Jail is the Last Thing That Mental Patients Need

Hello Friends! INVITATIONS FOR YOU! (10 links)

Visit the Assistance to the Incarcerated Mentally Ill Photo Album at this lik:  http://www.care2.com/c2c/photos/view/217/513396753/AIMI_Photo_Album/

JAIL IS THE LAST THING THAT MENTAL PATIENTS NEED, AND TOO OFTEN, IT IS THE VERY LAST THING THEY EXPERIENCE. Please join our effort to decriminalize mental illness. Support Congressional bill H.R.619 to resume Medicaid for psychiatric inpatient care. No one deserves to be punished for having a disability. Equal justice!

Many people do not know that insurance for mental hospitals was not included in the national health plan bill that Congress passed in March 2010. YOUR help is needed to decriminalize mental illness in America. Sick people deserve treatment in hospitals or community care depending on their ability to live outside a controlled environment, not imprisonment. We have another chance! Federal bill H.R.619 was introduced in Congress in January 2009 by Rep. Eddie Johnson (D-TX) to resume Medicaid for psychiatric inpatients. Elimination of Medicaid for mental hospital insurance several decades ago led to today's crisis: 1.25 million mentally ill inmates in America, including 60% of the people enduring solitary confinement torture. Consider this quote:

"In a world with so much to be done, I thought there must be something for me to do." ~ Dorothea L. Dix, human rights advocate of the 1800's, responsible for the first generation of mental hospitals in America.

Please VOTE for H.R.619 to replace prisons w/ hospitals for acute mental patients. The link below will take you to OpenCongress.org where you can say to our elected officials, “We care about the least of these, His brethren: naked, sick prisoners.” (Matt.25:36) http://www.opencongress.org/bill/111-h619/show

AGREE WITH ASSISTANCE TO THE INCARCERATED MENTALLY ILL MEMBERS:  JAIL IS THE LAST THING THAT MENTAL PATIENTS NEED. MONEY THAT IS WASTED ON PUNISHING PEOPLE FOR BEING SICK BY EXPENSIVE PRISON TERMS SHOULD BE USED INSTEAD TO RESTORE THEM TO WHOLESOME LIVES IN DECENT, SECURE MENTAL HOSPITALS OR COMMUNITY CARE PROGRAMS, DEPENDING ON THEIR OFFENSES AND FUNCTIONALITY. 

You are invited to assist this justice quest.  It is time for Americans to denounce and abandon the Dark Age practice of locking mentally ill people away in dungeons.  That is discriminatory and mean.  Mental illness is a chronic health condition that requires continual care like diabetes and heart failure.  Treatment restores lives, increases community safety, and reduces the nation's prison budget, which is currently over $50 billion per year. 

Visit and join Assistance to the Incarcerated Mentally Ill at Care2 Network at this link: http://www.Care2.com/c2c/group/AIMI  and invite your friends to visit my blog at http://freespeakblog.blogspot.com/  for justice news regarding mentally ill victims and other poor and working class exploited people. We must care for the sick and elderly; repeal capital punishment; stop excessive sentencing and wrongful convictions; respect human and civil rights. I look forward to reading your viewpoints in the comments.

Blessings!

Mary Neal

Mary Neal's Google Profile - http://www.google.com/profiles/MaryLovesJustice  - Get the RSS feed for my Care2 Sharebook at: http://www.care2.com/c2c/share/rss.html/513396753/0 /  - Get the RSS feed for my Twitter KOFFIETIME at http://twitter.com/statuses/user_timeline/59790083.rss  - Current, urgent justice issues from a laywoman's viewpoint at my primary blog http://freespeakblog.blogspot.com/  (the name is a joke, believe me) Recommended articles - http://topsy.com/site/freespeakblog.blogspot.com  - Address: MaryLovesJustice@gmail.com

Decriminalize Mental Illness in Three Easy Steps to Support H.R.619

HERE IS WHAT YOU CAN DO TO HELP DECRIMINALIZE MENTAL ILLNESS BY MAKING MENTAL HOSPITALIZATION AVAILABLE!

Representative Eddie Johnson (D-TX) introduced H.R.619, a congressional bill to amend Title XIX of the Social Security Act to resume Medicaid coverage for qualifying inpatients in psychiatric facilities. The bill was introduced in January 2009, and has received no media coverage to notify Americans we have the opportunity to decriminalize mental illness.  Helping is as easy as A, B, C!
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A)    CALL at least ten religious, civic, and veteran organizations and let them know about congressional bill H.R.619. 

B)    WRITE a letter of support for H.R.619. Ask your online group hosts to write a letter of support on behalf of the group. Ask your pastor or civic leaders to also draft a letter of support for H.R.619. Post them online so that more people will know we have the opportunity to DECRIMINALIZE MENTAL ILLNESS.

C)    VOTE for H.R.619 at OpenCongress.org. Most congressional bills never get out of committees and onto the floor of the House for a vote.  http://www.opencongress.org/bill/111-h619/show

We need to know BEFORE the upcoming elections which of our candidates for re-election support human rights.  Everyone needs health care insurance.  H.R.619 is the bill that will make it possible for middle-class and indigent people to be hospitalized if they require long-term care or experience a mental health crisis.  In fact, having access to health care will prevent many crisis situations, and that means safer communities.

Visit the site at the link below to access a letter of support for H.R.619 by National Alliance on Mental Health (NAMI) on behalf of its 210,000 members. Use it as an example for your own letter, or re-publish NAMI's letter like I did at my blog and say, "I agree with NAMI."   Please demonstrate to elected officials that the congressional bill to resume Medicaid for mental hospital coverage has your support!    http://www.care2.com/c2c/share/detail/1456848

Thank you for helping to end systemic discrimination against mentally challenged Americans, estimated to be one in every five persons.  Since Medicaid was withdrawn as a funding source in the 1970's, roughly 1.25 million mentally challenged people became prisoners, which drove our prison costs to over $50 billion annually. Taxpayers saved nothing, but many of our relatives and neighbors suffer cruel incarceration after crimes that might have been avoided if mental hospitals were more available than they are. Some of our most talented and intelligent fellow citizens have or had mental illness, including musicians, scientists, and political figures.  Supporting H.R.619 shows that we understand there are no throw-away people.  A life is a terrible thing to waste.
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ASSISTANCE TO THE INCARCERATED MENTALLY ILL
http://www.Care2.com/c2c/group/AIMI

JAIL IS THE LAST THING THAT MENTAL PATIENTS NEED, AND TOO OFTEN, IT IS THE VERY LAST THING THEY EXPERIENCE. Please join our effort to decriminalize mental illness. No one deserves to be punished for having a disability.