Piper Creations

Forced Psychiatry? The article below is scary because if someone can say mental problems are genetic

or just somehow get a law that is capable of sidestepping regular courts, out go psychologists and psychiatrists, lawyers would not be needed either.

psyc 1 14 Oct 2000
From the medication debate that psychologists and psychiatrist have had, to ADD and ADHD, I ask who will have the children?

Subject: [PRISONACT]

CHEMICAL PRISON ALERT: Merger of prison & pharmaceutical industries
Date: Fri, 27 Oct 2000 00:49:09 -0700

From: David Oaks - Support Coalition International <dendron@efn.org>

[feel free to redistribute]

Oct. 25, 2000

THE MERGING OF THE PRISON AND PSYCHIATRIC DRUG INDUSTRIES:

BEWARE OF THE "CHEMICAL PRISON"

by David Oaks, Director
Support Coalition International

It can be tough working for human rights of people diagnosed with
psychiatric disorders -- or "psychiatric survivors" as many of us call
ourselves. We call ourselves "psychiatric survivors" to remember those who
did not survive the forced electroshocks, the forced druggings, the back
wards, the restraints, etc.

One big breakthrough for the psychiatric survivor liberation movement this
last year has been with the disability rights movement. The disablity
movement has really helped embrace the "mental disability" movement as
never before.

But what about the PRISON JUSTICE MOVEMENT? It's time -- past time -- to
build more two-way bridges between the prison justice movement and the
psychiatric survivor liberation movement.

The psychiatric survivor movement originally came out of the same source as
the prison justice movement, thirty years ago. In fact, psychiatric
survivors would call themselves "psychiatric inmates" to emphasize that --
despite all the medical trappings -- they were essentially prisoners.

Now, in the year 2000, I think one of the richest industries in the world
is catching the prison justice movement flat footed.

I'm talking about the psychiatric drug manufacturing industry.

Front groups funded by the psychiatric drug industry (such as National
Alliance for the Mentally Ill) have some very compelling sound bites about
the prison system.

NAMI says that mentally disturbed people are being inappropriately locked
into prisons, and these are folks who should instead be getting "help"
instead of simply incarceration.

Sound good?

The problem is, too many people are not used to popping the hood and
looking inside this sound bite -- they are not asking "what kind of help"?

If the auto industry came up with a new transportation plan to "help" us,
wouldn't we ask "what kind of help -- more highways or more bike lanes"?

But when it comes to the psychiatric system, people tend to be mystified.
They usually don't ask tough questions such as "what kind of help?"

The kind of "help" people should receive is voluntary and that offers a
wide range of options, addressing the whole person. This kind of "help"
should be available to anyone caught in the prison system -- it's part of
massively changing the entire prison system.

No, what these front groups mean by "help" is primarily psychiatric drugs.
Now, we're pro-choice about taking psychiatric drugs. But many people don't
want to take these super-powerful psychiatric drugs like "neuroleptics."
Even the newest versions can feel like hell and can cause brain damage, and
even kill.

Now, as you can see below, the USA Congress has just passed a law to
institute "mental health courts." And so you'll see the prospects of people
entering because of crimes related to recreational drugs.... and leaving
with a court-ordered mandate to take super-powerful corporate psychiatric
drugs against their will, even while living out in the community in their
own home.

If you're living at home, and the government can force you to take
extremely powerful neurotoxins against your will.... That amounts to a
"chemical prison." You are still in prison. Your home has been made into a
prison. But the bars are made of forced pills and/or injections.

Break the silence about chemical prisons, and the merger of the
pharmaceutical and prison industries!

Fight that corporate merger, by uniting the prison justice and psychiatric
survivor movements.

Alert people that one of the most profitable industries in the world --
psychiatric drug manufacturers -- are targeting a whole new market at
taxpayer expense -- people who end up in the prison system.

David Oaks, Director
Support Coalition International
http://www.MindFreedom.org
davidoaks@post.harvard.edu

~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~

[Below is an Associated Press article from yesterday about the new huge
bill just passed by the US Congress, and going to Clinton's desk. This
would institute "mental health courts," which can sound like a good idea...
But when the rubber hits the road it's about coercing lots more people to
enter the "chemical prison" of coerced and forced psychiatric drugs.
They're given diagnoses of "mental disorder" when their real diagnosis is
"oppressed." Their given prescriptions for drugs, when the prescription
they need is social change, and the meeting of basic human needs.]

~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~

The Associated Press

October 24, 2000, Tuesday, BC cycle

Congress approves alternative treatment for mentally ill criminals

By JIM ABRAMS, Associated Press Writer

DATELINE: WASHINGTON

Congress has approved funds for pilot programs that emphasize supervision
and treatment rather than prison sentences for the mentally ill who commit
non-violent crimes.

The bill, passed by the House in a voice vote Tuesday and sent to the
president for his signature, gives the Attorney General the authority to
make grants to state, local or Indian tribal governments to create up to 100
programs to help the mentally ill caught up in the criminal justice system.

It would provide up to $10 million a year for four years for mental health
court programs that give specialized training to law enforcement and court
personnel and which foster voluntary treatment that carries the possibility
of the dismissal of charges or reduced sentences.

Rep. Ted Strickland, D-Ohio, the main sponsor of the House version, said
that as a former consulting psychologist at an Ohio correctional facility he
had seen how prisons have become "America's new mental asylums."

The bill passed the Senate last month. Sen. Mike DeWine, R-Ohio, who
sponsored the bill, said the criminal justice system has been forced into
the role of a surrogate mental health care provider, with 16 percent of all
Inmates in America's state prisons and local jails suffering from mental
illnesses.

There are 600,000 to 700,000 seriously mentally ill individuals booked into
local jails every year, he said.

Mental health courts, patterned after drug courts that also stress treatment
over sentencing, currently exist in Alaska, California, Florida, Indiana,
New York, Ohio, Oregon and Washington, DeWine said.

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