Pete Earley

A FRIDAY STORY: Here’s another frustrating and tragic  story about a young man who ended up entangled in the criminal justice system because of a mental illness. The Richmond Times-Dispatch has been keeping a spotlight on our state’s  fractured mental health care system. That’s important since Richmond is the state capital. Sadly, this story could have been published in nearly any state.  When I contacted the family after reading this story to learn if I could share it on my blog, I got this email reply.

Mr. Earley,

One thing we have found when dealing with a family member who has mental illness is that it is one of the loneliest places a family can be.  No one seems to understand that this is a real illness with devastating effects. Before his illness manifested itself, our son was on top of the world — he was what every parent wanted for their son.  The Captain and Quarterback of his high school football team and one of the bestClick to continue…

Ever since the White House Mental Health summit, I’ve been hearing about how we can prevent mental illnesses.  I recently googled the subject and found this from the Mental Health Commission of Canada.

By promoting mental health and preventing mental illness, we can increase the number of people who enjoy good mental health and reduce, to the greatest extent possible, the number of people whose mental health is poor, who experience the symptoms of mental health problems or illnesses, or who die by suicide…

By enhancing factors that are known to help protect people (e.g., having a sense of belonging, enjoying good relationships and good physical health) and diminishing those factors that put them at risk (e.g., childhood trauma, social isolation), we can reduce the onset of some mental health problems and illnesses, reduce symptoms and disability, and support people in their journey of recovery. Structural and social factors that reduce adversity and promote a sense of security, such as safe housing and stable income, are also of great importance.

All of us should be in favor of educational programs that target bullying. We should want every child to grow up feeling a sense of belonging, being free of childhood trauma, not being socially isolated and in secure homes with financially stable families.

But would that prevent mental illnesses? Sorry, but I don’t think so.

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FROM MY FILES FRIDAY: I have two letters framed in my office written to me by world famous authors. There’s a short note from Graham Greene who I contacted after I wrote my first book, Family of Spies: Inside the John Walker Spy Ring.  I asked Greene if he would write me a letter of introduction to his former boss and friend, Kim Philby, who had defected to the Soviet Union and was one of Britian’s most notorious traitors. Greene and Philby had worked in British intelligence together. Greene politely declined but offered to read my spy book. The other letter is from William Styron who read my book, Circumstantial Evidence, and sent me a kind and thoughtful note about justice and race in the Deep South. I’d met Styron at a Virginia writer’s conference and exchanged other notes with him before his death. Oddly, none was   about mental illness, even though I had an autographed copy of his book Darkness Visible.  In the blog that I am reprinting today, I explain how I sought out Norman Mailer early in my career.

NORMAN MAILER, PRISONS AND ME, orginially posted April 21, 2010

I first read, In the Belly of the Beast by Jack Abbott when I was spending a year as a reporter inside a maximum security penitentiary doing research for my book, The Hot House: Life Inside Leaven worth Prison. If you are not familiar with the Beast book or Abbott’s story, here’s a brief review.

The son of an Irish-American solider and Chinese prostitute, Abbott had spent nearly all of his life in jails and prisons. In 1977, he learned that Normal Mailer was writing a book about Gary Gilmore, the first prisoner to be executed in 1977 after our nation re-started the death penalty ending its short constitutional hiatus.

Mailer’s book about Gilmore, The Executioner’s Song, won the Pulitzer Prize and helped revive his career.

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From My Files Friday: Four years ago, I posted this blog about the first time that I went inside a prison in the early 1970s and saw inmates with mental illnesses. Sadly, the number of prisoners will mental disorders has skyrocketed since then and what I observed in Oklahoma nearly four decades ago remains an all too familiar sight.  

The Public Cared More About A Trapped Cat Than Ill Inmates, March 14, 2010

The first time I went into a prison as a reporter was in the early 1970s when I worked at the now closed Tulsa Tribune.  The city editor, Windsor Ridenour, sent me to the Oklahoma State Penitentiary in McAlester to cover a pardon and parole board meeting.

I suspect Windsor wanted me to see a tougher slice of life from what I had experienced as the son of a minister, but I doubt he had any idea how that trip would ultimately impact my life. My visit into the white knuckle hell that is McAlester ultimately caused me to write The Hot House: Life Inside Leavenworth Prison, which recounts a year that I spent inside a maximum security penitentiary.

It was in McAlester that I first saw how inmates with mental illness were being warehoused. Prison doctors shot them with Thorazine that reduced them to drooling zombies who rarely left their bunks.

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I’ve intentionally held off from writing about the verdict delivered in the killing of Kelly Thomas because I wanted to think about what the jurors’ decision means.

Thomas was a thirty-seven year old homeless man diagnosed with schizophrenia who lived on the streets of Fullerton, California.  The police approached him after a business owner  complained that someone in the area was vandalizing parked cars.  The police claimed Thomas resisted when they tried to search him.  At that point, they called for backup and decided to cuff him.

Part of the reason why this tragedy has outraged mental health advocates is because much of what happened was captured on video. You can hear the officer’s exchange with Thomas.

“Now you see my fists?” Fullerton police officer Manny Ramos asks Thomas while slipping on a pair of latex gloves.

“Yeah, what about them?” Thomas responds.

“They are getting ready to f*** you up,” said Ramos.

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