ACA Blog

As I sit at my desk, the day before Thanksgiving, the start of the holiday season, I think of all the things in my life that I am most thankful for. Included in my thoughts is the fact that I am not incarcerated. Not that I have ever done anything to be incarcerated for, but after working in the criminal justice system for over 30 years, the fact that I can go home to my own life after work, is something that I am very thankful for.

During my career as a police officer I recall moments when compassion and a second chance were warranted. It was through law enforcement that I realized character is not always accurately reflected by a criminal record or a bad decision. I have learned that people function according to their level of awareness. If people do not have access to information or resources conducive to awareness, then, they become students of trial and error.

Part two - Danny’s secrets lasted for many years. He raped his children, the neighborhood and church children and others that he caught in his web. His secrets were safe, his ability to abuse unfettered until the day when one child was unable to function any longer and seeing no escape from the abuse sought refuge in the idea that death would free him of the world of depravity at the hands of this monster. Searching the cabinets of his home he found drain cleaner and proceeded to drink all that he could. He lay down and waited for the world to end. By some miracle he was found before it was too late; rushed to the hospital he was saved although he suffered from permanent damage. Questioning at the hospital revealed that one of his kin, and older man named Danny had repeatedly abused his for years. Danny was brought in for questioning and later arrested.

I spent the first part of my childhood in the projects. I mean, as projects go it was pretty nice. There were no large apartment complexes; this was Bristol Connecticut after all so we had duplexes and I even had a little “fort” outback that in reality was a Mountain Laurel with a rock that was kind of chair shaped, or so it felt to a 2 or 3 year old. There also was an oak tree growing through the middle, it was right in front of my “chair” so I pretended it was a TV set and imagined all the cartoons that it played. I had some great times in my little fort. At one time I must have had at least 3 or 4 friends “watching cartoons” in there with me.

I have blogged in the past, about Mental Health Court and the Crisis Intervention Team (CIT) program. I recently had the honor to meet and hear speak a “true champion” for the cause, The Honorable Mark A. Speiser, Judge in Fort Lauderdale, Broward County, Florida.

I live in the Midwest (Missouri) and have been enduring over 100 degree weather now for too many days. Not only am I unmotivated, but all my outdoor plants have died. My yard has a few weeds and my grass lies dormant. Snow has never sounded so good. In the middle of this horribly hot summer I have had an experience that I will never forget. A mentally ill client, with legal problems herself, has become a victim of a horrendous crime. She opened the front door to her apartment in the middle of the night and was brutally beaten and raped.

Almost twelve years ago I was given the opportunity to participate in planning the City of Kansas City, Missouri’s mental health court. It was originally designed for the mentally ill, who had been charged with city ordinance violations in Kansas City, Missouri. The program has expanded to include low level felonies from Jackson County Drug Court, and city ordinance violations in Lee’s Summit Municipal Court, Raytown Municipal Court, Grandview Municipal Court, and Blue Springs Municipal Court, all Jackson County, Missouri cities that are suburbs to Kansas City, Mo.

Well, I am home from my “trip of a lifetime to Israel.” The trip did not include tours of jails or mental health facilities but two days after I arrived, Haaretz, Israel’s Leading Daily Newspaper, in English, had a front page article. The title, Tel Aviv police backtrack, will investigate alleged gang rape on public beach. The article has some very strange twists and turns but the alleged victim of the gang rape has reportedly “received psychiatric care in the past, is reportedly in a difficult mental state, and had recently started drinking again.”

I always do this before I go on vacation. I wonder if everything is complete. Have I finished all my work? Can I leave work behind and just have a good time? Oh, I know work will be there when I get back but….

According to the Pew Center on the States, One in every 28 children has an incarcerated parent (3.6%) (2010): A quarter of a century ago, one in every 125 children had an incarcerated parent. The Center continues to say that the rise, of course, can be attributed to the implementation of harsher laws for lesser crimes; two-thirds of today’s incarcerated parents committed non-violent offenses. The above stat is one of the most disconcerting of all U.S.-related prison stats because common sense dictates that a child’s chances of growing up as a productive, law-abiding adult are greater when both of their parents play significant roles in their life.