NOTICE: We're discussing a large class action lawsuit by people incarcerated for mental illness or their relatives and next friends on their behalf.  Mental illness is the only disability treated legally, not medically.  If a diabetic man blacks out at the wheel and injures or kills commuters, he goes to the hospital. If a psychiatric patient kills or injures, he goes to prison.  If a woman has a heart attack in the china store, falls and breaks plates, she goes to the hospital.  If a bipolar sufferer has a crisis and breaks plates, she goes to prison. The suit will be for PSYCHIATRIC PARITY UNDER THE LAW.  Each person who opts in will need to pay $100 to help raise the legal retainer.  We will demand that mentally ill people go to hospitals or are released under Kendra's law.  There are 1.25 million incarcerated mental patients, so it should be a large class.  Give me your thoughts.  We're at the planning stages and talking with other prisoner activists.  eMail me at MaryLovesJustice@gmail.com  


JAIL IS THE LAST THING THAT MENTAL PATIENTS NEED, AND TOO OFTEN, IT IS THE VERY LAST THING THEY EXPERIENCE. Please join our effort to decriminalize mental illness. No one deserves to be punished for having a disability.

Mary Neal of Assistance to the Incarcerated Mentally Ill was the guest on BlogTalk radio - THE REV. PINKNEY SHOW - 10/11 @ 5:p.m. EST.  Rev. Pinkney invites us to listen and talk back online at http://www.blogtalkradio.com/Rev-Pinkney or CALL IN AT 347-994-3644.  Access our Oct. 11 show at the link below:

  http://www.blogtalkradio.com/Rev-Pinkney/2009/10/11/MARY-NEAL-A-WARRIOR

AIMI members, it is time to  be more proactive!  Below are three of my radio interviews.  Please call in to radio shows and express YOUR views about decriminalizing mental illness.  We can work together to decriminalize mental illness
         Get on your soapbox today! 

Mary Neal’s Radio Interviews:

Wake-up Call BlogTalk Radio

Jan. 2008:  "The Wrongful Death of Larry Neal Show"

http://www.blogtalkradio.com/wakeupcallshow/2008/01/22/TBA
Real Talk with Brothas Keepa

May 2008:  "Mental Illness in the Black Community"

http://www.blogtalkradio.com/nbbta/2008/05/28/Real-Talk-With-Brothas-Keepa

The NVO Radio Hour  ~ Second Guest - Mary Neal

March 2009:  "CHANGE the Justice System"

http://www.blogtalkradio.com/NVO/2009/03/26/The-NVO-Hour

Please make it a goal to call in to a radio show, send one letter to the editor of a newspaper or other media forum, and/or contact one of your local or national representatives THIS WEEK.  Sign and launch petitions for this cause.  YOU are human rights activists, AIMI members. 

You have the power to effect needed change.  Above are three of my radio interviews.  Mention AIMI when you comment on CARE2 News and at other online sites.  Put our link - http://Care2.com/c2c/group/AIMI.  Visit AIMI's album and grab a group invitation graphic for your Care2 pages and websites!  Use the "invite friends" button on AIMI's home page to tell others about this advocacy.  Please feel free to add links to this strand with YOUR radio interviews. 

The journey of a thousand miles begins with a single step.  Start stepping, AIMI members!  YOU are the change that is needed.  TAG - It's your turn!

BECOME SOMEONE'S BRIDGE TO WHOLESOME LIVING TODAY.

This is AIMI's bridge for the incarcerated mentally ill WITH your help.


Thanks for coming to help bridge the gap back to wholesome living for imprisoned mental patients.  Many of them are waking up this moring in cells no larger than a small closet where they will spend another 23 hours alone and afraid. That is why we are so glad you came to join our efforts to decriminalize mental illness! 


Here is AIMI's bridge WITHOUT your input.

Bridge Over Troubled Waters

   Together, yes we can! 

Please contact your congressional representative today and demand that hospitalization replace incarceration for the mentally ill people in your state. http://www.house.gov/writerep

   Be someone's bridge today! 

GREETINGS AIMI MEMBERS AND VISITORS!  It is just as I wrote months ago, "First they came for the mentally ill."  Now America's children are targets!  Please read this share right away:

"Jailing Children for Dollars" - Pennsylvania Judges Pled Guilty
          http://www.care2.com/c2c/share/detail/1031368

Send this share far and wide.  Only by exposing the hypocrisy of the criminal justice system can we hope to help hundreds of Pennsylvania children and deliver ASSISTANCE TO THE INCARCERATED MENTALLY ILL.

