Ty's story in the archives in the right hand column.
November 15, 2017: Hope One Day We'll Have Real Choices by Kimberlee West
August 22, 2017: Walk a Mile in Our Shoes by Kimberlee West

Ty and his friends

HOPE ONE DAY WE'LL HAVE REAL CHOICES by Kimberlee West

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

A SURPRISE by Patricia Gager

My son, Toby, was diagnosed as ADHD with emotional disturbance at age 5. He was misdiagnosed for twenty years and it took a lot of constant begging and staying on top of it to try to get the correct diagnoses.  My son's been incarcerated in our local county jail for sixteen months as of April 1, 2017.  He was finally diagnosed in jail last November with autism. It explained a lot of his repetitions, fixations, and other things when he was growing up. By my estimate, my son is about 13-15 years old brain wise, and turned 25 chronologically in jail. He's charged with a 2nd degree felony by his own admission and his court appointed attorney has done absolutely nothing. 

A couple weeks ago a friend of mine referred me to an attorney who handles these types of cases. I called and spoke to him over the phone several times.  He wanted to meet my son before agreeing to take my son's case — to make sure they got along. I was surprised, but thinking about it later, it made sense to me.

The attorney saw my son on Tuesday. I went for my weekly visit on Wednesday. My son was in a fairly good mood explaining that the attorney had come to see him. He said, "We got along good." 

Before I left my son said, "Mom, did you know this attorney is blind?"  I told him I didn't know because we'd only spoken on the phone.

After my visit with my son, I went to see the attorney and, sure enough, he was blind. He had his cane and everything. I walked away feeling much better about my son's situation just from the intelligent conversation and the options he provided on what strategies we could use. I felt better than I had in the last sixteen months. I never imagined I would get an attorney with a disability to help my son with a disability. I just wanted to share.

Toby with his sister, Felicia, and mom, Patricia.