Certain Content of this post, links to websites, and pictures may be disturbing. Caution before reading is strongly advised.
This disturbing story is the story of inmates who are released from asylum. They are put into the world without any real support, and then they usually end up back in prison, or the hospital. This Frontline presentation, called "The Released," explains why this is.
Jerry Tharp was in a previous Frontline program called "The New Asylums," which was about an asylum in Ohio that was having trouble taking care of its inmates. In The Released the reporters go deeper into the lives of some of the most disturbed inmates. Jerry Tharp goes into detail about his paranoid schizophrenia. He would cut himself, hurt himself, and often ingest harmful things, things you wouldn't BELIEVE! He recounts a time that he took a handheld radio, and broke it to pieces, and began to ingest it little by little shoving he pieces down his throat until it was completely gone. He more often ingested Razor blades, an other sharp objects.
Michael Grissett is a man who was put in jail for 21 years for murder. He has also been diagnosed with paranoid schizophrenia. He talked openly about the voices in his head, and how they often talk to him. When asked about what the voices will say when the reports leave, Michael said "they say 'Mr. Michael Grissett we know you're the father of G-d'." Michael responds to the voices "Get the F*** outta here,-- That's what I tell the voices. The devil. The voices." Michael was LUCKY to get into a re-entry program.
I think that it is ridiculous that he was lucky. He should have been required to be put into one, because of his conditions and because it is some form of support that may help the ex-patient to become more stable. I think that if these Re-entry programs become mandatory it will lower the statistical number of patients that end up coming back.
A woman, getting ready for Thanksgiving dinner, recollects of a time when there was a man tying to break into a woman's house. He was screaming "Osama Bin Laden," and throwing bricks, and bottles, and desperately trying to get in. When police arrived the man was arrested, and released the same day. The next night he was at it again, and he was arrested after a separate 911 call.
Lynn Moore was sentenced to eight months. According to records he has been arrested and released over twenty times, with this time being his FOURTH time in prison. In his support groups he claims to not be seeing Osama anymore, and agrees that his medication taking is KEY for staying out of prison. He served his full sentence, and was released without any support or supervision. On his
first day of freedom he headed towards the shelter where he lived before.
Homelessness is really a big part of ending up back at the hospital, or prison. People in the shelter are given a breathalyzer before entry, and are also drug tested. People who fail these tests are dismissed for thirty days. If you live in this shelter you are required to shape up, and required to get better.
Some people consider this cycle of "being admitted, being released, and repeating the offense," a revolving prison door. Bennie Anthony is a patient in an Orient Ohio hospital, and he is heavily medicated. Even when heavily medicated, he is constantly scared, thinking people are trying to kill him, and begs to be put in Protective Custody (PC). A year after Frontline reporters met Bennie he was released, because he was good under supervision.
Shortly after he moved to Pittsburgh, he stopped taking his medication, and quickly became homeless. Bennie has been arrested ten times in the past two years. Trespassing, loitering, breaking and entering, harassment, and exposing himself in public, are a few of the many things that he has been arrested for. When he was again arrested, and put in jail, he was very sick.
He was arrested for assault this time. His probation officer Jennifer Howison of Allegheny County had this to say "they were all related directly to his mental illness." While this may be true, Bennie had no supervision when his condition clearly showed that he needed it at all times.
Frontline talks about "Mental Health Court." Mental Health Court is a courtroom that believes in the offender being treated, and not punished. Bennie was doing great in the Court, and was "closer, and closer to Graduating from the court." In Wilkinsburg, Bennie found a group home. This group, according to Alan Holland owner of Gibbs Residential home, residents have changed over time. It was first for seniors, then they were gone and replaced with mentally ill people--of all variety. These people were then shortly taken over by mentally ill minority men, and they are the majority of the residents to this day. Alan talks about how the staff tries to enforce the taking of medications, but he also says that if the patients refuse them there is nothing he can do about it.
William Stokes was released from prison, and stopped taking his medication. He was quickly admitted back. He has threatened and assaulted officers, and refused medication on many occasions. With these things in mind he is often ordered to restraints. He claims to have these psychotic episodes when taking his medication. This is something very sad, and something very unavoidable in my opinion. He takes anti-psychotic medication, and he says that it's a miracle. He claims that it helps him be calm.
After serving another sentence, this time twenty-one months, he is released. With the help of the jail he is put into a group home in Ohio that provides mental health accommodations. He was classified as a "Cutter, Spitter, Bitter, and a Self-Mutilator," by Sheri Sullivan. He has had over a hundred emergency-room visits. He wants to do good, and not fail, but he has a very
serious case. He is very excited about going to this group home. With case managers and nurses, and other staff, Bridgeview Manor is a great place for William. As a matter of fact Bridgeview is the only place of its kind in the state of Ohio! Sheri tries to meet the needs of housing, and accommodate them to the best she, and her staff can. Every morning there is a meeting in a room with all of the residents, and they are all required to say something positive about themselves, and life.
Since being in the real world Lynn Moore failed a breathalyzer. After the thirty days of dismissal was over, Lynn was nowhere to be found. One day the police got a report of a man throwing rocks. He was arrested, and taken to prison this was exactly three months to the day that he was released. He has severely digressed, and is now sure that these voices are NOT fake. He spent thirty days in jail, and was then released. A week later he was arrested again.
Seven months since William was put into Bridgeview he was still doing great, and making progress.
Michael Grissett was hoping to finish his parole, but on January, 16th, 2009, Michael was shot to death in a robbery of his group home.
Two weeks before his court review Bennie stopped taking his medication, and packed up his things. He disappeared. He is currently back in Allegheny county jail.
This film really did move me. I experienced sadness, happiness, anger, and disappointment. I wanted all of these men to do well, some did some didn't, and that upset me. Michael Grissett had potential to do great after his parole, but he was shot. Bennie could have stayed and kept the motivation to take his medication, but he is back in jail now.
If there were to be a follow-up film on this subject I wouldn't know what to expect. I would like to hope that they are all out of jail and in group homes, or assisted living homes, or working in offices, stores, houses anywhere. But really you never know, and that is very disappointing.
--Damon Michael Torell Weiser - 2012
More about mental illness in the state of Ohio
- Number of residents with serious mental illness - 461,232
- Hate crimes>Disability related - 6
State Hospital Readmissions: 30 Days - 13,771 10.7% 9.3% 48
State Hospital Readmissions: 180 Days - 31,720 23.0% 21.3% 49
State Hospital Readmissions: 30 Days: Adults - 12,519 10.7% 9.4% 47
State Hospital Readmissions: 180 Days: Adults - 29,096 23.0% 21.8% 47
State Hospital Readmissions: 30 Days: Children - 1,228 - 8.2% 38
State Hospital Readmissions: 180 Days: Children- 2,568 - 17.1% 43
Male mental patients - 52%
Female mental patients - 48%
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