JUBILATION ALERT: Democratic Candidates and Grass-Roots Advocates Combine to Urge Seminal Reforms in Criminal Justice and Mental Health Care!

Two mobilizations of historic enlightened reform are abruptly converging in American politics and policy. Their aims are intertwined: to bulldoze and rebuild our blighted structures of criminal justice, and to reclaim our dispossessed mentally ill brothers and sisters from the hellscape of danger, pain, and early death that the blight of justice confers on them. And the economic drain that it exacts from all of us.

The symbiotic forces are (1) the elite tier of progressive candidates for the 2020 presidential election, and (2) the sleeves-up cadre of activists working at Ground Zero who toil because they daily confront serious mental illness up close, and witness its effects for what they are: cancers upon our societal health and sense of decency.

Voices for Mental Healthcare Reform, United at Last!

The documents below usher in a revolution. They describe a bold new movement, a national front organized to break the silence of the stricken and reverse the longstanding political neglect of America’s decrepit mental healthcare policies and institutions. The advocate and author (Sooner Than Tomorrow) DeDe Ranahan has completed a wide-ranging national canvass of those … Continue reading “Voices for Mental Healthcare Reform, United at Last!”

An Ongoing Barbaric National Disgrace

I have written about the state-enforced incarceration, torture (via solitary confinement), and medical and inhumane neglect of young Tyler West of Fruitport, Michigan, since I began this blog nearly two years ago. I have included mention of this mentally ill, ridiculously over-prosecuted victim’s plight in nearly every talk I have given. I’ve contacted journalists, advocates, … Continue reading “An Ongoing Barbaric National Disgrace”

Guest Speaker Ron Powers at the Pathways to Hope Conference

EXPLANATORY FOR THE TEXT OF THE TALK BELOW Below is the text of the talk I delivered to the 2018 conference of Pathways to Hope in San Antonio on Friday. Pathways is an exemplary nonprofit outreach organization that has set new standards for reclaiming and treating victims of mental illness and addiction. Because of a … Continue reading “Guest Speaker Ron Powers at the Pathways to Hope Conference”

Tyler West is Viciously Assaulted in Jail AGAIN!

I have posted several blogs about the unconscionable jailhouse ordeal of Tyler West, the 18-year-old mental-illness sufferer who has been held in the Muskegon (MI) County Jail since February (!) while awaiting trial on a felony charge of breaking and entering. (He committed this offense early this year, walking into a neighbor’s house and falling … Continue reading “Tyler West is Viciously Assaulted in Jail AGAIN!”

Is the Tide Starting to Turn in the Battle for Mental Healthcare Reform?

“This is not the end. It is not even the beginning of the end. but it is, perhaps, the end of the beginning.” These were Winston Churchill’s words to the British people after General Montgomery’s forces turned back the formidable German army under General Rommel at Alamein in November 1942. Readers of this blog know … Continue reading “Is the Tide Starting to Turn in the Battle for Mental Healthcare Reform?”

FREE TYLER WEST, AND ALL THE TYLER WESTS!

Remarks to the Cambridge NAMI Thank you, Cambridge NAMI, for inviting me here. And thank all of you for coming tonight. Schizophrenia has struck hard at the Powers family. In 2002, our younger son Kevin experienced the first of several psychotic breaks that worsened over three years despite intense counseling, hospitalization, and a regimen of … Continue reading “FREE TYLER WEST, AND ALL THE TYLER WESTS!”

More Voices From the Sub-Nation: the Mentally Ill Remain Imprisoned in the Dark Ages

The mothers of America’s mentally ill children continue to find their voices of fierce witness at the ignorance, arrogance, and brutalization of the insane that are the norms in our hospitals, courts, and jails. (Yet, again I ask: why is it nearly always and only the mothers?!) I defy anyone to read the testimonies below … Continue reading “More Voices From the Sub-Nation: the Mentally Ill Remain Imprisoned in the Dark Ages”

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