"They say justice is blind. It must be to ignore the plight of the mentally ill in America’s prisons." So writes Matthew Mangino for thecrimereport.org in introducing the Milwaukee Journal Sentinel’s recent two-part series on mental illness and incarceration. In his editorial "America's 'Mental Health Gulag,'" Mr. Mangino points to North Carolina as well as other states as examples of less than humane treatment and solutions.
A suicidal Haw River man who was involved in a Wednesday standoff with Burlington police escaped from Alamance Regional Medical Center shortly after midnight Friday and shot himself a few hours later.
Jeffrey Allen Webster, 47, was in serious condition at UNC Hospitals in Chapel Hill Friday after shooting himself in the head, according to an Alamance County Sheriff’s Department news release.
Raleigh, NC – After an eight-month investigation, the U.S. Department of Justice (DOJ) has issued a letter of findings accusing the State of North Carolina of violating the Americans with Disabilities Act (ADA) by unnecessarily institutionalizing mental health patients instead of providing support in the community. The DOJ’s investigation was prompted by a complaint filed in July 2010 by Disability Rights North Carolina, the state’s protection and advocacy agency for people with disabilities.
Ever since the second day her son went to kindergarten, Penny Williams has worried about him. That’s the day Williams, a real estate broker in Asheville, N.C., got her first call from her child’s teacher. Luke wasn’t ready for school, the teacher told Williams. He couldn’t sit still and didn’t want to participate. The insinuation, Williams said, was that she had failed as a parent.
Crossroads Behavioral Healthcare, the local management entity for behavioral and mental health services, just found out that its proposed merger with two other agencies was one of the few such applications approved by the state.
RALEIGH — North Carolina must find homes for thousands of mentally ill people in communities and stop housing them in adult-care centers, where residents say their lives are regimented and boring, the U.S. Justice Department told the state this week.
“Adult-care homes are institutional settings that segregate residents from the community and impede residents’ interactions with people who do not have disabilities,” said the letter, dated Thursday, that was sent to Attorney General Roy Cooper.
BURLINGTON, N.C. — A man being evaluated at Alamance Regional Medical Center for mental illness was able to escape and obtain a gun, then shot himself in the head as officers attempted to take him into custody early Friday morning, Alamance County deputies said.
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