Prison the treatment for Buffalo Grove man’s mental illness

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Herald.

http://www.dailyherald.com/article/20110925/news/709259910/

Prison the treatment for Buffalo Grove man’s mental illness

The first hint that Daniel Jason might not fit in with others came when he walked
into his kindergarten class with his hands shielding his eyes so he wouldn’t
have to look at anyone.

A good baseball player throughout his childhood and teen years, Daniel nonetheless
sat by himself in his team’s dugout.

A fine college student who graduated early, Daniel had problems with almost all
of his roommates. He clearly struggled in his first romantic relationship. Some
time off in Florida didn’t bring him peace.

But of all the places where Daniel has had difficulty fitting in, the numerous jail
cells where he’s spent all his time since March of 2007 have been the most
difficult to endure for his parents, Joseph and Nancy Jason.

“He’s not a thug,” the mom says of her son as she sits at the dining room table in
their Buffalo Grove home. “He’s acting like a fifth-grader and they put him
with criminals.”

Daniel has Asperger syndrome, a high-functioning person with an organic developmental disorder
in the autism spectrum, explains his father, Joseph Jason,
whose experience with his son has turned him into a crusader for people with mental
illnesses. A certified public accountant, Joseph Jason is president of the
Barrington Area chapter of the National Alliance on
Mental Illness. He knows the struggle all too well.

“It’s like a nightmare that just keeps going,” Joseph Jason
says of his son’s ordeal.

A bright child who had difficulty making friends and
socializing, Daniel was diagnosed with Asperger syndrome as a teenager after he
threw a tantrum, was hospitalized and his interactions with his parents became
more argumentative.

“He’d be in your face,” his mom recalls.

“He lashes out verbally,” his dad says.

The boy used the Internet to write offensive and juvenile
things about girls’ bodies.

With treatment and counseling, Daniel was able to run cross
country at Stevenson High School and did well enough academically to get into plenty
of colleges. He wanted to major in finance at the University of Iowa, but his
parents were worried about him being so far from home. They told him to start
at Illinois State University with the promise that if he got straight As for
two years, he could transfer.

“He got all As,” his mom says, accustomed to the way Daniel
can lock in on a goal.

Roommates — who didn’t understand the mental illness that
led to Daniel typing at 3 a.m., eating sloppy meals with his fingers or leaving
the room a mess — just thought he was a jerk. One punched him.

Daniel had trouble socially, but he managed to graduate
early in December of 2005. He also started dating a woman for the first time.
It wasn’t a healthy relationship. When his parents couldn’t manage to meet her
during one of their visits, Daniel lashed out.

“We got a text message in the car,” the dad says, recalling
the words they are sure their son didn’t mean: “I hope both of you get killed
on the way home.”

Those kind of impulsive threats are how Daniel responded
after his girlfriend ended their relationship.

He’d send hundreds of emails and text messages, threatening
to go public with secrets of their relationship.

He returned to Iowa for graduate school. She got an order
of protection. Daniel violated that order of protection. He was suspended from
grad school and his parents brought him home and tried to get him help. He
returned to Iowa, spent a month in jail, and within hours of his release,
violated court orders by contacting his old girlfriend.

Using his smarts and a couple thousand dollars of his bar
mitzvah money, Daniel started trading options online and made $120,000, which
he used to travel to Daytona Beach, Fla.

While there, he continued to communicate with his
ex-girlfriend and send inappropriate and disturbing photos and messages. When
he came to Iowa to visit her in March of 2007, he was arrested again and sent
to jail.

Firing his lawyers and choosing to defend himself, Daniel
mailed one of his stick-figure drawings to an attorney, depicting the lawyer, a
gun and the saying “R.I.P.” That led to the FBI filing charges and a federal
conviction.

Daniel threatens violence, but isn’t violent, say his
parents, who note that mental health treatment, not jail, is the only way to
end this sad cycle of inappropriate and criminal behavior.

“What’s the answer? You can’t just keep him in jail and
prison for his whole life,” says the father, who notes that he hasn’t even been
able to hug his son since a 2007 court appearance.

“I get five to eight phone calls a week from families in
the same situation and that’s just the calls I get

,”
says James Pavle, executive director of the
Treatment Advocacy Center, a not-for-profit group that advocates
alternatives other than jail for many of the people with mental illnesses.
“Over-incarceration is a tragedy.”

