No One Cares About Crazy People
The Chaos and Heartbreak of Mental Health in America
I have posted several blogs about the unconscionable jailhouse ordeal of Tyler West, the 18-year-old mental-illness sufferer who has been held in the Muskegon (MI) County Jail since February (!) while awaiting trial on a felony charge of breaking and entering. (He committed this offense early this year, walking into a neighbor’s house and falling … Continue reading “Tyler West is Viciously Assaulted in Jail AGAIN!”
Remarks to the Cambridge NAMI Thank you, Cambridge NAMI, for inviting me here. And thank all of you for coming tonight. Schizophrenia has struck hard at the Powers family. In 2002, our younger son Kevin experienced the first of several psychotic breaks that worsened over three years despite intense counseling, hospitalization, and a regimen of … Continue reading “FREE TYLER WEST, AND ALL THE TYLER WESTS!”
The road to Hell is paved with good intentions. Sadly, the road to mental-illness coverage is fashioned from similar material.
I have written about the state-enforced incarceration, torture (via solitary confinement), and medical and inhumane neglect of young Tyler West of Fruitport, Michigan, since I began this blog nearly two years ago. I have included mention of this mentally ill, ridiculously over-prosecuted victim’s plight in nearly every talk I have given. I’ve contacted journalists, advocates, … Continue reading “An Ongoing Barbaric National Disgrace”
Tyler West is in a prisoner in the Richard Handlon Correctional Prison in Ionia, Michigan. Mark Rippee, blind and severely disabled, as well as severely mentally ill, is at large on the streets of Vacaville, California, where he has somehow survived for twelve years. He is regularly beaten up and tormented by street punks. His … Continue reading “LEST WE FORGET”
EXPLANATORY FOR THE TEXT OF THE TALK BELOW Below is the text of the talk I delivered to the 2018 conference of Pathways to Hope in San Antonio on Friday. Pathways is an exemplary nonprofit outreach organization that has set new standards for reclaiming and treating victims of mental illness and addiction. Because of a … Continue reading “Guest Speaker Ron Powers at the Pathways to Hope Conference”
From time to time on this blog, I’ve lamented the uncounted family members—mothers, mostly—who are aware of the hideous abuse their mentally ill children suffer in jails, and sometimes in care centers and by law enforcement; yet who choose to keep their voices muted for fear of stigma and possible retaliation by the abusers. On … Continue reading “FROM THE MOTHER OF A MENTALLY ILL SON, BEATEN (AGAIN) IN JAIL”
I am typing these words in a near-incoherent state. I am consumed with boiling anger that makes me want to scream; black despair; bottomless pity for Rebecca Distel Reinig, the mother of Joseph; for Joseph’s father, and for Joseph, rest his soul. I feel such contempt for the pigsty that is our mental healthcare system … Continue reading “IF YOU HAVE RAGE, PREPARE TO VENT IT NOW”
