“Brains on the Beach” Update/ Prison Reform in Alabama Update
Back on March 21, 2020 SARDAA held its “Brains on the Beach” conference regarding its efforts and reasons for pursuing the reclassification of schizophrenia as a brain illness. As this date was during the COVID-19 pandemic, the physical conference was not held. It was done virtually instead. The full conference can be accessed through the following link: https://sardaa.mykajabi.com/offers/GFL4Kkoi/checkout.
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On another matter, there was a study on Criminal Justice Policy done in Alabama. Champ Lyons, Jr., Supernumerary Associate Justice with the Supreme Court of Alabama, was the point man in the study. The report from the Study Group, which I have in my possession, was submitted to AL Governor Kay Ivey on January 29, 2020. The specific recommendations were for DOC Operations, Sentencing Reform, and Recidivism Reduction.
Prior to that, it was reported by WHNT News that the US Department of Justice released a report in June 2019 that Alabama’s prisons were violating the Eighth Amendment (cruel or unusual punishment). AL Governor Kay Ivey planned to build three large men’s prisons to address Alabama’s failing prison system. This was opposed by AL House Minority Leader Anthony Daniels who was adamant about implementing comprehensive prison reform which included programs like mental health for the incarcerated (SARDAA blog; July 21, 2019). It was probably from here that the Lyons’ study ensued.
I first advocated for education and mentoring in May 1998 and added recidivism reduction since October 1999. You can find quite a few of these articles in IMprint, a Mensa newsletter, and more recently, the SARDAA website blog.
All of these topics are important. My interest is on education, mentoring, and reducing recidivism for all including the mentally ill. I included Chapter 104 “Reducing Recidivism” in my book In the Matter of Edwin Potter: Mental Illness and Criminal Justice Reform, and I sent the book to Governor Ivey just recently. I have done this before with other public officials and got results. Let us see what happens this time.
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