"AIMI vs. USA" for Justice

"AIMI vs. USA" is a planned legal action for International Court, to be filed in 2015. It will seek compensation to persons and families who suffer(ed) because mental illness has been criminalized in the United States of America. Read more and determine your eligibility beneath the photo below.

Four provisions are vital to the welfare of persons with serious mental illness, their families, and communities: (1) AOT programs (mandated treatment and subsistence assistance), (2) crisis intervention team (CIT) training for police and prison guards, (3) Medicaid insurance resumption for psychiatric inpatients, and (4) accountability for overuse of force by police officers and prison guards. People with serious mental illness must have all four provisions to avoid homelessness, prison and death, and Americans must demand all four to reduce prison costs and improve community safety.

"Helping Families in Mental Health Crisis Act of 2015," H.R.2646, is a congressional bill that was introduced by Representative Tim Murphy and Representative Eddie Bernice Johnson to address some of the improvements needed in America's mental health care system; however, lawmakers will not institute needed changes while they are themselves private prison and jail investors. Conflicts of interest by lawmakers, Justice Department personnel, judges, prosecutors, probation officers, and law enforcement prohibited timely, appropriate psychiatric treatment for at least 1.25 million mentally ill prisoners in order to keep such persons revolving in and out of prisons and jails. This increases prison investors' profits. "Public servants" must be made to DIVEST or RESIGN, or mass incarceration will continue being one of America's biggest industries to the detriment of Americans with mental disabilities and community safety.

Prison profiteering has spread throughout America like an airborne disease. That is precisely why Assistance to the Incarcerated Mentally Ill ("AIMI") is taking the matter to the United Nations. Up to 100 mentally ill people and/or their families are preparing cases of neglect, brutality, and wrongful deaths for International Court, where we will sue the USA for monetary damages. The love of money leads prison investors to withhold psychiatric treatment in order to imprison our mentally ill and addicted relatives and neighbors, and only the love of money will inspire change.

AIMI vs. USA

Americans must not accept the continuous killings and torturous incarceration of mentally ill people, who comprise over 60 percent of prisoners in solitary confinement. Neither can taxpayers continue to tolerate prison costs that exceed $100 billion per year, more than half of which is caused by withholding psychiatric treatment. All Americans are less safe in a country that withholds treatment unless and until a crime is committed. We demand change for (a) the benefit of Americans with mental disabilities, (b) reduced prison costs, and (c) improved community safety. The love of money inspired officials to "outlaw" mental illness rather than treat it like any other chronic health condition. Discrimination is morally wrong and unjust according to International Law. Therefore, affected families are suing the USA in International Court under "AIMI vs. USA."

1.  WHO CAN BECOME AN "AIMI vs. USA" CLAIMANT?

Up to 100 families that have been negatively impacted by withholding timely, appropriate psychiatric treatment and treatment for drug addictions will become AIMI claimants. Outcomes include, but are not limited to, long-term homelessness, incarceration (especially in solitary confinement), and deaths under the color of law. Most AIMI claimants are persons with serious mental illness and addictions, but families that have been victimized by untreated mentally ill persons and drug addicts are also invited to join us. In example, Sergio Robles was incarcerated for 14 days and denied his prescribed psychiatric medicines, although he repeatedly asked jailers for his medicine. He was brutalized by corrections officers just prior to release, then released from jail in both a psychiatric crisis and physical pain. Within hours of jail release, Robles shot and killed a police officer. He was induced to sign a plea bargain for 40 years incarceration. Both Robles and the police officer's survivors qualify as claimants under "AIMI vs. USA," as they were both negatively impacted by the deliberate withdrawal of Robles' mental health treatment.

In addition to seeking damages for mentally ill people who's rights are/were violated by neglect, brutality, and wrongful deaths, families of Americans with mental disabilities often suffer from Legal Abuse Syndrome (LAS), a form of post traumatic stress disorder (PTSD). It is a psychic injury, not a mental illness. LAS is a personal injury that develops in individuals assaulted by ethical violations, legal abuses, betrayals, and fraud. Standing by mentally ill family members while they go through criminal courts can be devastating. Civil court is challenging, also, for families of mentally ill persons who have been injured or killed under the color of law. Families often find that justice is denied in U.S. courts in order to excuse their relatives' continued imprisonment, tortures during incarceration, or wrongful deaths. Extreme stress sometimes results in physical, financial, and emotional damage to LAS victims. Numerous parents of brutalized or killed mentally ill prisoners had heart attacks, strokes, nervous breakdowns, and they endure overbearing legal fees and suffer job losses that result from protracted efforts to save disabled offspring from incarceration or litigate their wrongful deaths. Many families are even denied visits with mentally ill loved ones who are kept in solitary confinement prison torture, which sometimes lasts for decades. These circumstances cause LAS, and families must be compensated.

