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Crazy in America: The Hidden Tragedy of Our Criminalized Mentally Ill
Product Group: Book
Publisher: Basic Books (2007-05-14)
ISBN: 0786717459
EAN: 9780786717453
Dewey Decimal #: 364.38
Paperback: 312 pages
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Editorial Reviews
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Product Description
Crazy in America shows how people suffering from schizophrenia, bipolar disorder, clinical depression, and other serious psychological illnesses are regularly incarcerated because alternative care is not available. Once behind bars, they are frequently punished again for behavior that is psychotic, not criminal. A compelling and important examination of a shocking human rights abuse in our midst, Crazy in America is an indictment of a society that incarcerates its weakest and most vulnerable citizens — causing them to emerge sicker and more damaged.
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Customer Reviews
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A Must Read
Rating  (5)
Date: 2008-02-01
1 out of 1 customers found this reveiw helpful
I nearly didn't purchase this book. I bought it only because it came with another book ('Street Crazy' by Stephen Seager) which I had to read for a Psychiatric Technician Program that I am going through. I decided an extra book that deals with the type of patiens I will eventually be working with could only help me in the future.
This book was incredible. It is not from a doctors point of view like most books would be, it is from the point of view of the patients themselves and/or their families. The stories are so tragic and you can't help but feel bad for the situations they have had to go through. There are also pictures of each person which only made me feel more for each of them.
For anyone in the mental health field, work in a prison, or are going to work in either of these fields I highly recommend this book. If people were a little more considerate of the homeless and mentally ill maybe some, if not most, of them would not have to die in the streets or commit suicide in prison.
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Crazy in America
Rating (5)
Date: 2007-09-28
2 out of 2 customers found this reveiw helpful
Crazy in America: The Hidden Tragedy of Our Criminalized Mentally Ill As a long time staff advocate for the National Alliance on Mental illness (NAMI), I found the book and its multiple story accounts very accurate and heart rendering. For the uninformed, the stories may be so impactful that they will find it hard to understand that a society could mistreat its citizens so badly. Good book.
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Required reading
Rating (5)
Date: 2007-08-28
2 out of 2 customers found this reveiw helpful
The heartbreaking stories in this beautifully written book expose what happens to people with psychiatric disabilities who reach the end of the line after not receiving desperately needed mental health care. Meticulously researched and at the same imbued with deep sympathy, Pfeiffer's case studies detail the journeys of six people as they move inexorably toward catastrophe, finding themselves in brutal interactions with the criminal justice system. With the closure of many psychiatric wards and an ensuing lack of decent, appropriate care in the community, our jails and prisons have been delegated as the mental health facilities of our time. They are utterly inadequate to the task. Behind those walls are hundreds of thousands of ill people who cannot adhere to rules. Many are placed in solitary confinement, where they violently injure themselves or commit suicide. Pfeiffer sensitively reveals the effects of this torture on vulnerable individuals with mental illness.
New York State is on the verge of passing a law that greatly restricts the practice of placing people with psychiatric disabilities in solitary confinement, the first state in the country to do so. We must immediately begin to improve mental health care in the community, so that people do not find themselves in jail as a result of untreated symptoms. Pfeiffer spells out this message unambiguously. Her book should be required reading for anyone with any interest in human rights and assigned as a textbook in every medical school.
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Crazy in America is a call to action for all caring people
Rating (5)
Date: 2007-07-16
5 out of 7 customers found this reveiw helpful
For years, I have watched the homesless people walk up and down the main streets in the city closest to where I live, the thought crossing my mind that these are the result of budget cuts which closed the nearby psychiatric center. While I'd read about the crisis for this same population, (Many of the articles were written by the same author as Crazy in America, Mary Beth Pfeiffer, an advocate for these people for many years.) the extent and the consequences of this institution's closing, and others across America, was never as clear as they have become as a result of reading this book.
Pfeiffer's heartbreaking case studies document the problem the mentally ill confront within the penal system, a system never intended to deal with this personnel. Through these tragic case studies, the author demonstrates that a system that punishes the mentally ill in the same ways it treats other prisoners is a set-up for these victims. At the same time that her book focuses on and evokes sympathy and compassion for the mentally ill, it also causes the reader to question how our prisons function for anyone in America.
While this book may hold particular interest for workers in the mental health field, it is of importance for employees in our schools, judicial system, and for anyone who has a mentally ill person in his/her family. It seems this book reaches out to everyone, and hopefully, will encourage people to work toward the changes in a system that is broken for a large percentage of the people involved in it. We must watch over those incapable of caring for themselves.
This is a must read for any socially responsible person in America.
As for the author, a superb example of investigative reporting! Well done!!!
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Crazy In America is a national tragedy that demands action
Rating (5)
Date: 2007-07-13
2 out of 2 customers found this reveiw helpful
The author of Crazy in America introduces us to 6 of our brothers and sisters whose lives were devastated by mental illness along with the families that care deeply about them. Three committed suicide while in isolation cells in both jails and prisons. Luke in a Texas jail, Jessica in the New York prison system and Joseph in the California Youth Authority Facility. Two more, Alan and Peter died in separate incidences at the hands of Florida police officers whose very presence exacerbated the symptoms of their illness. The pain and anguish of the five individuals and their families unfolds before your eyes as you read their stories.
The sixth person the author writes about is Shayne, my niece, the focus of my advocacy work and truly a special person and survivor. As I read Shayne's story I grieved for the horror that was unfolding once again before my eyes. The anguish of not being able to stop the crime that landed her in jail and eventually an Iowa prison. The self mutilations of her right eye and two years later her left eye. Six months after blinding herself she dislodged four of her teeth trying to bite off her finger. Visions of this vulnerable and sick woman destroying herself one digit at a time terrified my thoughts as I pleaded and begged for help from whomever would listen. Four months later Shayne tried to bite a whole through her cheek and I wondered if it would ever end. All of these incidences happened while in isolation cells. Shayne has proven, at least to me, that isolation is not treatment. The prison environment was to stressful for her coping skills and she started a downhill slide 1 year into what would be 5 years behind bars.
It is hard to write a review of a book that causes you to feel so much pain and suffering. I do however thank Mary Beth for being the caring and knowledgeable advocate that she is. Shayne and her family are forever grateful that she has used her journalistic talent to tell the stories of these six vulnerable and loved individuals in the hopes that changes will be made before to many more have to suffer being criminalized because of a misunderstood illness.
If countries are judged by the way they treat their most vulnerable citizens than I grieve also for America because our mentally ill are being hidden from view behind prison walls which is where they were 150 year ago. The medications necessary to stabilize symptoms of mental illness are available. The knowledge of what needs to be provided to ensure their success living in the community is known. It will take the will of the people to provide these basic necessities. Call your legislatures and congressmen and tell them to support laws aimed at helping those with disabilities.
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Retail Price: $15.95
Amazon.com's Price:$6.09
That's 62% Off!
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