AIMI Progress Report

Wonderful news! Because of our unity and advocacy at Assistance to the Incarcerated Mentally Ill for people with serious mental illness, and thanks to their families' steadfast support, the following positive changes occurred:

1)  Fred Hayes' son Damion was moved to a correctional facility closer to his family, and Fred was allowed to visit Damion for the first time in five years last week.
2) Gemma Pena was allowed to visit her son Kristopher for the first time in two years.
3) Heather Chapman has now had seven visits with her son, Nikko Albanese. Before our advocacy, she had not been allowed to see her son in two years.
4) Gina Burns' son, Jeremy Smith, faced a 25 years to LIFE sentence in California when he was accused of "making terrorist threats to guards." Our advocacy has made juries more aware of mentally ill people being unfairly penalized, and Smith's case resulted in a hung jury. Smith will not be tried again on those charges.

AIMI plans a radio broadcast for these parents to thank decision makers, including you, for the opportunity to visit with their mentally ill children. They will also urge you to continue advocating to decriminalize mental illness and urging officials to allow more families to visit their imprisoned relatives who are treated like criminals because of behavior caused by untreated mental illness. They will request your help making assisted outpatient treatment (AOT) programs available nationwide. The "AIMI vs. USA" conference today centered on the need for AOT programs. Our guest was Heather Chapman. Hear the recording for May 2 at the url http://fccdl.in/6lawqMtfA

AOT programs provide subsistence assistance and mandatory psychiatric treatment to people who have serious mental illnesses. AOT programs were certified by the U.S. Department of Justice years ago, but no funds were allocated to implement the programs nationwide, which is vital. AOT programs promote community safety and cause serious reductions in prison costs, because so few mentally ill people in AOT programs get arrested. In New York, people who participated in treatment and subsistence assistance under the Kendra's Law program experienced better than 85 percent reduction in future homelessness, hospitalization, arrests, and incarcerations. That translates into at least 85 percent fewer crimes that would have led to arrests. AOT programs save taxpayers' money, promote community safety, and most importantly, AOT programs help save and restore lives.

All of the families with whom we work at Assistance to the Incarcerated Mentally Ill promote using AOT programs for people with serious mental illness who exit correctional facilities and mental hospitals in order to reduce or eliminate recidivism and crises that lead to re-hospitalization.

Americans feel sad and frustrated when they see news reports about mentally ill people shot by police officers conducting lunacy arrests. We are greatly disturbed whenever we read articles reporting the brutality and murders of vulnerable, sick people in the nation's correctional facilities. We insist on Medicaid being resumed for psychiatric inpatients and AOT programs being used for persons with mental disabilities. AOT programs help patients stay on track with their psychiatric appointments and medications and avoid unnecessary crises that could negatively impact their entire community.

The four AIMI families discussed in this article are pictured above. Read articles about them at "Dog Justice for Mentally Ill" blog http://DogJusticeforMentallyIll.blogspot.com

AIMI's advocacy for mentally ill Americans experiences online opposition, but we have good experiences with the following companies:

*AIMI uses the free program Ribbet.com for all of our collages and photographs, but even better services are available with a paid membership. Ribbet does not have to be downloaded to your computer. You can access Ribbet and begin using it today at >>  http://www.ribbet.com/

*AIMI uses FreeConferenceCall.com for our "AIMI vs. USA" phone conferences on the first consecutive Saturday and Sunday of each month. Our delivery is always as clear as it was during the May 2 conference at the url http://fccdl.in/6lawqMtfA . The conference service is free, but paid memberships are also available. Recorded conferences are archived at the site where they are assigned a url. They can also be downloaded and saved as mp3 files. FreeConferenceCall has excellent customer service, great security, and many optional services. Try it today >> https://www.freeconferencecall.com/

*Mary Neal uses GoDaddy for the website, Wrongful Death of Larry Neal. View it at http://WrongfulDeathOfLarryNeal.com . GoDaddy offers superior security and customer service. No Internet service company can compare with GoDaddy's responsiveness to its customers.

First paragraph repeated: Wonderful news! Because of our unity and advocacy at Assistance to the Incarcerated Mentally Ill for people with serious mental illness, and thanks to their families' steadfast support, the following positive changes occurred:

MaryLovesJustice Neal
Director of Assistance to the Incarcerated Mentally Ill ("AIMI")
AIMI vs. USA
http://AIMI-HumanRights.blogspot.com
Website: Wrongful Death of Larry Neal
http://WrongfulDeathofLarryNeal.com
Email Addresses
AIMI@HumanRightsDemand.com
MaryLovesJustice@gmail.com
Phone 678.531.0262 or (571)335-1741
Eugenicists enforced sterilization for "undesirables": blacks, poor whites, and the mentally ill. See "Margaret Sanger, a racist eugenicist, is/was being considered for the $20 bill: Bravo!"
http://freespeakblog.blogspot.com/2015/04/margaret-sanger-on-us-money-bravo.html