Twenty year anniversary in prison for a crime with a recommended eleven years maximum.

Sana, Christopher, and James (step father). Christopher has spent twenty years in prison for a crime with a recommended maximum eleven year sentence. He has paranoid schizophrenia. 

(Update:  Just to be clear, the Treatment Advocacy Center, which encourages everyone to sign the Sharikas-Campbell family petition calling for Christopher to be pardoned by the governor, has a helpful tool that allows residents of Virginia – and only residents of Virginia — to send a letter to Governor Northam urging him to take action. So, if you live in Virginia, please do so. It’s quick and easy. And if you live outside of Virginia, by all means, please sign the petition  to show your support. Sorry for the confusion. These are two different items – a letter for Virginians and a petition for anyone who wants to help.)

(5-22-18) The Treatment Advocacy Center has thrown its weight behind a petition drive to get Christopher Sharikas pardoned by Virginia’s governor and transferred to a state mental hospital where he can get treatment for his paranoid schizophrenia.  Hopefully, the National Alliance on Mental Illness, Mental Health America, the Bazelon Center for Mental Health Law and other organizations will join TAC’s move.

I first wrote about Christopher’s case  in September and tipped off The Washington Post. Its reporter, Rachel Weiner, wrote a detailed story about him that same month.

Here’s a quick recap.

Sana Campbell, (her first husband, Christopher’s father, is deceased and she has remarried), told me that her son began showing signs of paranoia and schizophrenia in his early teens. His untreated illness became progressively worse and when he was seventeen, voices in his head began commanding him to get to New York City.

Christopher flashed a knife at a woman, then ran away. The police showed up at his house, but no charges were filed. The next afternoon during a worsening psychotic break, Christopher pulled his knife on a 24 year-old woman and demanded her car keys.

Amy Greenwood quickly gave him the keys to her car. Christopher next demanded her purse, which she also handed over. He stabbed her in her back and fled, only to crash her car a few hours later while she was being treated.

Yes, it was a horrific crime prompted by mental illness. No one questions that or excuses it. But Christopher’s case soon took several twists, all unfavorable to the ill teenager.

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Please watch this short video about diverting persons with mental illness into treatment!

(5-18-18) I am so proud of how Fairfax County, Virginia has become a national model in diverting persons with mental illnesses into treatment rather than having them languish in jail.

For eight years after my book was published, I would return to my home county embarrassed after visiting communities that had embraced Crisis Intervention Team training, problem solving dockets, the sequential intercept model and post release programs.

I was frustrated and ashamed because there was little interest or support for any of these programs in Fairfax.

That’s no longer true.

Now because of collaboration and inspired leadership by our Board of Supervisors, Sheriff, Police Chief and other elected officials, a major cultural shift has happened.

Now when I give a speech, I brag about how Fairfax County has become a leader in mental health reform!

We still need to work on building supportive housing. We still need to push for expanding problem solving dockets (mental health and drug courts). We now need our judges and prosecutors to understand that individuals charged with both misdemeanors and felonies should be eligible for diversion because it is not the crime that should be the determining factor but whether or not the accused has a criminogenic personality. (Persons with chronic, serious mental illnesses often get charged with felony assault for resisting arrest.)

But the change in Fairfax has been breathtaking.

If your community leaders are unaware about the national Stepping Up initiative, you need to  copy and send them the video posted above. Tell them that diversion is not only a way to end the inappropriate incarceration of persons who are sick but also a smarter way to spend precious public tax resources.

Congratulations Fairfax County!

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(5-11-18) Pat and Jerry Wood insist their adult son’s death could – and should – have been prevented. Instead, on this coming Mother’s Day weekend, the family will be holding a  private memorial for Brian Patrick Wood. Their account is one of the most disturbing examples that I have read about barriers to treatment – not only in Virginia – but across our nation. (Their son’s death happened in Loudoun County. I recently posted a blog from a distraught father who complained sheriff’s office deputies arrested his son after he’d called them for help. The sheriff responded in a follow up blog.)

Our Son’s Preventible Death – An email to Pete Earley from Pat and Jerry Wood

Dear Pete,

On March 22, our son, Brian, took his own life. My husband and I very strongly believe that Brian’s suicide could have been prevented if the first group of medical responders and sheriff officers who we called had acted appropriately.

What follows is a reconstruction of events to the best of our recollection and a question as to why officers who responded to our 911 call did not exercise their authority to use an ECO (Ref: Emergency Custody Order that allows a person to be taken to a hospital against their will in Virginia) to assist our son who clearly did not have the clarity of thought to act in his own interest.

