Policing the Mentally Ill – OPB.com

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In September of 2006, a schizophrenic man named James Chasse died in police custody, sending shockwaves throughout Portland and the state. At the time, Mayor Potter promised an overhaul of the system that failed Chasse.

A year and a half later, the Mental Health Association of Portland is working on a documentary to make sure we never forget James Chasse, and Portland police are well into a training program designed to help avoid any repeat incidents. The Crisis Intervention Training program, which used to be voluntary, is now required for all current officers and a new law this year made this sort of training mandatory for all new police officers statewide.

Is this enough? What else needs to be done to ensure the inevitable interactions between law enforcement and the mentally ill are as positive as possible?

GUESTS:

* Jason Renaud: Volunteer with Mental Health Association of Portland and former executive director for local National Alliance on Mental Illness chapters
* Raul Ramirez: Executive Director of the Oregon State Sheriff’s Association
* David Zeiss: Coordinator of White Bird Clinic’s “Crisis Assistance Helping Out on the Streets” (CAHOOTS) program

Booked For Safekeeping – 1960

Booked For Safekeeping, 1960. Fascinating documentary made to train police officers in the assistance and management of mentally ill and confused persons, produced in New Orleans by eminent filmmaker George C. Stoney using real New Orleans police officers as actors.

This film is copyright free. Above is Part I. You can download Part I and Part II from the Internet Archive.

“I think the majority of people would just punch him.”

Some mentally ill people can be extremely irritating, but that doesn’t mean we have a right to lock them up or force them to take pills against their will.

Still. That’s a boring statement, taken out of context, and one I don’t think benefits anybody. Instead, there’s a good read in the New York Times about a schizophrenic in Alaska with manic tendencies named William Bigley, which illustrates my point:

BIGLEY: “He’s very inappropriate…”

Bigley refuses to take drugs for his illness, and has been committed over 80 times since his first breakdown in 1980. Upstairs from the courtroom where he evaded commitment yesterday, lawyers were arguing over the shizophrenia drug Zyprexa, which Eli Lilly marketed without warning of its impact on cholesterol and blood sugar, and which Bigley steadfastly refuses to take.

Bigley is strikingly similar in appearance to James Chasse.

Last week I wrote two stories about the commitment process here in Portland. Honestly, I think Bigley would probably have been committed had his hearing been held here. In fact I think he probably would have been committed on Monday had the judge not been keenly aware he was being scrutinized by a New York Times reporter. But that’s another story.

It’s a hard position for a judge to be in: Knowing that deciding to set someone free isn’t going to do them any good in the long run, because there’s too few services to keep them well. And often, judging from the number of civil commitments that are subsequently appealed and overturned, it seems in Portland, judges are too willing to commit people for that reason.

But they have a civil right to roam the streets, no matter what the consequences.

Our Process to Date – Pt II

My experience with Jim Jim revolved around music. As teens we were both enraptured with pop music which couldn’t be found on the radio – at least no radio we ever heard. We wanted to hear what was playing in London and New York, Lou Reed and the Velvet Underground, the Ramones, Roxy Music, David Bowie, Iggy Pop, Talking Heads, Television, Tom Verlaine, and in Portland, the Neo Boys and the Wipers.

So I knew music was an essential feature to Alien Boy. Brian set the theme for the production – get people I liked to work with. So the choice for a person to wrangle the sound was obvious – Charlie Campbell.

Charlie’s been making music since the early 90s and it really just gets better with each piece. With Chris Brady and Dave Triebwasser, Charlie’s band Pond toured the world on the alt college charts for most of the decade with three CDs (they were called LPs back the, kiddies), Pond, The Practice of Joy Before Death for Sub Pop, and Rock Collection for the Sony label Work. Even better were the leftovers from Pond, which Charlie created into Goldcard, on Off Records.

I’m very proud to have Charlie on the team. He created our web site, which looks terrific. I am looking forward to his continued creativity creating and shaping the sounds for Alien Boy.

Two jail nurses tarnish rest

The letter below invites those who could “tarnish the rest” to come and observe corrections health workers at the Multnomah County jail.

We’ve written to Lillian Shirley, head of the Multnomah County Health Department and Bernie Guisto, Sheriff of the Multnomah County jail asking for permission to follow the jail nurses for a day or two to accurately show how they provide services to their exclusive community.

Two jail nurses tarnish rest
letter to the Oregonian, March 21, 2008

As a corrections health nurse at the Multnomah County Detention Center, I am dismayed by your March 15 editorial, “The bodies pile up.” (actually titled, “The body county at the county jail.”)
I have been a nurse at the detention center for 10 years and have been a practicing nurse for 30 years. The day-shift nursing staff at the detention center collectively has more than 200 years of varied nursing experience. We work at the jail because we care about providing health care to those whom most don’t care anything about. I can honestly say that health care at the jail is not a “catastrophe.”Yes, two (out of a staff of 70 or so) made egregious errors in judgment. They are now suffering the consequences of their behavior.