2.  HOW CAN I HAVE MY CASE CONSIDERED?
Communication is challenging. Mary Neal, director of AIMI, experiences telephone interference and email censorship. Interested parties can comment at this article, and be sure to leave an email address or phone number. 

AIMI DIRECTOR

Mary Neal (678)531.0262 or (571)335-1741

Write MaryLovesJustice@gmail.com, and title the emails "AIMI vs. USA"

You may also join AIMI's claimants conferences on the first consecutive Saturday and Sunday of each month, except on holidays. Phone conferences begin at 9am Pacific, 10am Mountain, 11am Central, and at noon Eastern. The dates for claimants' phone conferences are June 6, June 7, July 11, July 12, August 1 and August 2. Conferences began in September of 2014, and are saved for you to hear. We anticipate dispensing with accepting new claimants after August 2 in order to prepare the cases for filing. Use the phone numbers below:

PHONE CONFERENCES
You can connect with the conferences at FreeConferenceCall dial-in number (605)562-0020, Meeting I.D. Code: 992-212-650. If that fails, the backup number is (805)360-1075. Please call to learn more about this international action to win restitution for claimants and change for America. If you experience problems connecting, call and report problems to the director, Mary Neal, or comment at this article.

3.  WHAT WILL AIMI DO WITH ITS SHARE OF THE AWARD?

The greatest threat to mentally ill people who are arrested is their propensity to be coerced or tricked into giving up their right to a speedy trial. In fact, the U.S. justice system has such disregard for Americans with mental disabilities that scores of mentally challenged people are tortured by solitary confinement and physical abuse -- sometimes for years -- unless and until they plea bargain on crimes they may not have done, just as African Americans are often tortured to force their false confessions, including healthy people. AIMI will use its share of the award money to pay bail for financially needy mentally ill people throughout the USA in order to ensure that they get their day in court as prescribed by the Sixth Amendment of the United States. Other programs and services may be arranged, depending on the size of AIMI's award, including:
(a) housing for displaced mentally ill people, who comprise over 30 percent of America's homeless
(b) daytime recreation centers with skilled caretakers on site; transportation and nutritious meals included
(c) legal services for ascertaining social security and other benefits
(d) legal referral services and funding for criminal defendants
(d) trust account services
(e) drug rehabilitation referrals and funding
(e) family counseling and learning centers to teach caretakers about serious mental illness and provide information on best practices
(f) renewable income sources that also provide jobs for mentally challenged working people
(e) lobbyists to encourage lawmakers to decriminalize mental illness and reduce police violence incidents
Please comment below if you have suggestions that are not included above.

4.  WHO WILL FILE "AIMI vs. USA" CASE IN INTERNATIONAL COURT AND WHEN?

AIMI anticipates contracting with an International Lawyer to file the case against the USA, which is a member nation of the United Nations. Wherever a mentally ill person or drug/alcohol addict has been refused mental health services by local mental health authorities, tortured in jail or prison, wounded or killed by local police in the USA, or executed by a state, the fault will be placed against the USA in International Court under "AIMI vs. USA," which is expected to be filed in 2015.

5.  WHAT WILL IT COST TO BECOME AN "AIMI vs. USA" CLAIMANT?

We anticipate that preparing each case for filing will require $1,000. Fundraising is planned to help families for whom raising the $1,000 will be problematic. AIMI recognizes that police departments and the prison profiteering system usually targets poor people from communities of color and whites who lack wealth to misuse their mentally disabled members as prison commodities. We will work together to ensure that deserving families are included in the "AIMI vs. USA" action in International Court.

6.  HOW WILL THE AMOUNT OF MY AWARD BE DETERMINED?
Major complaints include long-term homelessness, community violence (not by law officers), denial of mental health care and drug treatment programs, jail and prison sentences (some served in solitary confinement), brutality and deaths under the color of law, and Legal Abuse Syndrome caused by stress on families who try to extract their members from the legal system that misuses mentally ill Americans as prison commodities, executions of mentally ill Americans, and wrongful deaths. In addition, victims of mentally ill people and drug addicts have been burglarized, robbed, raped, tortured, and killed. Such victims or their survivors deserve restitution for America neglecting to provide care for mentally challenged and drug addicted people.

