JUSTICE QUEST FOR AMERICA'S MENTALLY ILL PRISONERS, by Mary Neal

Isn't it awful about Sean LeVert?  He was arrested in March 2008 for overdue child support and put in a restraint chair while undergoing a psychotic episode, according to jail officials.  Mr. LeVert’s family is concerned about the circumstances of his death and has asked for an FBI investigation.  See FBI To Meet With Sean Levert's Family, Singer's Relatives Want ...

I am pleased that the FBI may work with Mr. LeVert’s family to get the information they need for closure following the death of their loved one.  My family, on the other hand, is steadfastly denied any investigation regarding the death of Larry Neal, my mentally ill brother, a heart patient, who died on August 1, 2003, after having been secretly arrested and kept incarcerated for 18 days in the Shelby County Jail in Memphis, Tennessee.  Larry’s family alleges that his death was followed by a cover-up by The Johnny Cochran Firm and others– a cover-up that continues to this day.  During Larry’s incarceration, Shelby County Jail denied having him repeatedly and falsely until he died of a heart attack, which was likely caused by the lack of Larry’s prescription heart drugs, if not something more sinister.  Larry’s family’s suit against the (Johnny) Cochran Firm, filed in Georgia Superior Court on August 1, 2005, alleged that Larry’s social worker and family were looking for Larry as a missing person while the jail ignored the missing person reports and continuously denied having Larry under incarceration until they were certain not to ever be again bothered with this troublesome mental patient.  Larry’s family further alleged that in an undisclosed conflict of interest, The (Johnny) Cochran Firm contracted with Larry's 80-year-old mother to bring wrongful death suit against the jail, and proceeded to do nothing as her legal agent for 10.5 months, in order to protect Shelby County Jail against a wrongful death suit.  Larry’s family believes the reason for the law firm’s malpractice and fraud was that Julian Bolton, managing partner at that time of the Memphis office of The Cochran Firm, was himself a 20+year member of the Shelby County Commission -- the entity that owns and operates the Shelby County Jail, which already had a history of civil rights violations against inmates.

Despite the fact that Shelby County Jail was under suit by the U.S.A. and under the oversight by the U.S. Department of Justice (USDOJ) at the time of Larry’s demise, the USDOJ absolutely refuses to investigate Larry's secret incarceration and wrongful death.  Furthermore, Larry’s family’s suit against the (Johnny) Cochran Firm was dismissed by Georgia Superior Court Judge Wendy Shoob in May 2006 after the law firm where my family’s suit was served, the advertised Atlanta office of The Cochran Firm, represented in court that it was in no way connected with The Cochran Firm.  Whether this means the law firm was guilty of perjury in court proceedings or false advertising, Larry’s family is not in a position to say.  Such questions are for a jury to decide, if we are ever permitted to go before one.  Larry’s family hopes to finally get justice in their presently pending suit against The Cochran Firm in United States District Court, Northern District of Georgia, with Judge Timothy Batten presiding.  If not, then like the child’s nursery rhyme, we will “try, try again.”  See: http://www.cochranfirm.com/office.html. 

My family is very pleased that the LeVert family’s allegations may be met with investigative efforts by the FBI.  Mr. LeVert was a well-known singer and many people are interested in the outcome of any investigation that ensues.  We should all be interested in any deaths in our government-run institutions that may have been preventable.  Unlike Mr. LeVert, Larry Neal lacked notoriety, money, and influential friends.  Therefore, ours is the only American family in the 21st Century to have a family member secretly arrested and returned to his family a corpse with no explanation, apology, excuse, inquest, arrest records, and denied any investigation.  Larry’s family does not know if this denial of an investigation is to hide the euthanasia of Larry Neal and save embarrassment to numerous public officials.  See http://wrongfuldeathoflarryneal.com.

It seems ridiculous to for American citizens to need petition signatures to influence government agencies to do their jobs, but that is exactly what Larry Neal’s family is doing to try to get the United States Justice Department to finally investigate Larry’s secret arrest and death.  We call it the “Petition for Dog Justice” because abuse and deaths of American dogs, like Michael Vick’s pit bulls, are investigated rigorously and speedily, unlike handicapped American citizens’ deaths.  We hope that many people will join us in our quest for answers and justice.  See our petition at:

PETITION FOR DOG JUSTICE FOR THE MENTALLY ILL
http://www.petitiononline.com/Neal/petition.html   

Substantially more mentally ill people are imprisoned than we initially understood.  I always number them at over 200,000, but have been informed by my congressman that the actual number of mentally ill prisoners in America is about 1.25 million!  See the attached letter to me from Congressman Hank Johnson (D-GA).  He has a commitment to assisting the mentally ill and voted in favor of the Mental Health Parity Act.  Congressman Johnson expresses a desire to increase the availability of mental health services to patients upon their release from jails and prisons, which may reduce the likelihood of their re-entry into the prison system – a common occurrence.

