Senate Judiciary Subcommittee Hearings Apr 29

Here is a sign that prison investors in the government do not plan to pass H.R.3717 - Helping Families in Mental Health Crisis Act. U.S. Senate hearings are planned for April 29 on only ONE provision of the bill: CIT training for police officers. H.R.3717 also provides for: 
~ Medicaid insurance for psychiatric inpatients
~ AOT programs, providing subsistence assistance and mandated psychiatric treatment for persons with acute mental illness who lack the mental clarity to stay on their meds
~ Relaxed HIPPA laws, enabling family members' inclusion in relatives' treatment 

Better training for police officers without the other provisions in H.R.3717 might enable more sick Americans to join 1.25 million mentally ill inmates in one piece, if police obey their training. Crisis Intervention Training (CIT) originated in Memphis, Tennessee. That is where my mentally, physically disabled brother, Larry Neal, was secretly arrested in 2003, incarcerated for 18 days while police denied having him, and murdered. His kidnapping and death are treated like a national secret rather than investigated and handled by due process of law. A mentally dysfunctional teen was killed by police there in 2012. In fact, 23 people in Memphis were killed by police officers in 2012 and 2013. CIT training in a culture where police accountability is seldom demanded will not significantly enhance the safety of mentally challenged people or anyone else. Continuing to react to mental health crises AFTER a person proves to be a danger to self and others compromises our sick citizens AND our communities. But this keeps the prisons full, and that seems to be the plan.

Please support H.R.3717. Learn more about how this bill can prevent psychiatric crises that lead to altercations with police officers in the first place.
http://murphy.house.gov/helpingfamiliesinmentalhealthcrisisact

As Director of Assistance to the Incarcerated Mentally Ill, I call three emergency sessions for people who care about the mentally ill and may not be able to attend next Tuesday's Senate hearings to speak on air about the need for ALL the provisions of H.R.3717. Please meet us at Blogtalkradio on Sunday and Monday, April 27 and 28, at 3pm EST. Please call to speak on air at (347) 857-3293 at "Human Rights Demand" channel. We will meet a second time Monday at midnight EST at Blogtalkradio. Please call (818)572.2947 for the Monday midnight broadcast. Your comments on the air will be sent to the U.S. Senate, and senators will be notified of the broadcasts in case they are interested in tuning in to the live radio shows. Yes, we tire of reading about mentally ill people brutalized and killed by untrained police officers, but moreover, we tire of a system that allows mental illness to go untreated until a person proves through violence that he/she is a danger to self and others. We tire of seeing disabled Americans homeless and hungry because their basic needs are ignored. We tire of prison investments taking precedence over the welfare of sick Americans and community safety.

The Senate Judiciary Subcommittee Hearings announcement is below:

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Law Enforcement Responses to Disabled Americans: 

Promising Approaches for Protecting Public Safety
Hearing Before the Senate Judiciary Subcommittee on the Constitution, Civil Rights, and Human Rights
Link to details on website: http://goo.gl/6oLil7

Date: April 29, 2014
Time: 10:00 a.m.
Location: Dirksen Senate Office Building, Room 226

NOTE: Sometimes there are late changes to room assignments for hearings. We encourage interested parties to check the Committee's website the day of the hearing to confirm the location. Keep track here: http://www.judiciary.senate.gov

Description: U.S. Senator Dick Durbin (D-IL), the Senate’s Assistant Majority Leader and Chairman of the Senate Judiciary Subcommittee on the Constitution, Civil Rights, and Human Rights, will chair a hearing entitled “Law Enforcement Responses to Disabled Americans: Promising Approaches for Protecting Public Safety.” Because of inadequate social and mental health services, law enforcement officers have increasingly become the first responders for individuals with mental illness or developmental disabilities who are in crisis.

Recent high-profile tragedies have demonstrated the need for law enforcement officers to receive additional training to safely address these situations. State and local law enforcement agencies have taken the lead in developing innovative solutions, such as Crisis Intervention Teams. Localities that use these approaches have seen fewer injuries and deaths among officers and people with mental illness or developmental disabilities, increased jail diversion rates, fewer lawsuits following crisis incidents, and stronger ties with the mental health and disability communities. This hearing will explore how Congress and the Executive Branch can support and strengthen these efforts.