Studies show that 16 percent of our nation’s jail and prison population suffer from
mental illnesses, and many experts think the percentage is higher, Pavle says.
In the 1950s, we had 550,000 psychiatric beds in facilities
across the nation. Now, we have fewer than 100,000. We moved away from
large mental institutions, but we didn’t move that money into other treatments,
Pavle says.

“What confounds me the most is the comfort level that we in this society have with
the incarceration of people with mental illnesses,” Pavle says. “This great
society of ours, we’re just not cutting edge when it comes to treating people
with mental illness.”

The Jasons continue to write prosecutors, judges and other authorities, trying to
get their son into a facility with the mental health treatments he needs.

“We are begging you, from the bottom of our hearts to please give him a chance to
improve and build a life for himself,” they write.

“We really don’t know our son anymore,” the mom says, wiping tears from her eyes.
“You think if you love that child, it’s enough. But it’s not, because it’s in
their brain.”

Lawsuits-autism, severe aggression, and self injury

N. B. v Hamos filed 9/29/2011 in Illinois Northern District Federal Court.

The lawsuit was filed on behalf of a 15 year old boy who has multiple mental health
diagnoses including autism, severe aggression, and self injury. He is also
non-verbal. N.B. has cycled through the psychiatric revolving door 14 times
over the last two years.

The  suit was filed individually and on behalf of a class of Medicaid eligible
children under the age of 21, with behavioral or emotional disorders, who need
intensive care to correct or ameliorate their conditions. This complaint
alleges violations of the EPSDT provision of Medicaid, ADA, and Rehabilitation
Act. The complaint also seeks services for the plaintiff in his home and
community to prevent unnecessary hospitalizations.

The suit cites a March 2009, DHS report that identifies 18,134 children under the
age of 21 with severe mental and emotional illnesses.

• Under ICG, 220 children are receiving intensive community
  based services (145 in their homes and 75 in group homes)
• In fiscal year 2007, 1051families applied for
  ICG, but only 81 grants were awarded

The suit cites a May 2011, DHS PUNS (Prioritization of Urgent Needs and Services)
report that identifies 496 children with “Emergency Need” and 1627 with
“Critical Need.”

The suit cites a CRSA report which singles out classifications of children most
likely to “fall through the cracks,” leaving children unserved or
under-served.:

• Children who need intensive clinical/behavioral
  interventions but who do not meet the state mental health criteria to qualify
  for funding of needed residential treatment.
• Children with cognitive impairments in
  combination with other disabilities.
• Families of adopted children in crisis.
• Children who need specialized treatment to address
  inappropriate sexualized behavior
• Children with brain injuries

This  federal lawsuit was filed by the following attorneys:

Robert H. Farley, Jr., Ltd.

1155 S. Washington Street

Naperville, IL 60540

630-369-0103

farleylaw@aol.com

Michelle N.
Schneiderheinze

2401 E. Washington Street
Suite 300C

Bloomington, IL 61704

309-533-7340

michelle@mnslawoffice.com

Mary Denise Cahill

Cahill & Associates

1155 S. Washington Street

Naperville, IL 60540

630-778-6500

mdcahill@sbcglobal.net

Shame on Iowa

To The Department of Justice:

My son Daniel has been rearrested for a violation of parole.  According to
Daniel, another person in the residential facility made a false accusation
against him.  This did not stop him from being arrested.  People with
Asperger Syndrome are frequently a victim and prone to be bullied.  As
President of a NAMI Affiliate, I and many other people are outraged that Daniel
has not been given effective appropriate treatment and has continued to be
incarcerated.  My son does not belong in jails and prisons.   He

 is no thug.  He is not violent.  I spent thousands of dollars to get
a forensic psychiatrist’s opinion to provide this assurance.   He has
however  been allowed to look for a job despite his Asperger Syndrome
without any assistance.  I had also requested that he be sent to Illinois
and this was denied.  Are you aware that 80% of people with Asperger
Syndrome are unable to get jobs.   Make this 100% with a felony
conviction.  The only thing the government is capable of doing is
punishing my son endlessly for non-violent crimes.   In fact, this
has been going on since March of 2007. At the end of the day, I believe we are
accountable for our actions to a higher being.  Years from now the DOJs
actions on people with Asperger Syndrome will be considered so barbaric and
shameful by everyone.  I have done everything I can to get this message
out as to what  is happening in Iowa.  I will do this as long as I breathe.

