mental health – The Pen Hustle With Brandy Cavalli

Lawsuit Exposes Lack of Mental Health Assistance in the Prison System

I spend a lot of my spare time studying and advocating for crime and prison reform. I’ve never been to prison but it’s something I’m extremely passionate about.

I ran across this story and it really triggered me to want to open up more discussion about what can be done behind bars to not only rehabilitate criminals, but create a pipeline for mental health services that are very much needed both during the entry and residency stages.

After watching the system fail over and over my opinion is it does not a bit of good to send criminals to prison and offer no options to help them navigate both in and outside prison life. Doing the opposite will continue to perpetuate more criminal activity and negligence lawsuits such as this one. I hope this family receives the proper compensation.

There also has to be some kind of clinical medical care provided for substance abuse users. Let’s be honest, drugs are real and people use them. Detox is a crucial phase of rehabilitation.

Why not use our tax dollars to address these issues plaguing the prison system. Doing that will in term rehab the criminals. When we rehab the criminals — down goes the crime. It’s simple math. And a win for us all.

According to CNN – A lawsuit has been filed in Indiana on behalf of a man with a history of schizophrenia and substance abuse who died in 2021 while he was being held in solitary confinement.

The lawsuit filed Wednesday seeks compensatory and punitive damages.

The complaint accuses jailers of putting Joshua McLemore in a small, windowless, padded isolation cell, during his nearly three-week stay at the Jackson County jail where he reportedly suffered from dehydration and malnutrition.

Miami Mom Tosses 2 Year Old Baby In The Dumpster

A Miami mother stands accused of tossing her two-year-old daughter into a dumpster.

According to WTVJ, Catrice Sheffield, 28, was arrested Wednesday and charged with child abuse and resisting an officer without violence.

Witnesses saw Sheffield pacing near a dumpster outside of Plantation General Hospital, before tossing her child in and leaving.

Two medical assistants allegedly stopped the mother from getting away, and rescued the child, according to the news.

Accoriding to WTVJ, Sheffield was quoted as saying:

“Everyone is crazy and I did not throw my daughter in the dumpster. I put her in the dumpster.”

Sheffield is being held on $16,000 bond.

FEATURED POST: Depression Is Not Beautiful

Written by marjramos– I get sucked under the waves of varying ferocity with no sense of direction. I don’t want help and I refuse to get better. Every waking day, it occurs to me that I don’t want to leave. My damaged body fights a long battle against my mind, both telling me different things.

My friends and family see the problem, but I don’t. I look at the endless empty boxes of takeout, or I clean up after purging, or bandage bleeding wounds, but I see this as normal – I’ve never known anything else. It eludes from the change I desire to have; I’m doing fine on my own, ain’t I?

I hit a solid wall when I try to get a clear understanding of anything, so I stop trying. I am reminded daily of my flaws, reciting them to myself under my breath, hiding the words with half-hearted laughs. I’m nothing but a piece of crap and my life is a big joke. My skin is sliced open. Razor blades are bloody. There are band aids in the trash by the sink of the cold, lonely bathroom.

I must take a step back and inspect the damage. I sift through what remains of my life, never seeing the broken shards of the sanity I once had and not knowing I need to put them back together to form what it had been once before. Deep down, I know, there will always be lines to remind me of the fractures where I shakily repaired myself, so why bother?

I am forced to get some help and I am grateful for this. No longer do I hide away, make excuses, and cover my scars with long sleeves. I feel connected to the outside world for the first time in a very long time and it is an extremely liberating feeling.

I laugh, I cry, I make memories, and I finally enjoy life. I am no longer alone, hopeless, scared, or misunderstood. Every encounter is a small touch of warmth that never leaves, only burns brighter and brighter until I shine with a light I’ve never known. I want to cry, but out of happiness instead of sadness.

In a moment of clarity, I realize how alike I am to a flower. I grow in beauty, wither in sickness, and am carried by the seeds I left behind. This is my life.

This post was originally featured on Thought Catalog