State hides the truth
Maine Special Assistant Attorney General Charles Leadbetter’s assertion that people can not be in the custody of both the Department of Corrections and the Department of Health and Human Services (see “Punish the Mentally Ill,” by Lance Tapley, April 13), while technically correct, is designed to hide the truth, not reveal it.
A person charged with a crime in Maine can not be tried for that crime unless he has at least a basic understanding of the crime with which he is charged and the workings of the judicial system, and can participate in the preparation of a defense. The concern is not factual awareness but cognitive functioning. If a question is raised about a person’s abilities in these areas the criminal process is stopped until the issue of competency is resolved affirmatively. If a finding is made that the person is not only not competent now but unlikely to become competent in the indefinite future the criminal charge is dismissed and the person is committed to the appropriate state department for appropriate medical treatment. Law enforcement and mental health have a long history of working together.
The reason why the state objects to an inmate being transferred from the custody of a penal institution to the custody of a treatment program is not legal, it is philosophical. For quite some time too many governments, including that of Maine, have valued convictions and incarceration over human rights. Attorney Leadbetter clearly states the government position: “I don’t care whether [Corrections’ treatment of the mentally ill] works or not.”
Mainers upset over the Bush Administration and its top lawyer Alberto Gonzalez are sadly mistaken if they think callous indifference to human life does not exist here as well. Governor Baldacci is not Bush; Maine Attorney General Steve Rowe is not Gonzalez; and Leadbetter is not John Yoo (the one-time US Department of Justice attorney who laid the groundwork for legitimizing torture); but there are times that they give frighteningly realistic impersonations.
Seth Berner
Portland
Related:
Punish the mentally ill!, Flashbacks: February 10, 2006, A Supermax “graduate”, More 
- Punish the mentally ill!
Officials in Maine attorney general Steven Rowe’s office recently made a legislative effort regarding mentally ill prisoners in a controversial way.
- Flashbacks: February 10, 2006
These selections, culled from our back files, were compiled by Chris Brook and Jessica McConnell.
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The Supermax makes mentally unstable prisoners worse, its critics say.
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- July 27, 2007
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- Local lunatic - side
- Stonewalling is normal
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Regardless of whether you think of this Canadian outfit as pretentious somnambulists or artful rock poets, they’ve carved out a grass-roots career since bursting onto alt-rock radio with a barbiturate cover of Lou Reed’s “Sweet Jane” in 1988. Cowboy Junkies, "Sweet Jane" (mp3) Cowboy Junkies, "Misguided Angel" (mp3)
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You’d be forgiven for assuming that nothing’s been going on in Canada for the last few years beyond the interconnected shenanigans of that country’s indie-rock elite.
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Topics:
Letters
, Politics, U.S. Politics, Health and Fitness, More
, Politics, U.S. Politics, Health and Fitness, Criminal Sentencing and Punishment, U.S. Department of Health and Human Services, Mental Health, Prisons, U.S. Department of Justice, Alberto Gonzalez, G. Steven Rowe, Less
