Straight Out of Dickens: Thanks to Easley
This sounds like horror story from a 19th century workhouse, straight out of Dickens: a fourteen year old girl, suffering from mental illness, is locked in a prison.
Only it didn’t happen in 1850. It happened this year. Right here in North Carolina.
A mentally ill 14 year old girl from Rowan County was locked in a juvenile prison – because none of the thousands of minions in North Carolina’s mental health department would help her by solving one problem: Finding a place to care for her.
So, she’s been in prison two months.
A judge held hearings nine times. He said keeping her in prison was “unacceptable, inexcusable and probably illegal.”
No one listened. No one acted.
Another judge said, “As a matter of law, as a matter of fact, and as a matter of fundamental decency” keeping a mentally ill child in a prison was wrong.
The state’s lawyer told him: The state’s not responsible. We hire private vendors to find places to care for the mentally ill. If they don’t, it’s their problem. Not ours.
So the girl stayed in prison.
Now, why would the governor – and attorney general – send a lawyer to argue it isn’t their – or their subordinates – responsibility to help a mentally ill girl?
A lot of people have criticized Mike Easley over the years for being too detached. Too out of touch. Too uninterested. I’m sure he’d be among the first to say how this girl was treated was outrageous. But here’s the bottom line. This may be a horror story out of Dickens: But the one responsible is the governor of North Carolina.
Straight Out of Dickens: Thanks to Easley
This sounds like horror story from a 19th century workhouse, straight out of Dickens: a fourteen year old girl, suffering from mental illness, is locked in a prison.
Only it didn’t happen in 1850. It happened this year. Right here in North Carolina.
A mentally ill 14 year old girl from Rowan County was locked in a juvenile prison – because none of the thousands of minions in North Carolina’s mental health department would help her by solving one problem: Finding a place to care for her.
So, she’s been in prison two months.
A judge held hearings nine times. He said keeping her in prison was “unacceptable, inexcusable and probably illegal.”
No one listened. No one acted.
Another judge said, “As a matter of law, as a matter of fact, and as a matter of fundamental decency” keeping a mentally ill child in a prison was wrong.
The state’s lawyer told him: The state’s not responsible. We hire private vendors to find places to care for the mentally ill. If they don’t, it’s their problem. Not ours.
So the girl stayed in prison.
Now, why would the governor – and attorney general – send a lawyer to argue it isn’t their – or their subordinates – responsibility to help a mentally ill girl?
A lot of people have criticized Mike Easley over the years for being too detached. Too out of touch. Too uninterested. I’m sure he’d be among the first to say how this girl was treated was outrageous. But here’s the bottom line. This may be a horror story out of Dickens: But the one responsible is the governor of North Carolina.