The only place that can't refuse to take you

“Prior to 2000, the Alabama Department of Corrections didn’t consider mental-health treatment part of our mission,” [said Corrections Commissioner Richard] Allen

Yet now that is a primary responsibility. The results have been pretty horrible.

Allen noted something stunning in his presentation to a legislative committee. Of the 25,000 people in Alabama's state prisons, 20% (5,000 people) need treatment. Yet

"4,400 of those people would be considered outpatients were they not also
convicted of crimes."

So if Alabama were using outpatient treatment to intervene BEFORE these people committed crimes, the number of people needing treatment behind bars would be reduced dramatically … to less than 3% of the prison population instead of 20%.

That would save not only lives, but money.

Allen said the state prison system budget will fall short by $31 million this
year, and the cost of treating mental illness has contributed to that.

A sad day...

Believing microwaves were aimed at his brain and that aliens were using wires and television to tap into his brain wasn’t enough to get Farron Barksdale treatment. But when he killed two police officers he thought were aliens, it was enough to get him a prison sentence of life without parole. It turns out it was a short sentence; Farron Barksdale died today.

Today is a sad day for the family of Farron Barksdale. It’s also a sorry reflection on our mental healthcare system and treatment laws. How long will we keep neglecting those who need treatment?

Death sentence in Alabama

"Farron Barksdale will die in an Alabama prison," said the prosecutor when Barksdale was last week sentenced to life without parole.

Doubtful she knew how soon those words might come true.

Today Farron Barksdale is on life support. [UPDATE: Barksdale has since died.]

Prison is a notoriously terrible place for those with severe mental illnesses - and whether something happened to Barksdale during intake, as some reports indicate, or whether he succumbed to record-breaking heat in a facility with no air conditioning, the fact remains that Barksdale walked through the door of Kilby Correctional Facility and will come out in a hearse, whether it is this week or 50 years from now.

Barksdale, who has schizophrenia, had called 911 for help - when two officers pulled up in his mother's driveway, he brutally shot and killed them with a high-powered rifle. Records and Barksdale's attorneys indicate Barksdale believed microwaves were being aimed at his brain - in fact, he tore the cable out of his mother's home because of his belief "they" were using the wires and television to tap into his brain. At the request of Barksdale's mother, a probate judge had committed Barksdale to mental institutions five times previously. Yet he was off medication when the murders occurred.

Three people died because one man was not getting treatment.

Nice job, Alabama.

Thin blue line isn't a safety net

Anyone who doubts that law enforcement are increasingly the ones responding to people with mental illnesses who are in crisis needs only to read the news.

Two stories today show examples, from different angles, how the safety of both law enforcement and citizens is compromised when the mental health community abdicates their responsibility to care for people with the severest mental illnesses.

In a courtroom in Athens, Alabama jurors listened to police radio transmissions from the day Farron Barksdale killed two officers. Barksdale had called police asking to be directed to the FBI. When police arrived at his home Barksdale shot ten rounds from an assault rifle at the police cars.

Barksdale, who suffers from paranoid schizophrenia, was sentenced to life in prison without parole.

In Texas, police were called when Jose Vasquez, who was diagnosed with schizophrenia, got “out of control”. When Jose charged at his family with a garden hoe, officers fatally shot him.

"Forgive us for not coming to her rescue..."

Natashay Ward has been sentenced to three consecutive life terms for killing her three young children in 2005. Both the prosecution and defense in Ward’s sentencing agree she suffers from a mental illness – yet prison is her “treatment”.

According to Ward’s pastor:

"You and I would agree, I think, that a mother would not allow her children to starve to death while she reads the Bible and be normal at the same time. She was not thinking of her own reality, she's living in someone else's reality, which may not even be real…

On the level of forgiveness, she may need to forgive us. She may need to forgive us for not coming to her rescue in time.”