Thank you in advance for your cooperation with this project.  Please send the Share to everyone on your Friends list immediately, and ask them to send it to their friends.  There has been enough victimizing America's most vulnerable citizens - the greedy private prison owners (I call them werewolves) started with our mentally ill loved ones, and now they're coming after our children!  Remember:

ALL IT TAKES FOR EVIL TO TRIUMPH IS FOR GOOD MEN TO DO NOTHING.

America has become a prison nation, with 1 in every 99.1 adults incarcerated as of January 2008.  Business people work to improve their profit margins, and private prison owners and investors have done that.  In 2004, there were 1 in every 134 people in prison, most  for non-violent offenses and many who never went to trial.  The targeted groups are our most vulnerable:  the mentally ill, the poor, and now, children! 

Crime and punishment should not be "for profit" enterprises.  Will we wait until 1 in 50 people is in prison before we demand CHANGE?  For black young men, the figure is already 1 in 9! 

Soon, who will be left to pay the $50,000 per prisoner that taxpayers are charged to imprison their neighbors?

WE SHALL OVERCOME!

Blessings,

Mary

I edited and reposted this message from a 1/31/09 Host Announcement.

Hello, Members and friends!  Can you find the fallacy in this famous, timeless poem that carries a warning for world citizens?  Please read the first host share on AIMI's home page to discover the fallacy!

"In Germany, they came first for the Communists, And I didn’t speak up because I wasn’t a Communist; And then they came for the trade unionists, And I didn’t speak up because I wasn’t a trade unionist; And then they came for the Jews, And I didn’t speak up because I wasn’t a Jew; And then . . . they came for me . . . And by that time there was no one left to speak up."

The associated host share is at this link:  http://www.care2.com/c2c/share/detail/961442


Thanks for your attention!

Mary

Hello, AIMI members and friends.  I have an exciting announcement to make!   

     CONGRATULATE YOURSELVES!  Assistance to the Incarcerated Mentally Ill now has three (3) Internet homes!  They are: 

Care2:  http://www.Care2.com/c2c/group/AIMI

Ellen DeGeneres Community Network: 
http://community.ellentv.com/group/aimi?xgi=30gVBwu

Prison Hearts
http://prisonhearts.ning.com/group/assistancetotheincarceratedmentallyill

   As I wrote on a Share recently, this is a brand new year, and a new year can start any day you choose.  We at AIMI choose for our efforts to begin a new way for America to deal with acute mental patients - not jail, but treatment. 

Our site on Prison Hearts gives AIMI an opportunity to correspond directly with prisoners and their families.  Care2 and Ellen offer wide visibility on the Internet and we communicate with network members before the whole wide world (www.).  AIMI presently has 149 members.  I hope all of you will be inspired to find a Committee or an AIMI site to dedicate yourselves to today!  If not, know that you already helped just by joining AIMI and registering your disapproval of imprisoning mental patients.

Thank you for all of your support and effort as we work to decriminalize mental illness in America.  Here is that Sharebook post I mentioned above. 

Volunteer Positions for AIMI
http://www.care2.com/c2c/share/detail/952719


Please use the link above or see Petitions, Call to Action on AIMI's home page to select a spot for yourself on a committee and help us work for the least of these, His brethren.  If you are not able to join a committee yet, no problem!  Just keep telling your friends about AIMI, noting our news, signing the petitions AIMI supports, and cheering your fellow members on! 

Blessings, and again, Happy New Year, AIMI!  Let's  work like never before!  Thousands of families are counting on U!

**NOTICE TO ALL MEMBERS:  PLEASE RESPOND WITH YOUR CHOSEN COMMITTEE, by responding to this post.  Let me know if you wish to head the committee or to simply work on it.  We are a working group - human rights activists, and we are stronger because of your effort, talents, and gifts - please get involved! 

1. Lobby Washington and Local Representatives Committee

2. Ellen Community Site Committee (Jenny D. heads this one)
Check out A.I.M.I. on The Ellen DeGeneres Show:
http://community.ellentv.com/group/aimi?xgi=30gVBwu

3. Maintain AIMI on Care2 Committee (Mary and hosts head this one, and we need more hosts!)

4. Help C.C.'s Son Committee (14-year-old facing jail for mental illness)

5. Internet Research Committee - gathering news of abuse to mental patients

6. Promote Petitions Committee - only those petitions AIMI promotes

7. Collaboration with other Prisoner Activists Committee (I'll head this one, since I already started)

8. Collaboration with National and Grassroots Mental Health Organizations Committee - sending them regular updates on AIMI's activities - receiving their news and passing it on to us here at AIMI - keep AIMI apprised of upcoming legislation we should support, etc.

