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Did You Hear?
By lindamuralidharan on 2017-12-01 06:08:33
[caption id="attachment_ 10629" align="alignright" width="600"]
State Hospital, HI[/caption]
Did you read about or hear in the news that Hawaii has had two alarming escapes from forensic hospital incarceration in
recent weeks? One fellow is still at large and escaped from a private, profit making facility...a fairly modern one....that
happens to be in my general area of the island of Oahu, and I have known folks who went there for short term treatment
when appearing to be a danger to self and others. The escapee is accused of a serious crime but deemed too mentally ill to
stand trial at this time. The other fellow....and Im am going to call him "Marcus"since the actual name is not terribly
relevant....just walked away from our only major mental health hospital. You may look it up if you like under such terms as
"Hawaii State Hospital accused murderer escapes/November, 2017." I imagine his story was covered nationally as two states
were involved in his "adventure". Decades ago, it is agreed by all, Marcus was parked in a major shopping mall here on
Oahu (I read he had a woman friend with him) when he had some sort of presumed dispute with a woman parked in the
adjoining stall. He then shot her and stabbed her multiple times. All this happened in 1979 when Marcus was a
comparatively young man. Next thing anybody knows, in 1981, a judge decides he is innocent by reason of insanity, and
Marcus is sent to the large Hawaii State Hospital serving mentally ill people. I have never seen it...is is on the other side of
the island from me and occasionally is in the news for escapees or for violent attacks on the staff by patients. Earlier this
month Marcus walked away from the "campus" where he had some privileges of the grounds, hailed a cab, traveled to the
site of charter airplanes for hire, and chartered one to take him to Maui where he boarded a commercial flight to San Jose,
Ca. As so far reported, he had a fake ID, money from a generous account (I cannot tell if he was receiving any kind of public
benefits, but his family sent him considerable sums over time), and charter flights do not do background checks for the most
part. It is up for investigation who got the ID and was it supposed to be sufficient to board a domestic, commercial flight.
Marcus made his way to Stockton, Ca., where he was in search of a brother or perhaps other family members. A car
company dispatcher became suspicious and alerted authorities and he was soon taken into custody and is now awaiting
extradition back to HI. Marcus is fighting extradition and said he escaped in order to show he is capable of living a law
abiding life outside of an institution. Apparently he had applied in recent years for release or at least the privilege of having
unescorted outings away from the hospital, but differing psychiatrists led the court to deny his request. Originally he had
been diagnosed with sexual sadism and necrophilia. The judge who then summarily sent him to the state hospital indefinitely
(back in 1981), turned out to be suspect himself. He was accused of malpractice in a later case, and some years later he was
found dead of presumed self-inflicted wounds. Sensational, no? Great story fora TV crime drama. I say, however, that this
is reality and this reality show needs to get the attention of voters willing to make a difference in many aspects of our social
structures and human services. This case has drawn immense public outcry and concern for many reasons and for many
reasons it is important for people everywhere....not just in HI and CA.... to develop new strategies and policies and funding.
It is hard to know where to start. Well, there is the obvious wonder of how such a person could get so far without detection.
Second, apparently it was many hours....10 or 12....I believe....before the hospital staff noticed he was missing. In that
regard it was about that long before police or neighbors or the courts or family or anybody else was notified that Marcus
was no longer in "custody" at the hospital. We have so many questions. What kind of inside help, if any, did he have?
Which psychiatrists to believe when he requested previous permission to be allowed to have excursions off grounds
unescorted? Two said he was a moderate risk to society because he lacked empathy, had superficial social relationships and
did not take responsibility for his actions. One doctor said he was safe enough. The two who were in agreement
recommended against his being given increased privileges...he already was allowed to go about the grounds of the hospital
TEXT REVISION
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alone. It is said he had romantic relationships with three hospital staff including a former
staff member to whom he was married for 10 years....[ suppose this was mentioned somewhat in the context of his being
described as manipulative We do not know what treatment he received if any while being held indefinitely at the hospital.
We don't really know much about his current state of mind except what he has told us....that he wanted to prove to people
that he can function on his own in society. I believe there is a problem in keeping people locked up indefinitely without
some more consistent means of evaluating a person's readiness to return to society and without a guarantee that actual
treatment was offered. We have a similar problem with some states locking up people convicted of sex crimes after their
actual sentence has been fulfilled. I understand this is supposed to be under conditions of the person really being treated for
the mental health condition that presumably causes uncontrollable sex acts and that is often not done. There is also
supposed to be some definitive means of determining if a person is highly like to be a recidivist or not. There are hundreds
or much more likely thousands of people whose civil rights are at issue for these two types of indefinite incarceration.
