Mental Patients Gassed in Florida, by Mary Neal

by duo | September 6, 2008 at 06:06 am | 831 views | 23 comments | 3 recommendations

As a child, I watched a movie that presented a shocking display of man's inhumanity to man, and it impressed me for life: The Diary of Anne Frank. It awakened me to the fact that there is real evil in the world, not merely some red devil cartoon character with a long, pointed tail, holding a pitchfork on Halloween. Even today, I remain appalled to consider that millions of human beings were marched into concentration camps and exterminated - shot, burned, and gassed - while an apathetic world did nothing.

The practice of gassing Florida 's mentally ill inmates reminds me of the horrors of the Holocaust. On Wednesday, September 3, USDC Judge Timothy Corrigan began hearing testimony to determine whether this inhumane practice will end.

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FL: Trial begins on gassing mentally ill inmates

Trial begins on gassing mentally ill inmates

By Paul Pinkham
The Times-Union
September 3, 2008

A Jacksonville judge begins hearing evidence today about the use of pepper spray, tear gas and other chemical agents on mentally ill inmates by guards at Florida State Prison.

U.S. District Judge Timothy Corrigan is being asked to decide whether the practice is constitutional.

Lawyers for the inmates plan to argue that gassing confined mentally ill inmates for behavior caused by their illness is cruel and unusual punishment. They are asking Corrigan to halt the practice and require the state Department of Corrections to videotape gassing incidents and provide soap to gassed inmates.

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During the Nazi regime, Germany engaged in the systematic killing of the mentally ill and handicapped as a first step in fulfilling Hitler's vision of building the perfect Aryan race. The Jewish Virtual Library reports:

"In October 1939, Hitler himself initiated a decree which empowered physicians to grant a 'mercy death' to 'patients considered incurable according to the best available human judgment of their state of health.' The intent of the so-called 'euthanasia' program, however, was not to relieve the suffering of the chronically ill. The Nazi regime used the term as a euphemism: Its aim was to exterminate the mentally ill and the handicapped, thus 'cleansing' the 'Aryan' race of persons considered genetically defective and a financial burden to society."

Hitler reportedly sent to physicians and the general public the message that mental patients were 'useless eaters' and life unworthy of life.

Reference: Jewish Virtual Library
Nazi Persecution of the Mentally and Physically Disabled
Link: http://www.jewishvirtuallibrary.org/jsource/Holocaust/disabled.html

I have reflected often on the Nazis murdering Germany's mentally ill citizens during the past five years following my own mentally ill brother's secret arrest and death in Shelby County/Memphis, TN Jail.** If the lives of our mentally ill, disabled, and terminally ill citizens are undervalued to the degree I find that Larry's was, then Americans should be alarmed for relatives and friends with Alzheimer's, Autism, Down Syndrome, Post Traumatic Stress Disorder, depression, our elderly citizens with dementia, and loved ones stricken with terminal illnesses. All such people were considered expendable in Nazi Germany.   (See http://wrongfuldeathoflarryneal.com)

I never forgot The Diary of Anne Frank and my tearful resolve that I would never be like the apathetic citizens of Germany who watched their neighbors being imprisoned and killed simply for being born Jewish. Therefore, after The Johnny Cochran Firm defrauded my family and never carried out their promises to my elderly mother to hold Shelby County/Memphis Jail accountable for Larry's secret arrest and wrongful death, I founded an organization to help other people like my brother, Larry, who are unjustly entrapped in the criminal justice system for a condition they cannot help - mental illness.
(See http://www.care2.com/c2c/people/profile.html?pid=513396753 )

Assistance to the Incarcerated Mentally Ill ("AIMI") is an advocacy agency established in 2007 to (a) decriminalize mental illness in America; (b) remove the stigma associated with mental illness; (c) increase accessibility to inpatient and outpatient mental health services; and (d) advocate for improvements in how mentally ill citizens are treated within their communities, by police during arrests, and when incarcerated in correctional facilities. AIMI works in the tradition of Dorothea Dix, who advocated for the mentally ill in the 1800's and succeeded through her advocacy to end imprisonment of thousands of American and European mental patients. She visited the mentally ill imprisoned throughout the country and lobbied legislators to CHANGE.

(See http://www.care2.com/c2c/group/AIMI)

(See also http://www.care2.com/c2c/share/detail/865865)

If America 's mentally ill prisoners were either released to ascertain treatment within their communities, or in secure mental health facilities if charged with violent crimes, it would greatly reduce the cost to taxpayers for incarceration.  Homelessness, prison, and death must discontinue being America 's answer to mental illness.

Let us all pray for Florida 's mentally ill inmates that God will touch Judge Corrigan's heart with the realization that America must discontinue the evil practice of gassing her most vulnerable citizens.