I wrote back to Congressman Johnson expressing my appreciation of his dedication to mental health issues, and I included a paragraph from our announcement for Assistance to the Incarcerated Mentally Ill ("AIMI") discussing the importance of making in-patient treatment and enforced treatment more accessible, when warranted.   I want our representatives to understand, as they make decisions about mental health care, that many of our citizens stricken with the most acute forms of mental illness are least likely to accept treatment unless it is enforced.  Most mentally ill people never hurt anyone and are not suicidal.  However, the prison system does them considerable harm, especially with the advent of Taser guns and restraint chairs, which cause death to many citizens, including the mentally ill.  However, there are those mental patients, like Mr. Cho, the VA Tech student who killed 32 people on campus, who remind us that public safety may be improved if the laws restricting mandatory treatment were relaxed to the degree that families could more easily ascertain treatment for their mentally ill relatives in a crisis.

MENTAL HEALTH HISTORY OF SEUNG HUI CHO

Governor Kaine convened a panel of professionals to learn more about Virginia Tech student, Seung Cho, who killed 32 people, and develop a profile of Cho and his mental health history.  The report states in part:

In the eleventh grade, Cho’s weekly sessions at the mental health center came to an end because there was a gradual, if slight, improvement over the years and he resisted continuing, according to his parents and therapist “There is nothing wrong with me. Why do I have to go?” he complained to his parents.  Mr. and Mrs. Cho were not happy that their son chose to discontinue treatment, but he was turning 18 the following month and legally he could make that decision.

See the full report at this link:  http://www.governor.virginia.gov/TempContent/techpanelreport.cfm

Unfortunately, Seung Cho's decision not to be treated for his mental illness is typical of many acutely mentally disturbed persons.  I received a letter recently from a lady who suffered a horrible crisis (she is bi-polar) that left her incarcerated for almost a year, where she suffered for many hours in a restraint chair.  Thank God she lived to tell about it!  She now makes sure that she gets the treatment she needs.  In her case, this includes medication and attending psychiatric sessions.  She reported to me that of all the people in her therapy sessions, only two are there of their own free will.  The others are only there due to a court order.  Once the terms of these mental patients' court order have been met, will they continue therapy? 

See http://www.sfgate.com/cgi-bin/article.cgi?f=/c/a/2007/11/04/MNI4T5L3S.DTL to examine how the rights of the mentally ill often thwart efforts to assist them.

Below is an excerpt from our announcement for Assistance to the Incarcerated Mentally Ill that was sent to Congressman Johnson.  See the full announcement at Announcing Assistance to the Incarcerated Mentall...

Presently, only the mentally ill who seek and/or willingly accept psychiatric treatment are serviced or hospitalized, unless or until patients are deemed by authorities to be a danger to themselves or others.  People who are too sick to recognize their own psychosis are left largely to their own devices.  Here is a secret we learned during years of visiting Larry in mental institutions and having met many sick patients:  Many acutely mentally ill people simply do not know/believe/accept that they are sick.  Many mentally ill people would recover sufficiently to function well in society with proper psychiatric treatment, but too often, patients’ lack of recognition of their own psychosis prevents access to needed care.  Ironically, the movement to deinstitutionalize the mentally ill in America and to curtail enforced treatment options was led for the most part by ex‑psychiatric patients who had themselves been institutionalized.  There was a time when even people suffering epilepsy or nervous breakdown were institutionalized.  Rejoining society obviously worked well for those who were capable of the self-discipline and presence of mind to launch this movement, many of whom went on to pursue psychiatric careers after release from asylums.  But deinstitutionalization was a tragic development for people like Larry and thousands of other sick people presently incarcerated, having only swapped hospital care for jail cells.  That is why this mental health system based on voluntary treatment has failed and our humanitarian decision of the 1970’s to deinstitutionalize the mentally ill has resulted in a growing prison population of mentally ill detainees.  How humane is jailing sick people?  Other side-effects of our “patients in charge” mental health system are overcrowded jails, an overtaxed criminal justice system, increasing homelessness, and a more dangerous society.  Both the Texas woman who drowned her five children and the Virginia Tech student who killed 32 people during a violent rampage were mental patients who needed better treatment and control.  We must free our nation’s law enforcement to get back to the business of fighting crime rather than acting as psychiatric caretakers.  It is cruel and unusual punishment to jail people whose mental capacity is such that they have limited or no understanding of their criminal charges and their Miranda rights.  Our law officers are involved in the business of crime and punishment, not mental health.  It is unfair to put our law officers in the position of psychiatric caretakers for America’s mental patients, and it is criminal of our government to incarcerate citizens for having a disability.

See http://wrongfuldeathoflarryneal.com

Mary Neal
Assistance to the Incarcerated Mentally Ill
P.O. Box 7222
Atlanta, GA 30357
mln@wrongfuldeathoflarryneal.com
mneal000@yahoo.com