9. Abolish Private Prisons Committee

10. Individual Help to Impacted Persons Committee (dealing with other people like CC who need immediate help - letters to authorities, etc.)

11.  Membership Drive Committee (contact everyone who responds to one of my articles about how the prisoners are treated and send them a personal invitation to please join AIMI.  Check periodically with inactive AIMI members and let them know how much we appreciate them and need them to take a more active role, if they can)

AIMI is unlike other groups on Care2. We are not an Internet social org. or here to merely disseminate information among ourselves about what is wrong in the world.  Publishing information is very important, but we must do more!  WE ARE AN ACTIVIST ORGANIZATION established to effect positive CHANGE!  What do you think?  Are you ready to use your home computers and work for the incarcerated mentally ill?

FOLKS HAVE BEEN SO WORRIED ABOUT WHAT I PUBLISH ON THE INTERNET -- THEY AIN'T SEEN NOTHING YET! WAIT UNTIL THEY SEE WHAT 130+ PEOPLE WORKING TOGETHER CAN DO!  WE ARE THE DOROTHEA DIX GROUP.  WE WILL DECRIMINALIZE MENTAL ILLNESS IN AMERICA. 

Please read about Dorothea Dix, AIMI members.  See what one determined woman did for the mentally ill in the 1800's when women were not even allowed to vote! If she did it, so can we!
 Dorothea L. Dix
 http://www.care2.com/c2c/share/detail/865865 

Blessings,
Mary

This post was modified from its original form on 14 Nov, 22:18

Hello, AIMI members.  I am so pleased that you came to assist us as we work on behalf of suffering humanity - mental patients victimized by the system, captured and imprisoned for reason of a common, treatable health condition - abused and killed with regularity.

WILL YOU ALSO BECOME MY Care2 FRIEND?  This would make communication between us much easier, and we would have an opportunity to share in our emails instead of only online in the world's view.  Just send me a friendship invitation, if you will accept me in your circle of friends, and I will be so honored!

Thanks again for following your heart and joining AIMI. I'll be looking and hoping for your friendship invitation!

Many green stars to you for joining us!         

Mary Neal

Hello AIMI Members and Visitors, GOOD NEWS!  Your concern is making a difference in the visibility of the problems faced by acute mental patients behind bars.  Please see my new Host Share on AIMI's Home Page, after the DISCUSSION posts.  When you note articles regarding the abuse of mental patients caught in the prison system and you make comments, the plight of differently able people gets the attention we need for them to effect positive CHANGE!

Thanks for all you do!

Mary

Thanks for taking the time to read and to post your views on the terrible practice of imprisoning mental patients!  Before you end your visit, please select the handy "INVITE FRIENDS" button at the upper, right side of AIMI's home page. 

  Use it to invite at least ONE of your Care2 friends to join in our efforts every time you visit, OK? 

Please notify me if you have any problems inviting friends or posting your news and views to AIMI!  We want your  participation!  Many mental patients are COUNTING ON YOU!

Thanks!

Would you also consider becoming my friend, if we are not already Care2 friends?  If so, please do me the honor of sending me a friendship invitation.  I sometimes need to send emails to my friends that are not for the general public.  I would welcome you into my circle of friends, and I'd be very pleased to become yours.  Just for handy reference, remember you can also e-mail me personally at AIMI@groups.care2.com  and mneal000@yahoo.com  or mln@wrongfuldeathoflarryneal.com . 

Thanks so much for the time and attention you devote to helping AIMI become a powerful voice for positive change in the lives of acute mental patients and the people who love and value them.

Mary

This post was modified from its original form on 18 Sep, 2:40

One of the best aspects of the Care2 Community is that, like the real world, our membership is diverse. There are people with vastly different views regarding the environment, politics, human rights, and many other topics that you will find on our boards. We see this diversity and variety as a real strength, and see dialog and debate as an integral part of the educational process as well as an important tool in exploring different sides of complex issues. We ask that all of our members respect this diversity, and the diverse views and beliefs held by others on our site.