6a. Claimants' awards will be determined based on the extent of damages they suffered. All wrongful death cases will receive the maximum award, which will be $3m per victim. Otherwise, mentally ill victims' awards will be remitted in three parts: one-third awarded immediately to the victim or authorized representative, one-third to the victim's trust fund that must be placed with a law firm or insurance company of your choice or with AIMI, and one-third to the family member who incurred Legal Abuses Syndrome and filed the claim with "AIMI vs. USA."

Thank you for your interest in Assistance to the Incarcerated Mentally Ill (AIMI), which will sue the USA for monetary damages for families of neglected, abused, and killed mental patients and drug/alcohol addicts (and their victims) who are/were negatively impacted by a mental health care system that awaits crimes before helping sick people. This threatens the freedom and safety of Americans with mental disabilities, and it threatens security for everyone throughout the nation. Criminalizing mental illness inflicts a tremendous tax burden by incarcerating over a million people who should be either in hospitals or community care programs, depending on their offenses and their ability to manage outside of a controlled environment.

Most mentally ill prisoners would be able to resume wholesome lives if AOT programs become widely accessible. Those who cannot participate in community health care under an AOT program because of violent crimes, and/or their lack of wherewithal to live outside of a controlled environment, require the resumption Medicaid insurance for mental hospitals. Families who require police assistance for mentally ill relatives should be able ascertain help without fearing police violence or brutality against their relatives while incarcerated. Therefore, CIT training is absolutely necessary for police and corrections officers. Police and corrections officers who act in disregard of people's human and civil rights must be held criminally liable to increase safety for people experiencing mental health crises. It is unlikely that these necessary changes will come from legislators within the USA, where officials are allowed to be private prison investors. Furthermore, millions of families have already suffered irreparable harm. That is why "AIMI vs. USA" is necessary. We appreciate your support. 

H.R. 3717 "Helping Families in Mental Health Crisis Act"
https://www.congress.gov/bill/113th-congress/house-bill/3717
H.R. 2646 "Helping Families in Mental Health Crisis Act of 2015" 
https://www.congress.gov/bill/114th-congress/house-bill/2646/cosponsors

THE UNITED NATIONS IS ON AIMI'S SIDE AND MADE HUMAN RIGHTS DEMANDS TO END TORTURE AND UNREQUITED MURDERS OF PRISONERS

The United Nations Committee Against Torture addressed the United States' high rate of in-custody deaths after its review last fall. Its findings and recommendations are below.

DEATHS IN CUSTODY 

22) The Committee notes with concern that 958 inmates died while in the custody of local jails during 2012, an 8 percent increase from the 889 deaths in 2010. During the same year, State prison deaths remained stable with 3,351 reported deaths. The Committee is particularly concerned about reports of inmate deaths occurred as a result of extreme heat exposure while imprisoned in unbearably hot and poor ventilated prison facilities in Arizona, California, Florida, New York, Michigan and Texas (arts. 2, 11 and 16).

The Committee urges the State party to investigate promptly, thoroughly and impartially ALL deaths of detainees, assessing the health care received by inmates as well as any possible liability of prison personnel, and provide, where appropriate, adequate compensation to the families of the victims.

SOLITARY CONFINEMENT

On October 18, 2011, a United Nations expert on torture called on all countries to ban the solitary confinement of prisoners except in very exceptional circumstances and for as short a time as possible, with an absolute prohibition in the case of juveniles and people with mental disabilities.

“Segregation, isolation, separation, cellular, lockdown, Supermax, the hole, Secure Housing Unit … whatever the name, solitary confinement should be banned by States as a punishment or extortion technique,” UN Special Rapporteur on torture Juan E. Méndez told the General Assembly’s third committee, which deals with social, humanitarian and cultural affairs, saying the practice could amount to torture.

“Solitary confinement is a harsh measure which is contrary to rehabilitation, the aim of the penitentiary system,” he stressed in presenting his first interim report on the practice, calling it global in nature and subject to widespread abuse.

