(10-16-17) Public outrage about how Americans with mental illnesses were treated inside state mental hospitals helped spark de-institutionalization.

So where is that anger and fury now when it comes to abuses of Americans with mental illnesses currently being warehoused in our jails and prisons?

This week, the Chicago Sun Times newspaper reported:

“Thousands of  (Illinois state) prisoners are experiencing the symptoms of untreated or inadequately treated mental illness, including paranoia, hallucinations, anger, withdrawal, confusion, agitation, anxiety, depression, self-harm and suicidal ideation…To allow one human being unnecessarily to suffer these symptoms is unacceptable. To allow thousands to suffer is a moral and legal catastrophe.”

When I spent a year inside the U.S. Penitentiary in Leavenworth, Kansas, reporting for my book, The Hot House, the federal Bureau of Prisons set the highest standard for professionalism.

But an Office of Inspector General report released earlier this year reveals our federal prison system, which houses 148,227 prisoners in 122 institutions, has become one of the most abusive and neglectful in its handling of inmates with serious mental illnesses.

Among the most damning findings is how prisoners with serious mental illnesses are being held in complete isolation not for days, weeks, or even months, but for years. That’s right: isolation for as long as six years!

The Office of Inspector General found that on average, BOP prisoners with serious mental illnesses were confined about 896 consecutive days, or about 29 months, in so-called “special management units (SMUs)” between 2008 and 2015.  Incredibly, 13% of these inmates with serious mental illness were released directly into the community after spending an average of 29 consecutive months in isolation cells.

Meanwhile, the BOP insists it does not place a single prisoner with mental illness or any other inmate in solitary confinement.

This is because the BOP refuses to use the word solitary confinement. Instead, it calls it “single celling” – a wonderful euphemism as pointed out in a Washington Post editorial entitled Solitary confinement is torture. Will the Bureau of Prisons finally stop using it?

“You have no contact, you don’t speak to anybody, and it’s a form of torture on some level,” a BOP psychologist quietly acknowledged to OIG investigators.

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U.S. Congressman Tim Murphy in August 2017. (Nate Guidry/Pittsburgh Post-Gazette/TNS)

(10-5-17) I had just finished giving a speech in Colorado and was driving through the Rockies when this story broke. I don’t like re-posting news stories but given Rep. Murphy’s high profile in the mental health community, here’s the latest from Politico. 

Tim Murphy resigns from Congress

The anti-abortion Republican was embroiled in scandal after reportedly encouraging a woman he was romantically involved with to terminate a pregnancy.

Rep. Tim Murphy (R-Pa.), the embattled anti-abortion lawmaker who allegedly encouraged his lover to terminate a pregnancy, on Thursday announced his plan to resign from office later this month — just a day after announcing his plan to retire following the 2018 election.

The Pennsylvania Republican’s about-face came after House GOP leaders and senior Republicans upped the pressure on Murphy to step down. Republican sources familiar with Murphy’s thinking said the married father of one child initially believed he could weather a Pittsburgh Post-Gazette story revealing he had sent a series of text messages to his girlfriend — a psychologist half his age — encouraging her to have an abortion. Murphy had been a strongly anti-abortion lawmaker during his 15 years in Congress.

“This afternoon I received a letter of resignation from Congressman Tim Murphy, effective October 21,” Speaker Paul Ryan said in a statement. “It was Dr. Murphy’s decision to move on to the next chapter of his life, and I support it.”

But many senior Republicans did not believe Murphy could — or should — survive until the end of his term. Several top Republicans said Ryan, who met with Murphy Wednesday evening to discuss his future, also wanted him to step down.

GOP insiders were also worried additional damaging stories could surface on Murphy and his office. The Post-Gazette revealed that his staff was in turmoil for years, with the congressman yelling at aides and throwing folders.

“As I said last night, the circumstances surrounding this situation are extremely disappointing to me,” National Republican Congressional Committee Chairman Steve Stivers (Ohio) said in a statement.

But Stivers predicted that Republicans would easily hold Murphy’s district, despite the scandal that destroyed the GOP lawmaker’s career.

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(10-4-17) The Pennsylvania Republican released the following statement today following a series of embarrassing revelations published in the Pittsburgh Gazette about his personal life.

Representative Tim Murphy Statement From Congressman Tim Murphy For Immediate Release: October 4, 2017 WASHINGTON, DC – Today Congressman Tim Murphy (PA-18) released the following statement: “After discussions with my family and staff, I have come to the decision that I will not seek reelection to Congress at the end of my current term. “I plan to spend my remaining months in office continuing my work as the national leader on mental health care reform, as well as issues affecting working families in southwestern Pennsylvania. “We have accomplished much in the past year through the Helping Families in Mental Health Crisis Act and there is much work yet to be done. “In the coming weeks I will take personal time to seek help as my family and I continue to work through our personal difficulties and seek healing. I ask you to respect our privacy during this time.”

(10-3-17) I didn’t post anything when news broke recently about Rep. Tim Murphy’s admission of having an extra-marital affair  because I didn’t think it was anyone’s business. But the Pittsburgh Gazette has posted another scandalous story today that will certainly harm the Pennsylvania Republican’s re-election chances. Only days ago his name was being floated around as the next possible Secretary of the Department of Health and Human Services because he has been a determined and dogged advocate for individuals with mental illnesses and addictions. His Helping Families In Mental Health Crisis Act was landmark legislation.

Now, it appears he will be fighting to remain in office. 

Rep. Tim Murphy, popular with pro-life movement, urged abortion in affair, texts suggest

PAULA REED WARD

Pittsburgh Post-Gazette

pward@post-gazette.com

A text message sent in January to U.S. Rep. Tim Murphy by a woman with whom he had an extra-marital relationship took him to task for an anti-abortion statement posted on Facebook from his office’s public account.

“And you have zero issue posting your pro-life stance all over the place when you had no issue asking me to abort our unborn child just last week when we thought that was one of the options,” Shannon Edwards, a forensic psychologist in Pittsburgh with whom the congressman admitted last month to having a relationship, wrote to Mr. Murphy on Jan. 25, in the midst of an unfounded pregnancy scare.

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UNITED STATES – DECEMBER 05: Sen. Bill Cassidy, R-La., right, and Rep. Tim Murphy, R-Pa., attend a news conference in the Capitol Visitor Center to call on the Senate to pass mental health reform legislation, December 05, 2016. (Photo By Tom Williams/CQ Roll Call)

(10-2-17) Senator Bill Cassidy (La.) and Representative Tim Murphy (Pa.) are among the names of candidates being floated around for replacing Health and Human Secretary Thomas Price, who resigned Friday amid criticism that he used private jets at taxpayers’ expense when less expensive public transportation was available.

Both Republicans played key roles in getting the Helping Families in Mental Health Crisis Act signed into law last year during the waning days of the Obama administration.

Dr. Cassidy, a LSU medical school graduate who specialized in liver diseases, partnered with Senator Lindsey Graham (S.C.) in an unsuccessfully attempt to push through the Republicans most recent effort to repeal and replace the Affordable Care Act. He gained national recognition after he told late night talk show host Jimmy Kimmel that any replacement to Obamacare would have to pass the “Kimmel test.” The talk show host later criticized Cassidy for supporting the Graham-Cassidy health care bill that was strongly opposed by the medical community, especially mental health groups, but was backed by President Donald Trump and the White House, admittedly tepidly.

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