We are committed to allowing freedom of expression for our members, including maintaining a safe space for people with opposing views to express themselves. While we will not remove posts on the basis of the views expressed, we do demand respect and courtesy from our members. We will not tolerate abusive language or personal attacks on our boards, and reserve the right to remove any posts, threads or groups which we feel are in violation of our Code of Conduct for Care2 or the Terms of Service for Care2 membership. Additionally, users who violate these rules can be removed from using our boards or blocked from using our site.

Code of Conduct:

1. Respect and courtesy - All Care2 Members are entitled to express their views and beliefs in a safe environment without feeling attacked. Members may not infringe on the rights of any other person to express themselves in a safe environment. This policy includes:
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The Code of Conduct is intended as a guideline for how members should interact with each other on the Care2 forums. Just like a real community, you may have different opinions than other Care2 Groups users. While the Care2 Groups experience is best when people abide by the guidelines, it is up to each Group Owner to interpret and enact the Code of Conduct as they see fit. Note that the Code of Conduct guidelines do not substitute or override the Care2 Terms of Service which all members must abide by.

Thank you for participating on Care2, and for abiding by our rules. We enjoy and appreciate all the different backgrounds, views and beliefs of our members.

Hello!  Regarding settings, I had a chance to study our options last night.  Whew!  For now, AIMI will have open enrollment.  Some patients and family members are still working on overcoming the stigma attached to mental illness, and I would not want the application process to prevent their joining.  Whomever will, let them come.  I will expunge those who do not behave.

We'll just have to diligently visit AIMI daily whenever possible to make sure our members are not posting unacceptable things.  Generally, as long as they are within Care2 rules, their posts can stay.  Some of the members' posts may not be as sensible as we would like all of the time, because some of our members may be the very people we want to help, as we hope.  That's all good, as long as they honor Care2 standards.

One host setting was changed last night to allow only the owner the privilege of expelling members.  That takes the heat off you guys.  Just send me suggestions by private e-mail if you feel someone needs elimination, OK?

With open enrollment and members being allowed to post without prior approval of their posts, the group ought to practically run itself, except for oversight on our parts.  Let's see for a few weeks if this level of freedom will be too much, OK?

Please don't forget to invite your friends to join.  We must make them aware that our main focus is advocacy for decriminalizing mental illness, and who we need are advocates for this cause.  Naturally we will have some patients who are interested in joining also, and they are welcome and encouraged to do so, but mostly, we need activists!

CAREFUL!  None of us is qualified to offer any diagnosis or medical or mental health advice, and I am sure that is against the law.  If anyone ever asks for advice having to do with medications or anything remotely related to treatment, we will ALWAYS respond by suggesting that they confer with their psychiatrist or medical doctor, period.  We must not even attempt to answer any such question or give any advice that can be construed as medical.  We're just here to share and allow people space to share their experiences, but the less we comment on their comments, perhaps the better.  It might be best to respond by saying, "Thank you for sharing that," and let that do.  Your call, but be careful.  If the members want to talk with each other about such things, that's their business, but we as owner and hosts cannot.  Agreed?

Please always feel free to write to me whenever!  I love you and truly appreciate you.  God sent you.  Some may not be religious, and that is OK, but I am, and I hope you will not be offended at my often mentioning how glad I am that God sent you to help change things for the least of these, His brethren. 

Blessings!

Mary

Hello!  Thank you so much for co-hosting.  I gave you every right I have to the group as the owner, because this is fully your group, also.  If you have any ideas, I trust you -- go for it!

One question:  Could you send me your regular e-mail address?  So often I see stuff I want to share with you while I am surfing the Internet, but I don't know how to send it to you without logging into Care2 first and then sending you a message.  Is there another way to do it within Care2?  If there is not, then please send me your Yahoo or AOL or whatever personal e-mail address you want me to use to contact you ordinarily, and let me know if it is something I can share with other hosts, or if I should keep it tight to my breast.  Here are my e-mail addresses:

mln@wrongfuldeathoflarryneal.com

mneal000@yahoo.com

Use the "wrongfuldeath" one most -- it will send you an auto response if the email is received.

Thanks in advance.  Rather than a host, you are actually fully endowed with the same privileges as I am, and you are now hereby knighted "Co-Owner"!

Couldn't do it without you!  Pray that God sends us some patients to encourage, some families to comfort and enlighten, some professional mental health people to share their knowledge and experiences with us and our members. 

Blessings,

Mary