Consider This: Kagan for Supreme Court
. . .hard to read
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Commentary: Requiem for Rene: a suicide lament

News: New York offers fewer apartments than court orders
Last week New York State proposed aremedial plan to meet a judge's demand for appropriate, supported housing, for 4,300 people living in 28 adult homes.
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Consider This: Court to New York: stop segregating mentally ill residents
. . .addressing wrongs
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News: Awards for stories about mental illness
The Association of Health Care Journalists announced five of its annual awards will go to reporters who have written about mental illness. They are: •Mary Carmichael of Newsweek for a story detaiiling how bi-polar disorder dominates the life of one youngster and his parents. •Randy Dotinga, of Voice of San Diego, for a story about the bridge in San Diego which has been used by people intending suicide since 1973. •Sharon Salyer and Alejandro Dominguez, of the Daily Herald in...
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Commentary: A courtroom miracle: mental health court

News: Drug treatment to reduce crime recidivism
The criminal justice system has five gateways for helping offenders with an addictive disorder get treatment. Informed by neuroscience and the biology of addiction and treatment, authors of an article in the Journal of the American Medical Association (JAMA) urge they become opportunities for interventions. Research has shown that chronic drug use alters the brain's circuitry which affects behavior. Treatment upon returning to the community is a key to reducing recidivism, say these authors who are part of the National...
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News: PTSD doesn't earn Purple Heart, disability
The Pentagon has decided that PTSD is not worthy of a Purple Heart, saying it was not intentionally caused by an "outside force or agent." According to Stars and Stripes, which reported some of the story in May, a military spokesperson explained that the Purple Heart has never been awarded for mental disorders or psychological conditions resulting from witnessing or experiencing traumatic combat events (e.g., combat stress reaction, shell-shock, combat stress fatigue, acute stress disorder, or PTSD). The Purple...
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News: Eli Lilly settles $62 million case; more pending
Eli Lilly announced a $62 million settlement in 32 states for the marketing of its block buster drug Zyprexa. In the 12 years it has been on the market, the company says it has been prescribed 26 million times. Zyprexa is known to cause weight gain leading to diabetes, heart disease, both of which are associated with early death. Other law suits are still outstanding. Since 2005, according to SEC filings, costs associated with Zyprexa lawsuits, including legal fees, amount...
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News: Waxman questions pharma influence on FDA
Rep. Henry Waxman Rep. Henry Waxman (D-Cal), chair of the House oversight committee, asked FDA Commissioner Andrew von Eschenbach to explain how priorities were established which seemed to have tipped from protecting consumers to protecting drug companies. He cites employees for whom the agency has become a revolving door to pharma, asserts the agency protects drug makers instead of the consumers, and asks for clarification about distribution of journal articles and preemptions for medical devices. Waxman's concerns about preemptions...
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News: Waxman questions pharma influence on FDA
Rep. Henry Waxman Rep. Henry Waxman (D-Cal), chair of the House oversight committee, asked FDA Commissioner Andrew von Eschenbach to explain how priorities were established which seemed to have tipped from protecting consumers to protecting drug companies. He cites employees for whom the agency has become a revolving door to pharma, asserts the agency protects drug makers instead of the consumers, and asks for clarification about distribution of journal articles and preemptions for medical devices. Waxman's concerns about preemptions...
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News: Disorders seen in teens in adult system
Psychiatric disorders were diagnosed in two-thirds of a group of youthful offenders from Chicago's Cook County whose crime or age required their transfer to adult courts. A study appearing in Psychiatric Services (n=1,715) noted that "males from ethnic minority groups are among the least likely to receive mental health treatment, either in the community or in prison."...
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News: Court strikes down Kendra's Law in New Mexico
After the courts struck down an Albuquerque ordinance requiring forced medication for outpatient treatment, the mayor vowed to return this issue to the legislature. According to the Albuquerque Journal the state has cut back on funding for outpatient programs. According to Nancy Koenigsberg from the advocacy organization, Protection and Advocacy, The ordinance that was struck (down) acknowledged that for any kind of treatment to achieve its goal, it must be linked to a system of comprehensive care in which...
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News: Diversion programs in San Francisco
Informed police intervention and specialty courts for people with a psychiatric diagnosis are now shaping programs in forty California jurisdictions. KQED radio host Michael Krasny dedicated an hour-long program introducing how these innovations aimed to promote treatment and safety work in San Francisco. His four guests included an advocate, a judge, a police officer, and a consumer who teaches them all about his life including his experience with schizophrenia. Police Officer Greg Sancire, a trained psychologist, described training programs where...
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News: Shifting sex predators into mental health system
Louisiana is considering extending the sentences of sex predators by additional confinement in a mental health facility. At least 17 states had similar laws in 2007, according to the National Conference of State Legislatures....
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News: Is schizophrenia incompatible with self-representation?
Last week the Supreme Court handed down a decision that a man with schizophrenia did not have the right to represent himself in court without an attorney. Indiana v. Edwards raises questions about whether the legal standard conferring competence to stand trial differs from competence to represent oneself. The 7-to-2 opinion upheld an Indiana's judge's decision not to allow Ahmed Edwards to conduct his own self-defense. Edwards spent three years in the hospital before he was deemed competent to stand...
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News: Trial over VA, suicides, rests
A two-week non-jury trial involving a class action law suit over veterans' mental health services has ended in San Francisco. It will now be up to U.S. District Judge Samuel Conti, to decide what, if any, measures to demand of the government. The suit focused on lapses in service, with waits still averaging 30 days, the especially high rates of suicide, and roughly 1,000 suicide attempts each month. Emails indicating top officials knew about the suicide trend, and tried...
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Consider This: More on pharma influence
More on pharma: tracking prescribing habits of doctors, and the FDA.
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Commentary: Working with youthful offenders: Crossroads
by Judge Linda Teodosio