I will not bow to injustice, I will not break, I will continue to advocate. 

“If societies are judged by how they treat their most disabled members. Our society

will be judged harshly indeed,” said E. Fuller Torrey M.D., a research psychiatrist and
Treatment Advocacy Founder.  I have contacted various press contacts on
this.  I have no doubt that Judge Reade will send Daniel back to prison
for 2 more years. We will be told that Daniel can control his childlike
behavior and prison will deter future crimes.  It is no wonder why we lead
the world in incarcerations.  We treat our terrorists better.  The
conduct in this case is shameful. 

 

Incarceration of People With Asperger Syndrome-Improvement Ideas

Here are some of  my ideas for improving the system for mentally ill people  incarcerated in the legal system who have Asperger Syndrome. 

1)There must be fair treatment by the criminal justice system for people who have autism.

 

The Autism Society of America and the Criminal Justice Action Committee believes  the following:

  

What ASA and the Criminal Justice Action Committee  is calling for is fair treatment by the criminal justice system for people who have
autism. Specifically, ASA  and the Criminal Justice Action  Committee are calling  for the following:

• All individuals with autism must have the right to have the condition of autism be considered first, and the implications of having  autism be considered primary to any action taken by the criminal justice system prior to prosecution.  Individuals with autism must have the right to free and appropriate individualized resources (FAIR) to enable them to receive  appropriate education and training in order that they not develop nor continue  behavior that may be viewed as illegal.
• Proper training in the issues associated with the syndrome of autism must be provided to all individuals associated with the  criminal justice system, including judges, juries, prosecutors, defense lawyers, law enforcement personnel, and any other forensic science  investigators associated with a criminal justice action.
• Individuals with autism must have the right to have expert witnesses, who understand the disability of autism, available to them in  a court of law.
• If prosecuted, an individual with autism must have his disability considered primary when sentencing is handed out, e.g.,  consideration of a secure residential autism treatment agency if incarceration is indicated.   The criminal justice system must ensure the protection of the civil rights of the individual with autism should the
  individual be incarcerated in a correctional institution or other human service agency.  Individuals with autism must be protected under the American’s with Disabilities Act ensuring that their autism is not the reason  for the conviction in a criminal justice action.

2)Educate mental health courts-I recently provided articles  about Asperger Syndrome to a new mental health court judge in Rolling Meadows, Illinois.      I also gave her a summary of the trials and tribulations of my family.   We were one of many groups that met with her.  My dream is that mental health courts will include people with Asperger Syndrome in the future.

 

3)There is a need for mental health courts  for federal matters.   The fact that people with Asperger Syndrome are getting  sentences of 27 months to 8 years in federal prison raises alarm bells. I know of another one who has been threatened with 30 years.   We need to find out if this is just happening in Iowa or the whole country.    To have to serve years for non-violent crimes and only get a reduction of 15% time is a grave  injustice.   

  

This time I have added my articles to this email.  With your help, I pray that we can make a difference in the incarceration of people with Asperger Syndrome.    While my son is now in a reentry program after 4 years and 4 months, I will continue to advocate as long as I breathe. 

 

 

Joseph M. Jason, President
NAMI BA

Chairman-Criminal Justice
Action Committee

Asperger Syndrome Incarcerations in Iowa

Posted on January 18, 2011 by Toni

by guest contributor Joseph M. Jason

 “If societies are judged by how they treat their most disabled members. Our society will be judged harshly indeed,” said E. Fuller Torrey M.D., a research psychiatrist and Treatment Advocacy Founder. 