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James Morrison
I do fantasize to a degree: would Marcus have been more fairly treated if he had been
convicted of murder and sentenced to 50 years in prison with the possibility of parole after 30 years? In his particular case
at the hospital, there has been no report of his injuring anyone. He may have an antisocial personality disorder or other
personality disorder, but there are many people in this society with an untreated personality disorder who do not kill
anybody....even if they are often unpleasant to be around (especially if one's spouse or boss), and many fill jails as a result of
lesser crimes. I was completely surprised to learn that after being deemed innocent by reason of insanity he was sent to a
hospital. My own experience with people in a similar situation was (in other states) that they were sent to a specialized unit
of the prison system....a facility that would specialize in working with and keeping secure folks with mental illnesses.
[caption id="attachment_ 10630" align="alignright" width="300"] Wrong
treatment in a prison[/caption] I don't know what the practice is in the majority of states, but I see a difficulty in combining
the role of "hospital" and secure incarceration. I know the prison system can be bad for anybody and especially for
mentally ill people in some places and circumstances. We find a lot of bad treatment because people with many mental
health issues are convicted and sentenced to prison and local jails or state prisons so that these institutions end up being de
facto mental health facilities for which they are ill suited. I am suggesting that people get better treatment and prevention
services in the community, but at the same time those who are.....according to good or bad standards of insanity. judged
"innocent" by reason of their extreme mental disability need a less ambiguous setting than a poorly run and insecure
hospital. It seems this hospital has had many problems and is trying to fix some, a new wing under construction, for
example, but it is a slow process. The place is seriously over crowded and understaffed. Even before some suspensions
related to Marcus going AWOL, many staff were working double shifts and morale was low. There are too many reasons
not to require human service workers to work double shifts, so I won't list them. It is unconscionable. [caption
id="attachment_10633" align="alignright" width="232"] Depression without
treatment[/caption] I am not sure what the solution is but I certainly say that we are in trouble as a society when we cannot
manage these issues better.....treatment and prevention at every level. We have just recently had the horrors of Dylan Roof
killing people in a church, a high roller gambler killing and wounding a horrific number of people in Las Vegas and a
disturbed young man killing a church full of people. I know guns are a problem, but they are not the only problem. A well
run state hospital could conceivably have a secure wing as well as aess secure ones. However, for the most part, anybody
housed in the state hospital these days is presumably (risky thought) there because they are too dangerous to self or others to
be out in the general public. Some individuals are far from violent but have no significant self-care skills. However, there
are various types of group homes in communities that care for people in less restrictive settings. The prison authorities in
Hawaii said they do not take the people deemed innocent by reason of insanity because they are not equipped to treat mental
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_Trearnent Genter & Caracas
Tareaa MM. Laser, MLA
illness. I generally find our system is not well suited to treat others either, others
who might have a less well known diagnosis such as criminal thinking or a type of personality disorder that contributes to
recidivism. In this state (Hawaii) there is little if anything done to prepare the folks going into work furlough in the months
prior to their release, and we have a lot of folks absconding while out on their work privilege. If the prison authorities claim
not to be equipped to treat mental illness, what happens to me if I go to prison for 10 years for embezzlement and have
major depression or perhaps a bipolar disorder? What treatment, if any, will I get? Something is wrong all around. And I
am perfectly aware that all across the country those of us paying attention are saying that the jails have become the mental
health facility of choice since actual mental health services are so woefully inadequate. I am aware that we incarcerate too
many people and for too many wrong reasons and that there are very effective and efficient alternatives to incarceration. As
far as Marcus is concerned, we are generally happy over here that he hurt no one while free. Diagnosis is an art, not a
science, and I am unsure which of his diagnoses or evaluations have some objective basis and which are based on personal
bias or opinion. I have no idea what the childhood or early adulthood of Marcus was before he killed a woman. I have no
idea if he might have been under the influence of some drug when he committed the homicide. He was apprehended about 4
months after the act so a drug test would have been useless. [caption id="attachment_10635" align="aligncenter"
width="300"] Free standing mental health clinic[/caption] I do know we
threaten families with life and limb, we threaten individuals and families with social disruption, we ignore the suffering of
our fellow humans who need treatment to lessen the pain of mental illness if we don't speak as a public. From Richard
Nixon on and then with real speed during Ronald Reagan's regime, we have short changed the poor, the marginal, the under
educated, the addicted and the other mentally ill people (you did remember that addiction is a mental health problem,
right?). The Republicans keep at it most consistently although the Democrats are often too timid when they do try to restore
some of the imbalance in funding and development of services. Too often the Democrats are afraid of being called "soft on
crime" or of "coddling" the moochers. What are you as a reader and as a person willing to do to solve these complex
problems? What about prevention? What about housing? What about treatment?