Judge Linda Teodosio, Summit County Juvenile Court, describes Crossroads, a unique and intense diversionary probation program for juveniles in Ohio. Since 2003, Crossroads has worked with community collaboration to help youthful offenders get the treatment, and the fresh start, they need. Judge Teodosio's program was recently cited as a model for juvenile justice by the National Center for Mental Health and Juvenile Justice (NCMHJJ).


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Consider This: Florida calls for end of trans-institutionalization
by Phyllis Vine


A bold report to Florida's governor recommends sweeping changes to address failures in the criminal justice and mental health system. “Transforming Florida’s Mental Health System" can guide significant reform.


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News: Schwarzenegger doubts mental health courts
The San Francisco Chronicle reported that California’s Gov. Arnold Schwarzenegger cited the cost ($14 million) and the fear that people who commit a crime might go unpunished “because of a mental health issue,” when he when vetoed the expansion of mental health courts. His action ignored evidence of success of court diversion and flies in the face of a national trend....
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Interviews: Q & A with Dr. Andrew P. Levin: The intersection of psychiatry and law
a conversation with Phyllis Vine, editor
In the aftermath of Virginia Tech, a fair number of Monday-morning pundits have weighed in with opinions about how school officials, the police, and psychiatrists should have acted before tragedy hit. To clarify some of the issues about the intersection of law and psychiatry, MIWatch spoke with forensic psychiatrist Dr. Andrew P. Levin.
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News: Supreme Court decides against death penalty
In a 5-4 vote, the Supreme Court blocked the execution of a Texas man with schizophrenia who admitted to killing his in-laws. An important element in this closely watched case asked whether Scott Panetti knew the legal consequences of his action. Writing for the majority, Justice Kennedy said, "[g]ross delusions stemming from a severe mental disorder may put an awareness of a link between a crime and its punishment in a context so far removed from reality that the punishment...
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News: AMA weighs in on mental health courts
The Journal of the American Medical Association writes "a small but growing body of evidence is providing support that mental health courts and similar interventions may indeed benefit individuals and communities."...
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News: Competency and courts
The National GAINS Center held a meeting to discuss the "national crisis surrounding the lack of treatment beds for defendants who are found incompetent to stand trial." Recommendations addressed practices and procedures for balancing public safety without subverting recovery. One model for competency courts comes from Seattle where mental health courts oversee hearings. This has shortened the time for making a determination and allows people who are mentally ill but competent to opt into a treatment-based mental health court....
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Commentary: Decriminalizing Mental Illness -- Reframing Solutions
by Jennifer J. Parish
Jails have become the de-facto hospitals for people with mental illness. Most would never have been arrested had they been receiving treatment, including proper housing or social supports. Attorney Jennifer J. Parish explains why it is essential to decriminalize mental illness now.
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News: Are sex offenders mentally ill?
New Hampshire is currently testing a new sex offender law involving further confinement of a man who completed his 1999 jail sentence for rape and murderon on the grounds he has a mental illness. New Hampshire is one of 18 states permitting the involuntary commitment of sex offenders, extending their incarceration by civil means, and often by transfer to psychiatric hospitals. Other states are currently debating similar legislation and New Hampshire recommends incarcerating sex offenders in a special wing of...
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