Many of you have autistic children and that is why you have joined your respective autism organizations. Some of you have family members with Asperger Syndrome or high functioning autism. I know what it is like to live with somebody with Asperger Syndrome, who struggles to look their own parents in the eye, and not being able to reciprocate with the love that you have for them. I grieved when at a young age it became apparent that Daniel could not make friends. I grieved when I coached his baseball teams and he would sit on the bench by himself. My son graduated from the University of Iowa with an A- average. I grieved when I took him on numerous interviews and he could not be hired due to his autism. I grieved when he fell in love with a girl and she finally rejected him and he could not accept it. To him, nobody else would ever love him. I grieved when we had to hospitalize Daniel a couple of times in his youth. I grieved when his roommates at college could not stand living with him and tried to beat him. I grieved when he got caught up in the legal system and not many cared about him. I have spent years advocating for him. Daniel is not violent but yet he will waste at least 5 years being incarcerated. What a tragic waste of a life.  Without the autism, he could be a CPA, an attorney, or an investment banker. With a criminal record, what job will be ever hold now? 

 I am here to warn you that some of you will have your children become part of the legal system.  My son, Daniel, is one of the first to have been incarcerated with Asperger Syndrome.

I have condemned the recent sentencing of two men with Asperger Syndrome to 27 months and another to over 8 years. The first one is Daniel. I called for Federal Judge Reade to resign as well as Stephanie Rose, United States attorney in northern Iowa to resign. Had they both taken the time to read information about Asperger Syndrome and organic brain disorders, both might actually have had compassion instead of advocating for continued inhumane incarceration in the Iowa gulag. I am ashamed for the Iowa prosecutors and judges for continuing to incarcerate instead of offering treatment. Volumes of information was given to both of them and they chose to ignore it. I have stated that a sweeping reform is needed in Iowa and the rest of the Unites States. I stated that this should be a wakeup call for everybody. Your children may be next. Daniel has not been allowed outside since he was arrested in March of 2007. We treat our terrorists better.

Please read the articles that I will be providing to educate yourselves. Law enforcement in the State and Federal jurisdictions will treat your children as thugs and incarcerate them with true criminals. I have been advocating in the state of Iowa for 4 years.  My pleas have mostly fallen on deaf ears. I have provided much information that explains Daniel’s child-like behavior to prosecutors and they have ignored me. In fact instead of shipping him close to us in a Federal prison, they have shipped him off to Oklahoma City. We live in Illinois.

The following is from a recent report from Forensic Psychiatrist Doctor Mills dated 06/01/2010. He has testified in numerous court cases and these include for the government. Doctor Mills stated “Incarceration likewise is counterproductive because time in custody fails to help Mr. Jason acquire the social (and related) skills that he needs in order to become economically self-sufficient, and fails to give him the opportunity to make new, more appropriate social relationships. While time in custody serves the goal of ‘neutralization,’ it does little to provide Mr. Jason, affirmatively, with the skills he will need if he is meaningfully invested in new relationships (and thereby stop his obsessive ruminations about past ones) and become a productive member of society.”   

Dr. Mills continues “To conclude, you asked me to be completely candid in my assessment of Mr. Jason. I have done so both to honor your request and because I do too many criminal cases, for both sides, to have anything other than respect for the complexities and competing perspectives in such matters generally and in this compelling case, particularly. Still, I would reiterate that Mr. Jason’s disorder is real, serious and not of his choosing. Further, his misconduct clearly emanated from that disorder. Given that fact, I would hope that a fair-minded prosecutor balancing these many considerations would be moved by Mr. Jason’s clinical situation and would work with you to find a better alternative than further prosecution and (probably) counterproductive incarceration.

Doctor Olson said it best when he said:

“Mr. Jason is an unfortunate young man who has a brain disorder. He has suffered from the impact of this disorder since at least his early childhood. He does not have an antisocial personality or criminal mind.”

As long as I breathe, I will not bow to the criminalization of Asperger Syndrome and mental illness. I will not break. I will continue to advocate. 

The present situation, whereby individuals with serious mental illnesses are being put into jails and prisons rather than into hospitals, is a disgrace to American medicine and to common decency and fairness.”

I have been told from reliable sources that my son would not be incarcerated in the State of New York.

Joseph M. Jason

847-537-3009

jmj2400@yahoo.com

Criminal Justice Action Committee

NAMI Barrington area President

Commentary by blog author:  Joseph M. Jason has worked tirelessly towards educating judicial systems and others about the effects of Asperger’s Syndrome and autism. His son, Daniel, did commit crimes, but they were non-violent crimes. He never hurt anyone. His doctors have verified that he is not capable of hurting anyone. One of the symptoms of Asperger’s Syndrome is that he often makes verbal threats with no inclination to carry them out. Iowa courts failed to see this, favoring to treat him harshly by giving him the maximum sentence allowable by law.

