Advocacy E-News October 3, 2017
October 3, 2017
INMATE SUICIDES ARE ‘OFF THE CHARTS’AT CUMBERLAND COUNTY JAIL
The number of suicides at the Cumberland County Jail “off the charts,” said Philadelphia lawyer Conrad Benedetto, who has sued on behalf of each of the six families. Each suit alleges that corrections officers did not adequately monitor detainees and that contracted medical professionals with CFG Health Systems failed to properly screen newly admitted inmates for suicidal tendencies or psychological problems. Three corrections officers were indicted on Sept. 14.
N.J. MENTAL HEALTH ADVOCATES SAY HALLOWEEN ‘ZOMBIE’ HUNT STILL CONTRIBUTES TO STIGMA
Mental health advocates again are criticizing a New Jersey Halloween attraction they say stigmatizes people with mental illness. C. Casola Farms in Marlboro first generated controversy last year with a game allowing patrons to shoot paintballs at “zombies” that were imagined to be former patients at a state psychiatric hospital. The Monmouth County farm ditched the back story after getting complaints from the National Alliance on Mental Illness (NAMI) New Jersey. But this year’s version still contains troubling traces of the original concept.
LOGISTICARE GETS NEW STATE TRANSPORTATION CONTRACT
New Jersey has awarded a contract to a company called Logisticare, which manages transportation to medical appointments for state Medicaid patients. Earlier this year, a Kane in Your Corner investigation cast doubt on LogistiCare’s self-reporting of complaints. Since that investigation aired, LogistiCare was dropped as the Medicaid transportation provider in Connecticut. But in New Jersey, the state has just renewed LogistiCare’s contract for five more years.
WHEN ‘NOT GUILTY’ IS A LIFE SENTENCE
What happens after a defendant is found not guilty by reason of insanity? Often the answer is involuntary confinement in a state psychiatric hospital — with no end in sight. No federal agency is charged with monitoring them. No national registry or organization tracks how long they have been incarcerated or why.
FIND YOUR LOCAL NAMI
