I view correctional facilities as the best place to start programs addressing diversity, equity, and inclusion. Correctional facilities house mentally retarded and brain damaged individuals with impaired frontal lobe executive functions. The ability to grasp and process abstract and complex concepts necessary for independent functioning in the community is grossly impaired. This in large part provides the basis for recidivism, return to prison for repeated crimes. This population needs neuropsychiatric testing to inform the probation officers and parole boards a rational basis for restoration programs that will successfully return this population to communities without return to correctional facilities. Very often this population has multiple crimes prior to the first incarceration despite extensive engagement with mental health services and the criminal justice system.
Author Biography:
This book shares my 50 years of experience practicing emergency room medicine, general medicine, and psychiatry in Michigan, Indiana, Kentucky, California, Texas, and Alaska since 1972. I have been the Chairman of a Department of Psychiatry in a Community Hospital, Medical Director of a four county and a five county Mental Health Center in Indiana from 1984 to 1986 and 1991 to 2001. I have practiced psychiatry in Regional Medical Centers, Henry Ford Hospital in Detroit, Michigan, and Hazard ARH Regional Medical Center in Hazard, Kentucky. I have practiced psychiatry in Michigan Prisons including Riverside Psychiatric Hospital in Ionia Michigan: Bellamy Creek Prison in Ionia Michigan: I-Max prison in Ionia Michigan; Brooks Prison in Muskegon, Michigan; Pelican Bay Prison in Crescent City, California; CSP-Sac prison in Folsom, California; San Quentin Prison in San Quentin, California. I have worked in Forensic Psychiatric hospitals including Kalamazoo Psychiatric Hospital in Kalamazoo, Michigan; Patton State Hospital in Patton, California; and Atascadero State Hospital in Atascadero, California. I have testified as a psychiatric expert witness in probate court, civil, and criminal trials in Michigan, Indiana, Kentucky, and California. I have worked at Fort Hood, Texas with active military suffering from PTSD, closed head injuries and other stress related mental illnesses. I have worked in private practice clinics as well as the numerous public agencies listed above. I share my experience with the public to assist in understanding what psychiatry can and cannot do. I am here to do no harm, and to help if I can. Be kind and you can be my friend.
