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PRISON ABUSE

To the Editors: I had a cellmate who had a mental illness and everyday we would walk around the yard and talk. He was a white guy who had been mentally mistreated by other inmates and corrections officers. Every chance I got, I would go and visit him because dealing with prisoners that have a mental illness was a hard task, but I managed it and I dealt with it. There are many prisoners that have a mental illness that are being physically and mentally mistreated. It's happening in prisons nationwide because having a mental illness in prison is real serious
Anthony Spratley
New York, New York
Editor's Note: Anthony Spratley wrote I Survived the Box, about his experience in a prison's solitary confinement cell for the Jan-March '04 issue.

POLICE GIVEN UNDERSERVED BAD RAP

To the Editors:
RE: Police Response to Mental Health Emergencies by Jeffrey Perry, Jan-March '03 issue
I work as the Crisis Intervention (CIT) Coordinator for the Portland Police Bureau in Portland, Oregon. I have been in law enforcement since 1990. My job is to be a liaison between the mental health community and the Police Bureau. I also teach other police officers in this Metro area on how to deal with those in a mental health crisis.

I was surfing the web and found the article written by Jeffrey Perry. I was pretty astounded at the negative police-bashing crap that he was putting forth as a recommended policy. While I realize this was only his opinion, he is wrong about several things:

1) "Police are not mental health personnel, will not and cannot be trained to be so in an effective way." I have been a CIT trained officer for 5 years and have taken hundreds of 911 calls that involved people in various stages of a mental health crisis. Most of the time it was resolved without any one being hurt by themselves or others, and I still wear my CIT pin with pride. There are more and more police departments getting CIT onboard since Memphis started it in 1995. Hundreds of lives have been saved by CIT officers since then, but that will never get any national headlines. I can tell you that police officers ARE effective first responders in mental health emergencies.

2) Mr. Perry ends the article by saying, "I would rather the guy with his hand on the trigger sit around eating a donut than to be attending a psych-emergency with a gun at the side." When I do a CIT call my finger is not on the trigger and I respect the personal space when I'm talking to someone. I have the gun so I can protect myself and my partner. That would also explain why I need to wear a bulletproof vest every day. I will not be taking off my gun to help people. I do not pick and choose the 911 calls that come in from the general public, I just answer the call.
Officer Paul Ware
Via the Web cit@police.ci.portland.or.us

THE OLYMPIC SWIMMING POOL
To the Editors:
Clients with mental disabilities or clients with psychological problems or both are in different places in therapy.

Let's look at a swimming pool! There is shallow and there is deep water with the diving board. Clients not taking medicine and not in therapy are not in the swimming pool. Clients taking medicine and in therapy are in different parts of the swimming pool. Anyone in this swimming pool is a success story. While in this swimming pool you must take your medicine and take therapy seriously from session to session.
Therapy can be very painful, but you must get toward the deep water and diving board to feel better.
Mark Robert Spector
Rockaway Beach, New York