Published by MaryLovesJustice Neal

Director of Assistance to the Incarcerated Mentally Ill
"AIMI vs. USA"
http://AIMI-HumanRights.blogspot.com
Director of "Human Rights Demand" channel at Blogtalkradio
http://www.blogtalkradio.com/humanrightsdemand
Website: Wrongful Death of Larry Neal
http://WrongfulDeathofLarryNeal.com

"Dog Justice for Mentally Ill"

http://DogJusticeforMentallyIll.blogspot.comEmail Addresses
AIMI@HumanRightsDemand.com
MaryLovesJustice@gmail.comPhone 678.531.0262 or (571)335-1741
Poor African Americans, Caucasian people who lacked wealth, and the mentally ill of all races were subjected to enforced sterilization from the 1930's to the 1970's to prevent their population growth under the American eugenics program. In the 21st century, people in these categories are regularly killed by police or incarcerated long-term. Dedicate yourself to eliminating eugenics.

"Am I A Bad Person?" Family Members Ask

Families in Mental Health Crisis, what are your greatest fears about your relatives with serious mental illness (SMI)? Suicide? Police violence? Incarceration? Homelessness? Violent outbursts during which you or others could be harmed? All of these are VALID concerns. Many families who find no help for their relatives with SMI give up and suffer from guilt because of their abandonment. I wrote an article some time ago called "Am I a Bad Person?" about a sister who had given up on her schizophrenic brother. People need and deserve assistance with sick loved ones. Therefore, we must support H.R.3717 "Helping Families in Mental Health Crisis Act," introduced by Congressman Tim Murphy. 

This article was emailed to to Stephanie Armour at stephanie.armour@wsj.com, on April 14, 2015, well ahead of the June 9 deadline for public comment regarding the president's conversation about resuming Medicaid for inpatient treatment of mental diseases. Medicaid insurance coverage for mentally ill Americans never should have ended, and it would not have ended had it not been for people seeking increased wealth through private prisons and jails, where over half of America's inmates are mentally ill people who were denied treatment in order to criminalize their mental illness. I encourage everyone who reads this article to also email Armour and support the resumption of Medicaid insurance for mental illnesses. While the nation passed national health care insurance, it is scandalous that people with mental illness would be completely omitted in order to continue extracting prison profits from taxpayers. If you need help composing an email supporting the resumption of Medicaid insurance, please send Armour a link to this article from our "Dog Justice for Mentally Ill" blog, which is
http://dogjusticeformentallyill.blogspot.com/2014/02/am-i-bad-person-re-published.html

I wrote: Ms. Armour, please accept the following article in support of the resumption of Medicaid insurance for persons with mental illness in the United States of America. Please confirm receipt by sending a confirmation to each of my three email addresses above (my Internet communication is compromised as I am an advocate for the People who are used for prison profits). Thank you in advance.

Adults with SMI need assisted outpatient treatment (AOT) programs that provide continuous monitoring and psychiatric care and subsistence assistance for food and housing. They need police officers need crisis intervention team (CIT) training in order to conduct lunacy arrests without violence to the patients or themselves. Like any chronic illness, people with SMI may need inpatient treatment from time to time. H.R.3717 also provides for more inpatient hospital beds by resuming Medicaid insurance for certain mental health care facilities. Join us in giving Assistance to the Incarcerated Mentally Ill and also help people who are at greater risk for incarceration due to SMI. Below is a modified version of my article, "Am I a Bad Person?"

Am I a Bad Person?

1)  A woman wrote to WAGblog seeking reassurance that she is not a "bad person" because she gave up trying to care for her severely mentally disturbed brother after their parents died. Letting go is hard. Even when a caregiver feels she has to break ties to protect herself or have a life aside from being a caregiver, one never truly lets go. Love is a binding tie. 

2)  People who discontinue caring for an adult with acute mental illness should not feel guilty. It is very challenging to protect acute mental patients from themselves and save them from being victimized in a world where they are considered least. Our system too often withholds treatment until AFTER crimes, then imprisons rather than hospitalize sick people. For some families, this creates an element of danger. That was the case for Theresa. Oregon built a new mental hospital since Theresa's horrible death at her brother's hand.

3)  My mother struggled with my brother, Larry, for many years after he was "deinstitutionalized" along with hundreds of thousands of acute mental patients who were released in the 70s. Larry was diagnosed with paranoid schizophrenia before puberty following a mumps infection that apparently went into his brain. He lived mostly in a mental hospital for over 20 years. His trial visits home never worked out for long, yet he was eventually evicted when Medicaid became unavailable for psychiatric inpatients. For over a decade after hospital release, Larry resided with his family. Larry was non-violent, but his actions put him in serious danger. We were unsuccessful in attempts to have Larry re-committed except for short-term crisis intervention.