The nurses and doctors I work with are some of the brightest, kindest, most caring professionals I have ever had the privilege of working with.

Point the finger at the people who make the horrendous mistakes if you must, but please don’t point the finger at the rest of us.

If you would like to see just what we as nurses do at the detention center, I’m sure we could arrange for you to spend a day or two with us. Then you could see for yourself that what we do is not a “catastrophe that masquerades as health care at the county jail.”

CHRISTINE OLSON Southeast Portland

Lewis Lawrence – prospective informant

Matt Davis at the Portland Mercury has written an article parsing a decision by the Appellate Court reversing a decision by Lewis Lawrence, a civil commitment judge in Multnomah County.

You can read Matt’s article at Commitment Issues – Chasse Death Cited in Involuntary Detention

Lawrence is a respected pro tem judge who keeps his court with an engaging informal manner. In the early 1990s Judge Lawrence presided in tandem with Judge Roosevelt Robinson over the county’s drug court, so he’s very experienced.

You can also read Matt’s parallel article about his day in civil commitment court at In the Shadows – Dying Hard

We’ll be contacting Judge Lawrence as a prospective informant for Alien Boy. Although his ruling is overturned, he’s the first member of the judiciary who has taken judicial notice that it would be safer for a person with mental illness to be civilly committed than to run the risk of an “encounter” with the police. Lawrence specifically referenced what happened to James Chasse as sufficient evidence the woman in question was in danger.

Judge Lawrence, from my limited experience in his court, is a compassionate human, and perhaps in this decision compassion superseded the law. That’s why we have appeals. But we want to hear it from the judge himself.

Finding Normal – at City Hall

Special screening at City Hall, hosted by Tom Potter and Randy Leonard

March 28, 1 – 3 PM in City Hall Council Chambers

FINDING NORMAL is a powerfully honest documentary film about the Central City Concern Recovery Mentor Program, a group of Portland addicts in their day-to-day struggle to find a “normal” way of thinking and living, and the counselors who assist and mentor them.

A new survey from Portland State’s Regional Research Institute shows the Central City Concern Recovery Mentor Program has an exceptionally high rate of recovery for participants.

Results of the survey show “demonstrated profound reductions in both drug use and criminal activity” by program participants; including a 95% reduction in use of any illegal drugs.

Central City Concern’s Recovery Mentor Program reaches out specifically to addicts with significant addiction issues, with on average 7.6 years of peak drug use. The stats are a good argument for more dollars for drug treatment, and you might want to refer to them next time somebody suggests cutting treatment budgets or building new prisons.

What critics are saying about FINDING NORMAL

“…a thoroughly engrossing documentary by Brian Lindstrom about a group of Portland drug addicts and their rehab counselors trying day-by-day to keep themselves clean, sober and together. The film is raw and real, filled with undeniable moments of pain and elation and human personality. It’s impossible to imagine a more honest look at this all-too-common world, and it’s impossible, too, to understand how the film hasn’t gotten exposed in a bigger venue.”

Shawn Levy, film critic, The Oregonian

“Local filmmaker Brian Lindstrom is as uncompromising in his study of recovery as are the mentors who have rebuilt their lives and are now committed to helping others. What unfolds are intimate portraits of human triumph and failure…one of the finest films to come out of Portland in years.”

David Walker, film critic, Willamette Week

About filmmaker Brian Lindstrom – www.brianlindstromfilms.com
More about the Central City Concern Mentor Program

Melvins – Youth of America

The Melvins – Youth of America. Fairly amazing cover of The Wiper’s Youth of America by The Melvins going full blast in New Orleans in 2003.

New Report: CCC Drug Treatment Works

reposted from The Portland Mercury, 3/4/08

(The program described below is captured in Brian Lindstrom’s film Finding Normal.)

Drug treatment is the hot issue of the moment in Portland, what with Commissioner Randy Leonard selectively promising it to certain people in exchange for committing felonies, and former state rep Kevin Mannix suggesting a November Ballot Measure to simply ship all drug addicts to jail without proper treatment.

Well: New research at PSU shows Central City Concern’s drug mentor program has achieved a 95% reduction in use of any illegal drugs by those going through the program.

Money not spent on drugs equaled $5,729,750 for the duration of the survey, and crimes committed by participants reduced by 93%. Prior to entry 63% had been committing crimes daily.

CCC’s mentor program reaches out specifically to addicts with significant addiction issues, with on average 7.6 years of peak drug use. The stats, obviously, are a good argument for more dollars for drug treatment, and you might want to refer to them next time somebody suggests slashing any budgets.

Policy-makers: Download the full report here.

Finding Normal – in Peekskill, NY

Brian Lindstrom, director of Alien Boy, presented his film Finding Normal over the weekend at Peekskill, NY’s Paramount Center for the Arts as part of their Visiting Filmmaker’s Series.