Saturday, April 5, 2008

I am ashamed to live in NC right now

I just saw this article in my local paper online about a 14 year old girl with a mental illness who has been held in juvenile jail since January 28 without any treatment because the state says they have no where else for her to go. So now the state of North Carolina keeps kids with mental illness in jail because someone is too lazy to find a more suitable placement for her. Apparently the state's attorney argued that the state is not responsible to find placement for this child, just to pay for it. She is a fucking ward of the county because her mom is in jail and they are claiming that they are not responsible to find help for her. This is s fucking outrage. She is in your custody, hence you are responsible for helping her. She did not break any laws, she did not do anything wrong, she is sick and you send her to jail. What the fuck? How is this legal? Her lawyer is challenging the legality of this obviously, but how the fuck does a situation like this last a month let alone over two months with no resolution? According to one of her lawyers, there have been nine separate hearings to find a place for this girl and yet no one can find a solution. This is fucked up. This is what happens when we turn the mental health system and any health system, IMHO, over to private companies who have no interest, but their own and making money. They do not care where this child is living, they do not care if she gets treatment, they do not care whether she lives or dies, all this company cares about is the all mighty dollar. A judge has ordered the state of North Carolina to find a suitable housing for her by Monday. According to this order,

"As a matter of law, as a matter of fact, and as a matter of human rights and fundamental decency, it is an abysmal failure of us as human beings and as a society, and especially for the state of North Carolina, for this 14 year old child to be illegally locked up in a juvenile detention center, and to have been locked up without treatment since January 18, 2008, because the North Carolina mental health system has been unable or unwilling to locate treatment at a PRTF (psychiatric residential treatment facility)..., to which she is entitled by Federal and State Medicaid law"


Yet again the mentally ill get fucked over by a private company. And we claim to be the best country in the world, I am calling bullshit!

1 comment:

Fran said...

Oh my God- I actually do think I am going to be physically ill.

That is disgusting - lower than low.

We are already so far gone in this country. What is happening?