 Correctional systems have the express intent of punishing offenders with the intent that if they miss out on years of their lives, they will learn to live by societal rules. This is not the case for people with organic brain disorders, who are incapable of rationalizing cause and effect, rendering any jail time, moot.     

 I only take exception to one sentence in this editorial. Dr. Olson said that Daniel was “unfortunate.” Daniel’s current circumstances are unfortunate. However, to have such loving parents, who advocate so strongly on his behalf, I would have to contest that adjective.

I suggest that as a son, he is indeed “fortunate.”

 

Filed under: Asperger Syndrome, legislative reform, Mental Health, mental health court Tagged: | Asperger Syndrome, mental health court, mental health incarceration

The Nation’s Largest Mental Health Provider Is the Corrections System by President Joseph M. Jason of NAMI BA

The Nation’s Largest Mental Health Provider Is the Corrections System by President Joseph M. Jason of NAMI BA

Our NAMI organization needs to be a better job in advocating for change for the mentally ill who are in jails and prisons. There are more people with mental illness in Illinois’ prisons and jails than in all the residential mental health facilities public and private combined.  In fact, more than 50% of prison inmates in the US have symptoms of serious mental illness.  What it means is that the mental healthcare is failing-failing long before people enter the criminal justice system and failing long after they leave it-individuals are sentenced to lives without hope and enormous costs are shifted on to our police, courts, jails and prisons at all lives.

In 1970, there were 400,000 people in the State Psychiatric Hospitals in the United States.  Today, there are less than 50,000.  In the same time, the United States now incarcerates eight times as many people in prisons as they did in 1970.  There are 2.3 million people in custody on any given day in the United States or 1 in 100 adults.

In 1970 only 4% of people institutionalized with a mental illness were in prison.  Today that figure is over 70%. 

States are failing to invest in providing adequate mental healthcare.  Prisons are never the optimal place for mental health treatment.  NAMI believes in treatment instead of incarceration for people with mental illness according to our platform. Most persons with a mental illness need housing and support services and not jail.   However this message is not being conveyed adequately to our members and representatives.

Individuals with serious brain disorders are frequently placed in solitary confinement and to govern the necessary medication to control l their symptoms.

“If societies are judged by how they treat their most disabled members. Our society will be judged harshly indeed,” said E. Fuller Torrey M.D., a research psychiatrist and Treatment Advocacy Founder. 

The present situation, whereby individuals with serious mental illnesses are being put into jails and prisons rather than into hospitals, is a disgrace to American medicine and to common decency and fairness.”

One ray of hope is now in Baltimore and perhaps this following initiative can be followed in Illinois.

Baltimore has a new initiative called the Mental Health Case Management Docket.  It is  aimed at the repeat offenders who commit crimes as a result of having a serious mental illness rather than from criminal intent. People who suffer from lifelong psychiatric conditions such as schizophrenia, bipolar disorder or clinical depression are often incapable of taking responsibility for their actions. Unless they get treatment that addresses their underlying disorder, their behavior is unlikely to change and they may remain a danger to themselves and others, regardless of the sentence they receive.

The three-year pilot project is expected to serve about 30 people a year at an annual cost of about $120,000. That is not cheap, but officials hope it will pay off over the long run by reducing the cost of trials and incarceration in the criminal justice system and lower arrest rates among the program’s participants.

This is a big step forward for the criminal justice system, because the illnesses in question can be devastating to people who suffer from them. Schizophrenia is a psychotic disorder that makes its victims prey to terrifying visual and auditory hallucinations, jumbled thoughts and persistent delusions that distort their perception of reality. People who suffer from bipolar disorder are subject to wild emotional swings, from elevated moods of grandiosity and invincibility to feelings of unbearable sadness, hopelessness and despair. Major depression isn’t just feeling “blue” but a life-threatening, chronic condition that can drive people to neglect themselves and their responsibilities to others or even push them to suicide. In all three cases, even if people are capable of distinguishing right from wrong, they may be unable to act on that knowledge.

 

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