AUTHOR
Val Corzine Executive Director Orchid Mental Health Legal Advocacy of Colorado Out there on that neuro-diversity spectrum
We can’t wait any longer, people are dying AND saying we’re now not going to subject people with mental illness to “administrative segregation” is NOT near enough.
The misguided idea that we can subject people with “mental illness,” brain injury, neurological disease or developmental disability to further emotional trauma to obtain some penological goal is in itself delusional and not based on any evidence that I am aware of.
We need to be able to ramp up the CO Medicaid Community Mental Health Services Waiver that has struggled and struggled to be relevant to the actual needs of people with “mental illness.”
( For more “insight” see our
At the top of the list — Assertive Community Treatment (ACT) and ULTRA Intensive Case Management — on a daily basis if necessary. And if we are really smart “housing as healthcare.”
WE CAN DO THIS & WE NEED TO DO IT NOW!
Let’s Start Costing It Out NOW for this Upcoming Legislative Session.
Some of the Intended Benefits:
- Terminating the practice of putting people with bad behaviors in torture chambers (aka modern prisons & jails) to “teach them a lesson.”
- Terminating the practice of scapegoating people from jailors to judges in impossible positions with inadequate alternatives and training.
- Achieving greater community safety than what we currently have.
Research reveals that get-tough tactics may worsen rates of juvenile delinquency