4)  One day, Larry was walking by a neighbor's home and heard a baby crying. We have many nieces and nephews. Larry thought the baby was asking him for comfort, so he climbed into the nursery window to attend to the baby. Luckily, the homeowner did not panic and kill Larry. Can you imaging going into your baby's nursery and seeing a strange-looking man you don't know rocking your child? The baby was safe with Larry. He was not as delusional as the Arizona man in this article: "Murder for Christmas: Schizophrenic Man Bludgeoned Youngsters." After the nursery incident, Larry was sent to the hospital briefly.

5)  Larry's family could not protect him from the situations his mental imbalance created after hospital release made him "free." It was particularly hard for my mother to let go, but she was getting old and was very concerned for Larry's safety. Our congressman helped to arrange for Larry to become a ward of the State and live in a care home. Unfortunately, care homes have minimal rules. Patients are not forced to take their meds and they can come and go as they see fit. Sometimes, patients who are in care homes really need to be in a hospital, like the man who stabbed a New York baby while the child's nanny took her on a walk: www.nytimes.com/2005/09/08/nyregion/08baby.html - but the hospitals are closing.

6)  Making Larry a ward of the State was not the solution that we hoped it would be. Larry was not dangerous to others, or he might have been re-committed. He had a toothless grin and a song, if you had time to listen, for everyone he saw. Then he would recite long historical documents or Bible verses very loud. He would immediately share the money we gave him, then beg others for handouts, which is illegal. According to the law, Larry should have qualified for hospitalization because of the danger he was to himself, but that did not happen. He was a "frequent flyer" in Memphis Shelby County Jail, which would call his family or social worker when he was arrested for misdemeanors, such as public nuisance charges. That happened in July 2003, when he spat on a nurse who was taking Larry's blood pressure. He said the cuff was too tight, and his mind had not progressed much beyond age 8 when he initially contracted mental illness.

7)  Incarceration is a usual outcome for people with advanced mental illness like Larry. He suffered from paranoid schizophrenia. Prisons have replaced hospitals and community treatment centers for mentally challenged people in America. There are now 1.25 million mentally ill people incarcerated, and they comprise 60 percent of inmates in cruel solitary confinement. Gas, restraint chairs, and Tasers are used to control them. Some are killed. Once arrested, mental patients often get time added because they do not understand or lack the wherewithal to obey the correctional facility's rules of behavior. Sometimes, prisons keep them just because. That happened to Nick Sauve, Terrell Scott, and many others. Some are warehoused in jails and prisons for many years with trials denied.

8)  Larry Neal felt that he had a schedule to keep that involved walking about 10 miles a day. Once he got hit by a car crossing a major street. As soon as he was able, Larry was back on his route. He would begin by having breakfast with one of our brothers. From there, he would walk several miles to McDonald's where they allowed him to sit for hours over a few cups of coffee. Then he would go to a recreation center that may have been especially for acute mental patients like Larry, but it is closed now. In any case, he would go there and watch TV, shoot pool, etc. 

9) The center Larry frequented had an attendant to monitor the patrons, so Larry felt safe there despite his paranoia. The problem is that Larry would walk those 10 miles to keep his "appointments" without dressing properly for the winter. He got pneumonia repeatedly. Once, when he was just out of ICU for pneumonia, he left the hospital and walked about 5 miles to have his usual breakfast with our brother wearing only a hospital gown (the back was open) and paper shoes in sub-freezing weather.

10)  At one point, Larry was transferred to a home much further from his "route," but he walked approximately 20 miles round-trip to keep his imaginary appointments. Larry's hospital bills for numerous bouts of pneumonia and being hit by a car, plus his misdemeanor arrests for inappropriate behavior were probably no less expensive than hospital commitment. Taxpayers saved no money when mental illness was made a crime. Taxpayers pay from $15,000 to $168,000 annually to warehouse each inmate, and up to three times as much for those who are in solitary confinement, like death row prisoners are and inmates with acute mental illness and other diseases. Lifelong schizophrenic patient Jeremy Smith has been in "the hole" for years, and he recently faced life in prison for talking rudely to a prison guard. He was accused of making a "terrorist threat."

11)  Approximately 1 in 5 Americans has some form of mental illness, and most people function well under treatment like people with any other chronic health condition, such as diabetes. However, some acute patients need constant supervision in a facility with a trained, compassionate staff. Patients in that category are not necessarily dangerous, but they endanger themselves. Larry asked a lady for a dollar one day, and the way he phrased it - "Gimme a dollar, lady. Come on, I know you've got a dollar; gimme a dollar" - made her feel like she was being robbed. Things like that get mentally ill people arrested. 

