Edwin J. Hutchinson
CDCR No. P-68859 / Housing: 2-N-79L
CSP-SQ / 1 Main Street
San Quentin, CA 94964

July 19, 2015

Specific topic: Mental health care within the California prison system

Hello world,

It was once said by renowned author James Baldwin, that "The most dangerous creation of any society is that man [or woman] who has nothing to lose."

With that said, in the mid-1980's, California began to end funding for many of the state hospitals which assisted the mentally ill. As a result, many of those individuals are hopelessly trapped within California's prison misdiagnosed and maltreated.

Instead of having this "lock um' up and throw away the key" attitude, what the people of the state of California need to do is take a good hard look at, is this "public health issue" of this dehumanizing disregard that extends to the physical and mental health to the over 150,000+ men, women, and juvenile offenders imprisoned within this state's fortresses of fear.

Pg. 1

It is no secret that California's prison system has reoccurring problems with it's medical and mental health care delivery. As these issues have worsened since the mid-1980's under conditions of "mass incarceration," "overcrowding," and "industrial management rationales;" it doesn't take a rocket scientist to figure out that people with any sort of mental illness will suffer the most. With my background in the medical profession, I have long noticed how the reliance and prevalent usage of "psychotropic drugs" has become the sole means of "treatment" for mentally disabled prisoners, with no other professional psychological counseling to address the underlying causes or consequent depression.

Drugs fill the gaps within California's houses of pain...

Recently, treatment provided to mentally ill prisoners in the CDCR has slightly improved; nevertheless, for many reasons it still falls short of providing the range and quality of treatment opportunities that I believe would greatly reduce prison recidivism of these individuals and thereby lower crime rates in society, overall. And the only way to fix this problem is simple: there needs to be a complete, comprehensive, and genuine correctional reform overhaul of the CDCR by the federal judiciary. Only then will the mentally disabled get the help they need, and deserve...

Pg. 2

Society, as a whole, seems to truly misunderstand what it means "to do time," and to ignore or forget about the inhumanity of prisons, in and of themselves, only dooms all of us to being victims to this system yet again. Think about it, readers, what type of individuals do you want to return back into your communities?

If you have any comments, please post them or contact me directly at my mailing address. I'd enjoy hearing from you. Until next time, take care and be safe.

Peace,
Zakee

Pg. 3