The mental patients' lawyers are also asking that the inmates are at least given soap to shower after being GASSED, so they will not itch and burn all night, naked and secluded in solitary confinement, tossing and turning on their cold, bare, metal prison racks. Many are not given mattresses or clothes, for fear that they would hurt themselves -- Jails are not hospitals, so police don't have time to watch them every second, after all!

This happens in America! It must end!

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Voice your opinion: Prison or Treatment for acute mental patients?

                     Please use this link to VOTE and
                  View Results and Comments

NOTE: When you open the opinion poll, there is computer jargon at the top. SCROLL DOWN. Thanks.

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** Larry Neal's family is the only American family in the 21st Century to have a member secretly arrested and returned to his family as a corpse without any excuse, apology, explanation, and denied any investigation.  There is a petition to the United States Justice Department asking that agency, which was already in an overview position of the jail at the time of Larry's death due to past human rights violations, to please do its job and investigate his secret arrest and demise:(See  http://www.petitiononline.com/Neal/petition.html)

(See also http://www.opednews.com/articles/Mentally-Ill-Patient-s-Sec-by-Mary-Neal-080802-527.html)

Mary Neal
Website: http://wrongfuldeathoflarryneal.com

Assistance to the Incarcerated Mentally Ill Visit Online at:
http://www.care2.com/c2c/group/AIMI

Then shall the righteous answer him, saying, Lord, when saw we thee an hungred, and fed thee? or thirsty, and gave thee drink?

When saw we thee a stranger, and took thee in? or naked, and clothed thee?

Or when saw we thee sick, or in prison, and came unto thee?

And the King shall answer and say unto them, Verily I say unto you, Inasmuch as ye have done it unto one of the least of these my brethren, ye have done it unto me.

~ Matthew 25:37-40

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Michael Owens (not verified)

at 13:00 on September 6th, 2008

During the Nazi regime, Germany engaged in the systematic killing of the mentally ill and handicapped as a first step in fulfilling Hitler's vision of building the perfect Aryan race. The Jewish Virtual Library reports:

Are we going to be like Hitler? No stop this Insane Gasing and killing the incant Mental ill people.!!!

bill hicks

at 18:14 on September 6th, 2008

That verse is one of the most important. That is how we shall be judged and not on 'sins'. How we treat others including honesty and intentions is what God looks at.

duo

at 18:31 on September 6th, 2008

Thank you, Bill, for your comments.

Thank you, Michael, my Care2 friend, for visiting me at NowPublic.com.

I suppose Michael noticed I was getting lonely in the comments section around here, but that is OK. This story has been Front Page on Care2 all day, also, and we can only pray that it helps the incarcerated mentally ill. The comments there just keep on coming. See them here: http://www.care2.com/news/member/513396753/870070?saved=1

Thank you NowPublic.com, for being a great independent news source! Thank you fellow NowPublic members for all of your support on this issue.

Blessings,

Mary

GERARD FLANNERY (not verified)

at 02:55 on September 7th, 2008

I have heard about these sorts of thing going on in American Jails for a long time now.I would like to add that I do think the Death Sentence is in some cases (like Rape/Torture/Sadistic Killing/Child Killing/Old People being killed and robbed/Child Molestation/Slave Makers and users of Sex Slavery/ all these Cases undoubtedly "do" deserve the ultimate sentence.However a Judge should have the will and the "Moral Fibre" to be able to discriminate against mentally ill inmates going to the Death House.How on Earth can you "dare" to claim that you are a civilised Country while this "vile evil" practise is

being done in your name,you "should all be very ashamed" Justice is bought in your Country. Also there are far too many innocent people mainly Black people who get murdered because they can not afford a decent Lawyer.Tragic/Terrible/ I remember a

documentary called Fourteen Days in May where a young Black man was gassed for nothing.When the Femail Redneck who could have saved this Mans life was asked why she did not speak up she/it replied.Why should I save a Niggers Life,I tell you all SHAME ON YOU.

Sheila G (not verified)

at 05:56 on September 7th, 2008

I also found this on care2, forwarded by Cate, posted by Mary.

Anne Frank was my hero when I was 13, her story broke my young heart. It was a tough awakening for a child, but not nearly as tough as hers.

There is nothing but injustice all around us. Mental patients are punished for being ill. The afflicted are punished for actions they have no real control over! It is as useless as rubbing a puppy's nose in the pee on the floor.

TERESA CALDWELL (not verified)

at 07:52 on September 7th, 2008

i have found this to be appalling as i live in N.IRELAND and know what its like to be hit with cs gas because of our troubles that we had.. and America at the time was helping us to put a STOP!! to it as the men, woman, arrested without trial were gassed and beaten on a daily base's in the camp's and jails that held our political prisoners so i know what its like and that was 35yrs ago...

i never for one minute thought that this goes on in America the land of the free and that everyone wants to fallow in the American dream and the rights that you all have even your mentally ill person/s i can;t tell you how shocked i am by this because i held America up as the proudest county to come from and the more i read from this site 2care2 is giving me a big wakeup call America is not the land of the hope and the free..

i have signed your pettion and may it help you i pray to god it does..
my heart goes out to you Mary that your poor bother,s life ended in this way the people that did this should be made responsible and judge accordingly but i doubt it...