12)  Sometimes mentally ill people are picked on by bullies in their communities who find their conditions amusing. One homeless mentally ill veteran in California was doused in gasoline and set afire. He burned to death. In 2014, a man shot two homeless men to death as they slept on the ground in Atlanta. Homelessness is a usual outcome for acute mental patients after their families give up trying to keep them. Consider a case in Florida when one homeless mental patient killed another. Violence on the homeless often involves a mentally ill victim.

13)  The availability of hospital space for non-violent mental patients became pretty much non-existent after Medicaid funding for inpatient treatment ended decades ago. Hospitals across the country downsized dramatically or closed altogether. Although Larry would be sent to the hospital to be stabilized during a crisis, he never stayed over a month, and usually much less. Hospital closures continue nationwide. Meanwhile, our prison population swells as acute mental patients eventually do something to qualify for arrests - offenses from simple vagrancy to gruesome murders. DOES THIS YOUNG WOMAN BELONG IN PRISON? SEE a film I call "Bipolar Crisis on Atlanta MARTA Train" at this link:
http://youtu.be/4Doe8VNlKaA

14)  Approximately 1.25 million mental patients are imprisoned today, which means there is no savings for taxpayers in punishing sick people for having mental dysfunctions rather than hospitalizing them or providing community-based care. But it is much worse for the patients to be imprisoned rather than hospitalized, as police officers lack the training and some lack the temperament to be psychiatric caretakers. Consider how my brother died under secret arrest, described in his website at the following url:
http://wrongfuldeathoflarryneal.com/main.html 

15)  Remember Tim Souders' death in a Michigan prison while on a restraint table for four days without food or water. Maybe they forgot him. Souders' death is presented in this television documentary - a "60 Minutes" presentation:
http://www.cbsnews.com/stories/2007/02/08/60minutes/main2448074.shtml - 

16)  In Tennessee, Frank Horton's life was spared by a benevolent guard. Frank had been in solitary confinement cell for nine months without medical or psychiatric attention, exercise, or hygiene. The floor to his solitary prison cell was covered with feces and urine, and he likely would have died if the guard had not reported his dangerous circumstances to the Department of Health.

17)  Mental hospitals are sorely missed. Many prisoners suffer since mental illness was criminalized. It does not have to be this way. It is less expensive to treat sick people than to punish them for having a common health condition, and many can be restored to wholesome lives. Please join Treatment Advocacy Center, AIMI, and other mental health advocacy organizations in supporting H.R.3717, a congressional bill to do the following on a limited basis:

    (1) enact assisted outpatient treatment (AOT) programs that mandate continuous treatment and give subsistence assistance; 

    (2) provide for crisis intervention training for police officers and prison guards to avoid violence against the mentally ill; and 

    (3) resume Medicaid insurance for mental hospitalization. 

18)  There are other provisions of H.R.3717. Read them all online. PLEASE ASK YOUR REPRESENTATIVES TO SUPPORT H.R.3717 - "The Helping Families in Mental Health Crisis Act" - which was introduced by Rep. Tim Murphy (R-PA) in December 2013. He is a former psychologist who understands mental illness.

19)  We sympathize with the sister who wrote the comment at WAGBlog about having to give up being caretaker for her brother. The burden on families is great. That is why I feel certain that once the 10 million family members and human rights advocates know about H.R.3717, they will gladly support the bill. We must let Americans know that an alternative to criminalizing mental illness is available. I hope you will help by sharing the news. There is opposition to the bill that would affect private prison profits, so it will take effort on our parts. H.R.3717 could possibly save billions of dollars annually on America's prison bill, which is currently around $100 billion per year. Prison investors' earnings are compounded by possibly hundreds of billions more from prison slave labor, which is sold to major corporations and deprives "free" Americans of jobs at minimum wage, union scale wages and benefits. When I checked, H.R.3717 had 77 co-sponsors who were Republicans, but only 38 co-sponsors were Democrats (115 total). 

