Pete Earley

A recent front page story in my local newspaper caused me to wonder if some law enforcement officers actually understand Crisis Intervention Team training even though they publicly endorse it.

In a newspaper interview under the headline: Fairfax Sheriff’s Race Heats Up, a veteran police officer now running to be our sheriff made several troubling comments. According to his webpage, Byron Wolfe is a strong proponent of CIT, listing it as one of his top priorities if elected.

Bryon Wolfe

But he’s quoted in the newspaper completely dismissing his opponent’s efforts to implement jail diversion.

“Wolfe…said focusing on (jail) diversion programs deters the sheriff’s department’s attention away from handling mental illness within the jails.

“The Fairfax County police are the ones that deal with diversion,” Wolfe said. “The Fairfax County Sheriff’s deputies — they’re not involved in that decision making. They’re just going to wait and see if a prisoner is brought to them. Waiting for a huge diversion program — that’s not going to happen: who has the funding for that?

Wolfe said his campaign platform instead is set on restoring the county’s trust in the department. He said he aims to do this by installing cameras in the jail to record ‘the good and the bad.'”

Thinking that jail diversion is only a issue for the police goes directly against the core principles of CIT. If you check the CIT International website — the parent organization of CIT — you will find this statement:

CIT Basic Goals: *Improve Officer and Consumer Safety. *Redirect Individuals with Mental Illness from the Judicial System to the Health Care System.

That second goal is Jail Diversion.

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Happier times, from left to right, Cheryl Scott, Phil’s mother; Philip McMahon; and Ken Scott, his stepfather.

This month my blog averaged 71,000 readers with an additional 9,000 on Facebook. Thank you. Every week, readers send me emails asking how they can help improve our system. Here are examples of readers who are doing exactly that by writing articles, sounding alarm bells, creating Broadway quality shows, launching incredible websites and winning well deserved awards!

*Mental Health gadfly D. J. Jaffe accuses recipients of federal mental health dollars of blocking congressional reform efforts in an article published by The National Review. Writes Jaffe:

“Mental-health programs received $172 billion in federal and state taxpayer funds in 2014. As a result of lobbying by the mental-health industry, however, little of it went to reducing homelessness, arrest, incarceration, and hospitalization of the 10 million who have serious mental illness such as schizophrenia and bipolar disorder. Instead, as in previous years, a vast amount went to improving the “behavioral health” of the masses.”

Jaffe and his website, Mental Illness Policy.Org, have repeatedly raised questions about SAMHSA programs that he believes are wasteful. You can read his argument in his article: A Chance for Real Mental-Health Reform, If the Mental-Health Industry Gets Out of the Way.  You might recall that it was Jaffe who complained about how California officials were spending funds generated by the so-called “millionaires’ tax” on questionable purchases, such as spending $11 million to hire a public relations firm and half million dollars on a salary for a lobbyist.

*A recent study by The Washington Post documented what national studies have shown: nearly half of all police shootings involve persons with mental illnesses. One father who is putting a human face on this grim statistic is Ken Scott ,whose stepson was shot during a psychotic break by a San Diego police officer. Ken’s stepson now faces two felony charges. Ken tells his family’s story at Phil’s Page.  

It was 12:42 am CST when my wife received the first news of Philip’s shooting, an event that had occurred 10 hours earlier. From that point true information was almost impossible to obtain. The police wanted information but gave none. The hospital was not even allowed to acknowledge that Phil was a patient. Everything we got was from the media and they got what the authorities wanted them to say. For the next 5 days we were living in hell.

According to the National Alliance on Mental Illness, up to forty percent (40%) of adults who experience serious mental illnesses will come into contact with the police and the criminal justice system at some point in their lives. This is why Crisis Intervention Team training is needed in all of our communities and by team, I mean more than 40 hours of law enforcement training. I’m talking about communities implementing jail diversion and meaningful community mental care services, including supportive housing!

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I would never wish a serious mental illness on anyone, but I do wonder how our elected officials’ perspectives might change if someone close to them became seriously ill.

Consider Arapahoe County District Attorney George Brauchler, the prosecutor who declared that the only acceptable sentence in the horrific Aurora, Colorado, mass murder shooting was death for James Eagan Holmes, a 25 year-old student who has been diagnosed with schizophrenia.

“You can bring justice to this act and to him,” Brauchler said during his closing arguments in the case, pointing at Holmes. “And for James Egan Holmes, justice is death.”

“Justice is death” had become Brauchler’s mantra from the beginning of the movie shooting tragedy.

No one can discount the savagery of Holmes’ actions. He murdered 12 people, including a 6 year-old child – and injured 70 others. As The Washington Post reported, the stories of these victims moved jurors to tears. All of us feel empathy for the victims. The survivors’ pain and suffering is difficult to imagine.

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I will be appearing on NPR’s nationally syndicated Diane Rehm Show on Tuesday, August 4th, discussing innovative ways to divert individuals with mental illnesses from jails and prisons into treatment.  Check local listings for broadcast times and please call her show to add your voice to those in support of mental health courts and other jail diversion efforts.

Also at noon on Tuesday, Senators Scott Chris Murphy  (D-CT) and Bill Cassidy (R-LA) will introduce their bipartisan Mental Health Reform Act of 2015 during a press conference at the U.S. Capitol Visitor Center. This bill is similar, but different from Rep. Tim Murphy’s House version, the Helping Families In Mental Health Crisis Act, that failed to make it out of committee last session but was re-introduced and has 100 sponsors. I will be posting a comparison after the Murphy/Cassidy bill is introduced. I am a fan of both Senators, especially Senator Cassidy, who I’ve spoken to several times and is a medical doctor. He understands first-hand why reforms are necessary.

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Dear Pete,

Our son became homeless at age 22. During the 18 years since then, there have been multiple hospitalizations, a myriad of letters written to psychiatrists begging for treatment, and correspondence with judges seeking support for his grave disability. All written to no avail.

On many occasions our son would return home. During this time we would be able to provide him some respite and warmth. We could nurse his bug bitten legs and feed his thin frame. I could wash his filthy clothing and buy him a sleeping bag that wouldn’t smell of urine.

But we could only take care of him for brief periods of time because the voices he heard eventually told him we were the enemy. His mania would take over and our opportunity to help care for him would evaporate with the need to call 911.

Our son was clearly gravely disabled and as a result of his distorted and paranoid thinking he was homeless. Yet no judge or treatment facility would help him long enough to make a difference. The horror stories we told of his bizarre beliefs or behaviors did not seem to matter.

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