I just finished reading Black Hawk County Sheriff Tony Thompson’s incredibly insightful book, “Anywhere But Here: The Disturbing Convergence of Mental Illness and the Criminal Justice System.”
He gives readers an “exclusive peek behind the curtain” of this country’s mental health crisis. His argument is that “patients/victims of a failed medical and mental health care delivery system are becoming, by definition, criminals” of our laws and norms. His book goes on to prove this theory and propose solutions.
Louviere
I have also had the privilege, though not by choice, to peek behind the curtain of this crisis. I am a criminal and spent 10 years in prison. I was also a board certified family physician who lived in small cells with mentally ill patients and criminals. Fortunately, I have no mental health diagnosis other than being stupid enough to use or sell methamphetamine.
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According to the U.S. Department of Justice, 64% of all prison inmates have some kind of mental health problem. The crisis we face is due to the high concentration of mentally ill people in the criminal justice system. Sheriff Thompson correctly surmises that the public has no clue about the enormity of the problem: “This world is alien.”
Based on my medical training and experience, I agree with every point the sheriff makes in his book. “For some of these patients, a simple brush with a police officer can lock them into the walls of the criminal justice system for the rest of their lives,” he said. I’ve given many talks since I got out of prison, and I’ve listed story after story of people who had no use for being in prison, but now it’s easier to keep them than to treat them. . Of course, if they committed a crime they would have to serve a sentence, but many of the misdemeanors they committed were predictable and could have been prevented.
We spend too much of our national budget on our prison system. rear Crimes occur because “it is not common practice for governments to actively provide funding.” The sheriff went on to say, “My jail is the largest mental health facility in my county.” This is not the way we should be spending our healthcare dollars and fighting crime.
The Sheriff outlines a number of ideas and suggestions to help address this crisis. I won’t elaborate here, except to say that I believe he’s on the right path and hope our legislators listen to him and implement meaningful reforms. not.
His book reminded me of other issues that need to be proactively addressed. He touches on the illogical way we deal with sex offenders. This is an abhorrent topic for politicians and needs to be dealt with realistically. Climate change and the solvency of Social Security and Medicare are topics that politicians need to address now, not later.
When I was at the Black Hawk County Jail, Sheriff Thompson was not in charge. I don’t know him. He will be retiring soon, but I hope he is considering running for office. He was a positive rationalist who proposed thoughtful solutions to problems that no one wanted to deal with. I commend his efforts to meet this crisis head-on.
Dr. Mark Louviere is a Waterloo physician and former Black Hawk County Jail inmate.