20)  Study the states that have representatives refusing to co-sponsor H.R.3717, and notice if mentally ill people are brutalized or killed under the color of law in those states (by untrained police or correctional officers in jails and prisons). No accurate count is available, but "Killed by Police (dot) net" is a website that attempts to inform the public of police killings by using news reports. Be aware of the fact that many deaths by police are censored; therefore, whereas "Killed by Police (dot) net" is more accurate than the FBI tally, the true number of casualties is unknown: http://killedbypolice.net

21)  In addition to police killings, many mentally ill people die in custody by murder, neglect, and natural causes. Those deaths are NOT reported on "Killed by Police (dot) net," and some of them may not be reported anywhere at all. For instance, Larry Neal's secret arrest and his murder, which happened after 18 days of incarceration, remain America's secret. Christopher Lopez was dead for 17 months before San Carlos Correctional Facility in Colorado reported his demise to the Department of Health (Lopez was another mentally ill inmate). Brenda Anderson, a released prisoner from Texas, reports that the murder of a female mentally ill inmate named Mary was not reported to her family until they tried to visit her on Mother's Day, weeks after her demise.

22)  Acute mental illness affects all people in our society whether or not someone with that condition is a relative or close friend. Acute mental illness is the only health disability that is criminalized and punishable by imprisonment, and that usually happens AFTER a patient has proved to be a danger to self and others through some violent act. Save money, increase community safety, and restore hundreds of thousands of Americans to more wholesome lives by helping to pass H.R.3717. Please read H.R.3717 and review more information about its status, co-sponsors, etc., at http://beta.congress.gov/bill/113th/house-bill/3717

23)  Subcommittee hearings were held on H.R.3717 on April 3, 2015. While we hope for passage of that bill, we must also recognize that there are individual mental patients and families who have already suffered irreparable damage by the system's callous disregard for mentally disabled people's civil and human rights. Throughout the nation, families suffered Legal Abuse Syndrome (LAS) from their vain efforts to extract their vulnerable loved ones from the justice system. Mental capacity diminished for many mentally ill people who were held in solitary confinement torture for years, and some for decades. Others have wandered the streets homeless, dodging arrest for vagrancy, eating out of the trash. Thousands were killed. H.R.3717 proposes positive changes for hereon, but what of those who have already been irreparably harmed? That is where "AIMI vs. USA" lawsuit in International Court will help, if the lawsuit is successful. 

24) LEGAL ABUSE SYNDROME (LAS) is a form of post traumatic stress disorder (PTSD). It is a psychic injury, not a mental illness. It is a personal injury that develops in individuals assaulted by ethical violations, legal abuses, betrayals, and fraud. In the law, people with mental disabilities are protected from the brutality and murders they suffer by the U.S. Constitution, the Universal Declaration of Human Rights, the Americans with Disabilities Act, the Civil Rights of Institutionalized Persons Act (CRIPA), the Civil Rights Act, the Convention Against Torture, and Executive Order 13107, implementing human rights treaties. Families are shocked and stressed when they learn that those protections are not actually applied to their mentally challenged loved ones, which is fraud. Protracted litigation leading to LAS often results in physical as well as psychological damages to the affected parties, especially to mothers of mentally ill teens and adults who are jailed rather than treated. 

25)  Assistance to the Incarcerated Mentally Ill plans to file "AIMI vs. USA" in 2015 to win restitution for mentally ill Americans and immigrants who were negligently and/or cruelly treated under the color of law in America. Health discrimination causes great pain and suffering, and it yet continues throughout the country. "AIMI vs. USA" is suing only for money, much of which will be used to compensate up to 100 mentally ill claimants for their negligence and abuse and compensate their family members or next friends who suffer from Legal Abuse Syndrome or who are due compensation for wrongful deaths. 

26)  Most mothers like mine take their adult children's mistreatment particularly hard. For instance, Terrell Scott's mother had a heart attack when she was only in her 40's due to the stress she endures trying to prove her son's innocence and extract him from prison. Scott has been incarcerated nearly six years but is denied a trial in the Pennsylvania. Holly Alston has suffered through her son's rape, his suicide attempts to escape being treated worse than a dog, his exposure to HIV virus, as well as Scott's severe beatings by other inmates, which blinded him in one eye, dislocated his jaw, and rendered him without hearing in one ear. These injuries were incurred in beatings which prison guards allegedly ignored. 

27)  Some mothers nearly die from Legal Abuse Syndrome stress, and most are unable to give their spouses and younger children the kind of home they would have if not for their older children's mental illness being criminalized rather than addressed like other chronic health conditions with treatment and not punishment. Incarcerating the most vulnerable member of one's family is hard on everyone, and killing sick people leaves many grieving survivors, probably most of whom have never been compensated for wrongful deaths. My family never was.

