Of the Mental Health System and Law.

"Prisons Are the New Asylums." 
     Alisa Roth, The Atlantic (magazine) April 2018 .

This will be short. No less a debacle then the 2011 Jesus Murrieta scandal, wherein due to the willingness of the Administrators at Arizona State Hospital (ASH) to deny the public disclosure about Murrieta being at large in Phoenix, April Mott was murdered as a direct consequence of it all. Murrieta, thus, sentenced into the Arizona prison complex, versus being returned to ASH at more then one point in time when Phoenix police encountered Murrieta during the preceding three months before Mott's murder. 

Shane Pelletier, photo below, I know from my time at Montana State Hospital (MSH), 2016, now sentenced to at least eight years in prison.

On a near daily basis, on MSH' Alpha unit, Shane exhibited clearly severe psychosis despite being medicated in an in-patient setting. As a matter of plain fact, for example, in October, 2016, he attempted suicide, an attempt that was very close to success due to the failure of staff to reasonably respond to another's report about Shane's door being in some way blockaded. It did take, as documented by me at the time, a full nineteen (19) minutes following that first report before MSH staff realized the fact that Shane was hanging by his neck there in his room. 

Shane was discharged from MSH in late June, 2017. Less then two weeks after that, he was found to be involved in the rape of a young Missoula, Mt, woman. During his trial, it was raised by the prosecution that Shane had stated six (6) different versions of what actually went at the time of this incident during police interviews,  a pattern of delusion that I contend represents the fact that the man is severely disabled in relation to mental illness. While three independent psychological professionals testified to this fact, that Pelletier is affected by paranoid schizophrenia. Voices etc., and the basic inability to grasp reality in context.

Last week, on March 22, 2019, Shane was sentenced to no less then eight years in Montana's prison system. In graphic defiance of his known diagnosis as a man affected by severe mental illness. 

The presiding judge in this sentencing, Greg Pinski (8th Judicial District, Cascade County, MT), stated that Shane's apparent lack of remorse- which is 100% related to his given mental illness- was the underlying factor in why this sentence was imposed. While Missoula, MT, police (where Shane was arrested in summer, 2017), testified to the fact Shane had six separate claims about what had actually occurred on the night this woman was allegedly raped, this, too, a clear indication of the man's basic inability to grasp reality. 

Just one more hillbilly judge, which Montana is arguably rife with, who have little to no understanding of the significance of serious mental illness, or the grave risks associated with forcing such individuals into state managed corrections facilities. 

As stated above, state mental hospitals have forensic units, specifically designated to humanely incarcerate persons found to be involved in arguably criminal behavior arising as a direct consequence of serious mental illness. 

It goes without saying that corrections facilities do not provide such persons critically needed medical services. This applies most specifically to the care needs of the mentally ill. And in this very same context, there is a rising awareness in America that prisons and jails are increasingly housing persons affected by serious mental illness, which I contend is one of the most horrific aspects of the current criminal justice system. 

Just as disturbing is the fact that even in the greater community in America today (and elsewhere for time immemorial), mentally ill persons are at  a markedly higher risk of subject to violence then the general population. Prisons, it only follows, are even worse. 

In expressing her legitimate concern about the risks associated with forcing the mentally into jails or prisons, Shane's attorney put it this way at his recent sentencing hearing:

     “The last time that I felt like this about an inmate, that inmate ended up in a medically induced coma after being brutally beaten over and over."

     Jennifer Streano. Montana Office of the Public Defender. Friday, March 22, 2019.

I have already contacted Ms. Streano in the hope that this matter will be appealed, offering my assistance as that may apply. Shane is not a personal friend of mine, that needs to be said, and my concern about this issue has nothing to do with allowing Shane to get away with anything. The fact is, Ms. Streano specifically requested that Shane be re-committed to Montana State Hospital, where- as stated above- persons affected by serious mental illness who are found guilty of criminal misconduct can be formally incarcerated there is a forensics unit. 

Jesus Rincon Murrieta, then. A twenty year old man who was similarly forced into Arizona's prison system largely on the basis of corruption at ASH. Had ASH administrators met their given obligations by simply making public the fact that Jesus was at large after escaping ASH, he would have been returned to ASH on no less then three occasions immediately prior to April Mott's death, when he had run ins with Phoenix police. They, in other words, had no idea that Jesus had recently escaped from ASH. 

It is that plain, it is that simple. It is that bad. 

paoloreed@gmail.com