Hearing Attendance: This hearing is open to the public. Interested members of the community are encouraged to attend. For planning purposes, the Committee requests that those planning on attending indicate their intent to come by completing an online RSVP at: http://goo.gl/2dmgSH

Statements for the Record: Chairman Durbin invites stakeholders to offer their perspectives and experiences on these issues by submitting written testimony to be included in the hearing record. These statements help educate Committee members about this issue and are important to demonstrating community interest.

Statements must be submitted as a PDF or Word Document of 10 pages or less, and should be emailed to Durbin_Testimony@Judiciary-dem.Senate.gov as early as possible, but no later than Monday, April 28, 2014 at 5:00 p.m. Please note that the Subcommittee cannot accept previously published information, such as newspaper articles or reports, as a statement for the record.

Senator Dick Durbin is Chairman of the Senate Subcommittee on the Constitution, Civil Rights, and Human Rights. The Subcommittee has jurisdiction over all constitutional issues, and all legislation and policy related to civil rights, civil liberties and human rights. The Ranking Member of the Subcommittee is Senator Ted Cruz (R-TX).

Witnesses
Panel I
The Honorable Denise E. O'Donnell
Director, Bureau of Justice Assistance
United States Department of Justice
Washington , DC

Panel II
Alfonza Wysinger
First Deputy Superintendent
Chicago Police Department
Chicago, IL
A.D. Paul
Sergeant
Plano Police Department
Plano, TX
The Honorable Jay M. Quinn
Judge
Fourth Judicial District of Minnesota
Minneapolis, MN
Pete Earley
Author
Fairfax, VA
Patti Saylor
Frederick, MD
--------------
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About the National Council on Disability (NCD): NCD is an independent federal agency of 15 Presidentially-appointed Council Members and full-time professional staff, who advise the President, Congress and other federal agencies on disability policy, programs, and practices.

United States Senate Committee on the Judiciary
JUDICIARY.SENATE.GOV

Paragraphs 1 and 2 repeated: Here is a sign that prison investors in the government do not plan to pass H.R.3717 - Helping Families in Mental Health Crisis Act. U.S. Senate hearings are planned for April 29 on only ONE provision of the bill: CIT training for police officers. H.R.3717 also provides for: 
~ Medicaid insurance for psychiatric inpatients
~ AOT programs, providing subsistence assistance and mandated psychiatric treatment for persons with acute mental illness who lack the mental clarity to stay on their meds
~ Relaxed HIPPA laws, enabling family members' inclusion in relatives' treatment 

Better training for police officers without the other provisions in H.R.3717 might enable more sick Americans to join 1.25 million mentally ill inmates in one piece, if police obey their training. Crisis Intervention Training (CIT) originated in Memphis, Tennessee. That is where my mentally, physically disabled brother, Larry Neal, was secretly arrested in 2003, incarcerated for 18 days while police denied having him, and murdered. His kidnapping and death are treated like a national secret rather than investigated and handled by due process of law. A mentally dysfunctional teen was killed by police there in 2012. In fact, 23 people in Memphis were killed by police officers in 2012 and 2013. CIT training in a culture where police accountability is seldom demanded will not significantly enhance the safety of mentally challenged people or anyone else. Continuing to react to mental health crises AFTER a person proves to be a danger to self and others compromises our sick citizens AND our communities. But this keeps the prisons full, and that seems to be the plan.See the Senate meeting plans below. Please support H.R.3717. Learn more at
http://murphy.house.gov/helpingfamiliesinmentalhealthcrisisact

For your information, regarding the Blogtalkradio shows for Sunday and Monday, 3pm EST is 2pm Central, 1pm Mountain, and Noon Pacific. Regarding the Blogtalkradio show at Midnight EST, the time is 11pm Central, 10pm Mountain, and 9pm Pacific. This is YOUR opportunity to speak about YOUR mentally challenged loved ones and the safety of YOUR community and how YOUR tax money should be spent - on prisons, that help nobody get well and where the mentally ill are often relegated to solitary confinement, or on hospitals and better community care, which can actually restore sick people to wholesome lives. Nobody deserves to be arrested for having a common, treatable health condition.