Mary keep your fight up you may get someone to listen!!! when is another story...

GOD BLESS YOU ALL

SLAINE

duo

at 09:59 on September 7th, 2008

Thank you so very much for CARING. I cannot say more now. I am overwhelmed with your support for my poor brother and our family, and for the incarcerated mental patients in American prisons.

Please consider joining our advocacy at http://www.care2.com/c2c/group/AIMI

As we awoke in our beds this morning, 1.25 million acute mental patients awoke behind bars, many in solitary confinement, butt naked (like my brother's body was when he was delivered to the ME's office in a body bag). They are afraid to cry out, for fear of being gassed or Tasered or placed in deadly Restraint Chairs. But many of these mental patients are not in sufficient control of their faculties to avoid crying out in their pain and fear and rage at the cruelty of their existence, imprisoned for a disability they did not ask for and cannot change. HELP THEM, PLEASE!

Mary

Mafalda Chandler (not verified)

at 17:34 on September 7th, 2008

This is totally despicable and unacceptable! I measure the development of a Country by how it treats those who are defenseless. A Country that considers itself righteous and authorizes itself to be the "world's police" absolutely needs to set a better example. This is shameful, heartbreaking and violates the most basic human rights. Stories like these make me sick to my stomach, and sad to think of how heartbroken Our Father in Heaven must be to see his children be treated this way. God help us!

duo

at 17:49 on September 7th, 2008

Thank you, Mafalda. At first, I did not understand why my family was getting such a run-around about Larry's death. I thought it was just ONE bad thing, that somehow Larry slipped through the cracks of safeguards for mental patients.

Imagine my surprise to discover THERE ARE NO SAFEGUARDS to prevent acute mental patients from being imprisoned - some for very long sentences - for reason of their disabilities. All my brother usually did "wrong" was sing loud on street corners, beg sometimes, etc. Some mental patients are imprisoned tonight for vagrancy, like Larry occasionally was. Others may have done much worse things, but NONE should be imprisoned instead of hospitalized.

Larry's secret jail death did not seem to excite any of the authorities I contacted because apparently, it happens all the time. I never knew that, did you?

I want to thank Senator Saxby Chambliss - one of the only senators, Democrat or Republican, black or white or other, who answered our query. He insisted that the USDOJ at least answer our letter about Larry and how he died. The USDOJ simply responded that they didn't know about it and proceeded to do nothing at all, although the Shelby County Jail was under a federal mandate to send that agency reports on all inmate deaths! I guess the USDOJ just said, "So what? Another nut dead and gone - and a black one at that."

duo

at 11:35 on September 8th, 2008

Now perhaps I have an explanation as to why our mental patients are being gassed in Florida prisons. I put a link to this news article on Care2NewsNetwork, where it continues to be front page item. One reader argues that Florida is only practicing "tough love" by gassing these people because these are folks who "won't help themselves."

Amazing. Glad she is not a prison guard in the mental ward somewhere. They have enough prison guards hired already who believe folks can be PUNISHED INTO A STATE OF MENTAL HEALTH.

Mary

Emilio Lizardo

flagged this story as Good Stuff

at 13:49 on September 8th, 2008

It's really a terrible situation, Duo. I am afraid the problem will only get worse and worse as government money begins to dry up more and more ...

It must cost a lot more to care for people with mental illness than to care for just plain old normal criminals - so, often the MI person is simply criminalized and placed into the prison's general population ...

One problem gets solved - the sick person is taken off the streets where he may indeed have been a danger to himself and/or others, but a second problem is created when that sick person is placed inappropriately into a general criminal population, of course because it costs less ...

The guards whose responsibility it is to maintain order in such an environment ends up frustrated when the MI inmate continues in their disruptive behaviors, and finally resorts to the pepper spray for probably lots of reasons that just prove he's human - and it will quiet the individual down amazingly, at least for a while ...

Seemingly an intractible problem and a very unfortunate one.

duo

at 15:08 on September 8th, 2008

Thanks for the flag and your comments! You made interesting points. No doubt, many people in the public may think that it is cheaper to incarcerate than treat mentally ill persons in their communities (enforced, if necessary) or as inpatients in hospitals. But this is not so.