As Brian became increasingly delusional and paranoid over a period of months, he called the (Loudoun) sheriff non-emergency number several times.

Brian had called them when he lived in an apartment in Leesburg and continued to do so when he moved to our house in Sterling.  Officers had come to our house in Sterling to investigate imagined break-ins and “suspicious people” loitering around the house at least twice or three times in the 2-3 weeks prior to Brian’s suicide.

Deputy Suggests Family Get ECO On Their Own

Deputy P. Brick (#3198) responded to these calls several times and became acquainted with Brian and his mental health status.  Because Brian did not present himself as being a danger to himself or others during these calls, Deputy Brick told us that he could not take Brian in for a mental health evaluation and we agreed with him at that time. The last time Brian asked officers to come to the house, Deputy Brick suggested trying to get an ECO ourselves from the magistrate on the grounds of “inability to care for self”. Please note that Brian had been hospitalized in Loudoun County several times over a 7 year period and had a history of being taken in by the sheriff’s office through emergency custody orders issued on our behalf by the magistrate. He had also been taken for mental health evaluations several times directly by the sheriff’s officers because of complaints by neighbors or, in one case, because of a domestic assault.

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(5-8-18) Helping someone with an addiction is extremely difficult. As parents we are told the mantra: “You didn’t cause it, you can’t control it and you can’t cure it.”

But those words ring hollow if you love someone who has an addiction and you are trying to help him or her become well. Add in a mental illness and the difficulties increase.

I’d love to hear on my Facebook page what helped you and your family. Please share any information that led to someone you love beating pills and/or alcohol.

I have read several helpful books and now my friend, Dr. Lloyd I. Sederer, the chief medical officer for the New York State Office of Mental Health, is publishing a book today entitled: The Addiction Solution: Treating Our Dependence on Opioids and Other Drugs.

I greatly admire Dr. Sederer, respect his vast experience, and value his wisdom so I am happy to post an excerpt.

 Kirkus Review praised his book as a “comprehensive work” and explained that Dr. Sederer identifies ten key factors that influence how individuals interact with psychoactive substances and then explains approaches for treating those who become addicted.

Here’s an excerpt, printed with his permission, in which he describes the mess we currently are in.

THE ADDICTION SOLUTION

Treating Our Dependence on Opioids and Other Drugs

Substance use, abuse, and dependence are like a plague in this country and throughout the world. We are losing not just our children to this disease, but brothers, sisters, parents, friends, co-workers, and neighbors. The body count from overdose deaths and rewarding lives lost to addiction continues to rise. We have yet to implement solutions that will deliver what is needed to overcome the addictive forces that are eroding our societies.

A major reason why we are failing is a dogged attachment to ideas and efforts that have not worked in beating the plague of addiction. Addiction is still here, unabated. The money we are paying—in this country and throughout the globe—is not just vast; it has sadly often been wasted on unsuccessful campaigns of drug control and on education efforts that rely on stressing the negative consequences of drug use.

       I believe that the biggest problem with so many of the psychoactive drugs, those that work on our brains and minds, is that they are so effective.

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(5-4-18) Not a May passes when I don’t recall the deaths of Fairfax County Police Officers Vicky O. Armel and Michael Garbarino who were ambushed by a mentally troubled young man armed with an AK-47 during an attack May 8th, 2006 at a police station near my home. They were reportedly the first Fairfax Police officers killed in the department’s history. After their deaths, I wrote a tribute to Detective Armel published in The Washington Post because of how kind she had been to my son, Kevin, when he first was  arrested.

This was long before Crisis Intervention Team training became a priority in Fairfax, yet she had a big heart and was a devoted Christian who became a police officer to serve and protect, but also to help those in need. A taped message that she had made was played at her funeral during which she spoke about her decision to dedicate her life to Jesus Christ. She was a wife and mother of two. Her killer had fled from a mental facility. Officer Garbarino had been a police officer 23 years and also was survived by his spouse and two children. His widow, Suzanne, later lashed out at the father of the 18 year-old shooter who was convicted of two federal gun charges and heavily criticized for allowing his disturbed son access to a military style weapon.

What strikes me about my original tribute in the Post is how the figures that I cited have not decreased but increased from 700,000 persons with mental illnesses being arrested each year to 2.2 million being booked into jail today.

But the legacy that Detective Armel left behind is what I will always remember most. She treated my son with kindness setting an example for other Fairfax Officers to follow today through CIT training. The irony and horror that she was later murdered by someone with mental illness can not be forgotten. Along with Officer Garbarino, she will be remembered.

In a time when police officers often are criticized for their handling of individuals who are mentally ill, it is important to remember the Vicky Armels in law enforcement.

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