28)  People who have been victimized by untreated mentally ill people are also invited to join "AIMI vs. USA," like the families of six people who were killed in Santa Barbara, California after parents reported to police that their son was dangerous. "AIMI vs. USA" also accepts claimants who are police officers' survivors. For example, Olga Garcia's son, Robles, was incarcerated for 14 days in Texas, during which time guards refused to administer his psychotropic meds. Then he was beaten and released from jail in physical pain as well as psychiatric crisis. The sudden withdrawal of his medication negatively impacted Robles. Before that arrest, Robles was a happy young father who had just completed barbering college. But within 12 hours of jail release, Robles shot and killed a police officer. Robles' mother is a claimant to "AIMI vs. USA," and the family of the slain police officer can be, also.

29) A Wall Street Journal article reports that the United States President is interested in recieving public comments regarding resumption of Medicaid insurance for psychiatric inpatients, which would make it possible for mental hospitals to have more beds, and fewer people would be incarcerated or killed during lunacy arrests for lack of proper psychiatric treatment. Write to Stephanie Armour at the Wall Street Journal before June 9. Please email your support for resuming Medicaid to treat mental illness and drug addictions at the same rate as physical health problems. http://www.wsj.com/articles/obama-administration-proposes-rules-for-medicaid-mental-health-parity-1428362172

30)  Thanks in advance for all that you do to help give Assistance to the Incarcerated Mentally Ill and reduce the risk of arrest for vulnerable persons. A life is a terrible thing to waste. We need success for H.R.3717 - "Helping Families in Mental Health Crisis Act" to help restore sick people to wholesome living , and need success for "AIMI vs. USA" in order to compensate people for damages already incurred. Sharing the information in this article is one way to help give "Assistance to the Incarcerated Mentally Ill" and those at greater risk of incarceration due to their "illegal" health condition, for which most of them were denied treatment prior to their alleged offenses.

31)  Our sincere regards go to the sister who commented at Pam Wagner's blog about  abandoning her role as the caretaker for her schizophrenic brother. Many people who love their sick relatives find themselves in similar situations - having to give up on a loved one for their own protection. It is a grossly unfair predicament that would be unnecessary if AOT programs and Medicaid insurance for psychiatric inpatients were possible throughout the country. Please visit Pam Wagner's blog today for moving visual art, poetry, and articles revealing the challenges of schizoaffective disorder at the url, http://pamelaspirowagner.com/

Blessings!
Mary Neal, Director of Assistance to the Incarcerated Mentally Ill
~Blogger

http://AIMI-HumanRights.blogspot.com

~Facebook

https://www.facebook.com/AssistancetotheIncarceratedMentallyIll

~Care2

http://www.care2.com/c2c/group/AIMI

~Google+

https://plus.google.com/u/0/communities/108448922585036678747

Phone 678.531.0262 or (571)335-1741

MaryLovesJustice@gmail.com
and

AIMI@HumanRightsDemand.com
(If I get your voice message or email, I will respond within 24 hours; if not, please try again. Communication is challenging around these issues.)

No dog owners can leave their canines locked in small dog houses 23 hours per day, then spray them with chemicals or Taser them for whimpering and barking.

Mentally Ill People Deserve Dog Justice!

http://DogJusticeforMentallyIll.blogspot.com

This article contains 31 numbered paragraphs, 14 urls and 3 email addresses. I count them because unlike lobbyists for big corporations, YOUR representatives -- human rights advocates -- are censored in the United States of America.

Repeat of Paragraph 1: Families in Mental Health Crisis, what are your greatest fears about your relatives with serious mental illness (SMI)? Suicide? Police violence? Incarceration? Homelessness? Violent outbursts during which you or others could be harmed? All of these are VALID concerns. Many families who find no help for their relatives with SMI give up and suffer from guilt because of their abandonment. I wrote an article some time ago called "Am I a Bad Person?" about a sister who had given up on her schizophrenic brother. People need and deserve assistance with sick loved ones. Therefore, we must support H.R.3717 "Helping Families in Mental Health Crisis Act," introduced by Congressman Tim Murphy.

*******

This blog carries information about the "AIMI vs. USA" action in International Court against the USA to compensate claimants for discrimination against mentally ill people in the USA and drug/alcohol addicts: "AIMI vs. the USA in International Court."

Claimants conferences are held on the first full weekend of each month, on Saturday and Sunday mornings beginning at 9:00 a.m. Pacific Time. You can connect with the conferences at FreeConferenceCall dial-in number (605)562-0020, Meeting I.D. Code: 992-212-650. If that fails, the backup number is (805)360-1075. Learn more about this international action to win restitution for Claimants and change for America. If you experience problems connecting, call and report problems to the director, Mary Neal.