Consider that incarceration necessarily begins with arrest by paid police officers, which is then followed by a preliminary hearing, usually with a lawyer paid for by the taxpayers, and then a trial (unless impovished mental patients are urged to "take a deal" they do not understand), and finally incarceration. Usually, incarcerating mental patients is more expensive, with specially trained guards, mental health therapy, and isolated quarters. Mental patients usually stay incarcerated longer -- they tend to get in trouble once in jail -- and return at a much higher rate. Police simply cannot "rehabilitate" the mentally ill to "act better."

MONEY, DID YOU $AY? Here is the money for hospitalization:

Do you realize what the NATION'S PRISON BUDGET is? Here is an excerpt from an attorney who suggested a book to read: Prison Nation: The Warehousing of America's Poor

"Locking up 2.3 million people isn’t cheap.

Each year federal, state, and local governments spend over $185 BILLION ANNUALLY IN TAX DOLLARS to ensure that one out of every 137 Americans is imprisoned. Prison Profiteers looks at the private prison companies, investment banks, churches, guard unions, medical corporations, and other industries and individuals that benefit from this country’s experiment with mass imprisonment. It lets us follow the money from public to private hands and exposes how monies formerly designated for the public good are diverted to prisons and their maintenance."

Thanks again for your comments! I really appreciate your interest in this human rights issue.

Mary

Emilio Lizardo

at 18:12 on September 8th, 2008

Hey Mary,

I knew about our Great Nation's outstanding incarceration rate, but really had no idea of the dollar values involved ...

Very impressive !

How can I buy some stock ?

duo

at 21:50 on September 8th, 2008

The smart money today is on investing in mental hospitals and services for exiting mentally ill prisoners, Emilio Lizardo!

About 20% of the folks in prison are about to be moved from privatized prisons into quality hospitals - some for long-term care in highly secure mental health facilities, and others (those accused of non-violent crimes) will only be hospitalized for a short time for evaluation and observation while their therapy and medication schedules are assigned. Then non-violent mentally ill offenders will be released to rejoin their communities and families with basic provisions for their general welfare.

The missing ingredient has been an allowance for ENFORCED treatment for acute mental patients who are unable to make wise treatment decisions for themselves, a common problem and the main reason for re-arrests of mental patients. Numerous mental health advocates and human rights orgs. lobby for mental patients to have the final say over whether or not to accept treatment. However, the incarcerated mentally ill have ALREADY lost their rights to self-determination through their criminal indictments, so such orgs. should have nothing to say about the enforced treatment of the mental patients on parole or probation.

Many advances have been made in the meds available to control bipolarism, schizophrenia, and other severe conditions, but the problem is mental patients' reluctance to acknowledge their illness and continue their therapy after release from jails and hospitals. Until we put an enforced treatment provision in place, the high incarceration rate for mental patients will continue, at great distress for the patients and their families and the avoidable expenditure of taxpayers' money.

The good news is that this will be accomplished with the SAME money that is currently being spent on their incarceration. Once the hospitals are built and/or modernized and staffed, this humane alternative to criminalizing mental illness will be CHEAPER than paying the prison costs and legal costs associated with mentally ill Americans' prior incarceration.

That's the plan! So invest wisely. Thanks for commenting.

Mary

Sputnic

at 08:54 on September 9th, 2008

Good stuff. Shocking stuff. Signed the petition for your brother. Here in the uk the prison population is spiralling upwards. But nothing compared to the usa (20 % increase in 5 years 80 thousand inmates out of population of 61 million) . Mentally ill people have all had bad stuff happen to them, that is what made them ill. It is our duty to help them, and the ill can get better. But even for those that dont, whoever finishes last will later (afterlife) finish first and whoever finishes first (bush) will later finish last

Sputnic

at 08:54 on September 9th, 2008

Sputnic

at 08:54 on September 9th, 2008

Sputnic

at 08:55 on September 9th, 2008

Sputnic

at 08:55 on September 9th, 2008

Sputnic

at 08:56 on September 9th, 2008

duo

at 22:20 on September 9th, 2008

Thank you, Sputnic! I really appreciate your comments and the fact that you signed our petition for an investigation.

Tell me, please, have you EVER heard of a family having to petition for an investigation into the secret arrest and death of a loved one?

Gosh! I used to watch a lot of television, so maybe that is where I got the idea from that investigating deaths of citizens is automatic. But I guess that is just Hollywood fantasy.

I am a legal secretary, and I recall reading that it is MANDATORY to investigate the deaths of all persons occurring on government property. Obviously, some citizens just don't count.

Thanks again for your input, Sputnic.

Mary

Jennifer Dooley (not verified)

at 14:27 on November 21st, 2008

I do hope you get answers to your questions about your brother Larry. It's outrageous that you've been denied normal justice!

AIMI (Assistance to the Incarcerated Mentally Ill) now has a presence in 'Prison Hearts'. Congratulations to Mary Neal on the amazing growth of AIMI.

May wisdom and compassion overrule the greed and ignorance in men's hearts.