Thank you for joining us in giving Assistance for the Incarcerated Mentally Ill ("AIMI"). Mental health care is a vast area. To be most effective, we will limit our advocacy on this group to issues related to incarcerated mentally ill persons in America and those likely to suffer imprisonment due to their mental disorders. You are already helping the incarcerated mentally ill merely by joining this group!
Most chronically mentally ill persons do not vote or engage in America's political process, yet our legislators determine the direction of their lives. Your participation in this group demonstrates that voters are concerned about mentally ill prisoners. We welcome everyone who is interested in decriminalizing mental illness.
We hope AIMI attracts diffable person who have suffered incarceration. First person accounts are very valuable! Families of mentally ill persons, please share your input. Too often, the family members of mental patients have little voice in policy decisions that impact their lives and the lives of their sick loved ones. Psychiatrists, psychologists, and other mental health care professionals, we welcome you. Law enforcement officers, attorneys, and others who work in the criminal justice system, thank you for joining us.
We will use this group to share our experiences, seek assistance on specific cases, offer and receive advice and encouragement, and to impact public policy by denouncing criminalizing mental illness. We will discuss treatment options and impediments thereto, along with a wide range of topics having to do with mental illness.
We will at all times observe the rules governing Care2 groups.
It is not necessary for all members of Assistance to the Incarcerated Mentally Ill to agree on every topic of discussion, and neither is it likely. However, we will respect and value each other and the rights of each member to express differing views.
We believe prisons have become America's mental institutions in large part because of the restrictions on enforced treatment and hospitalization of the chronically mentally ill.
Many diffable people are capable of functioning well in society without enforced treatment or confinement. However, our advocacy in this group concentrates on providing humane options for the care of patients who are incarcerated precisely because they require either hospitalization or enforced treatment. In this group, we acknowledge that the decision to put chronically ill patients in charge of their own treatment options (to treat or not to treat) contributed to the criminalization of mental illness. Enforced containment and enforced psychiatric treatment are often necessary for acute mental patients’ safety. These patients are usually expected to make major health decisions while in a demented mental state. We believe someone other than the acute mental patient must be allowed to make their treatment decisions before any tragedy occurs, or mental patients face the likelihood of repeated arrests for crimes committed while in a mental crisis.
AIMI's goal is to gain release from prison for the estimated 1.25 million incarcerated mentally ill Americans in order that they may be treated in their communities or hospitals, depending on the severity of their crimes. AIMI seeks to reverse the trend to imprison rather than treat our mental patients. We believe the laws restricting enforced hospitalization or outpatient therapy for diffable persons often hinder chronically mentally ill persons from receiving needed treatment.
We acknowledge that chronically mentally ill prisoners have a higher rate of return to jail than other inmates precisely because of their tendency to discontinue therapy and lapse back into psychosis. We assert that prison release for the nonviolent offenders should include mandatory treatment, at least during their parole or probationary periods. Inmates who are incarcerated for violent acts should be hospitalized for the duration of their criminal sentences or until their psychiatrists recommend release. Such psychiatric recommendations should be reviewed by the sentencing court. If the court agrees with the psychiatrists’ recommendation for prison release, the court should then order the patients' continued psychiatric monitoring and care as outpatients for the duration of their parole or probationary period. Mental patients who are required to receive court ordered treatment should be zealously sought and remanded back to hospitals if they disobey the court and discontinue their treatment at any point while on probation or parole.
Decriminalizing mental illness will not occur unless and until sensible alternatives to prison are available for diffable persons in crisis. We believe that mental hospitalization in extreme cases, and community care under enforced treatment will provide the alternatives that our most severely ill citizens need in order to regain and to retain their freedom from our nation’s correctional institutions.
Please do not join the group unless you agree to all of the above. Welcome to our quest for justice for the incarcerated mentally ill! Thank you for your involvement in this human rights issue.
WELCOME TO ASSISTANCE TO THE INCARCERATED MENTALLY ILL, a/k/a
THE DOROTHEA DIX GROUP
Dorothea Lynde Dix (April 4, 1802 - July 17, 1887)
http://www.care2.com/c2c/share/detail/865865
"In a world where thre is so much to be done, I felt strongly impressed that there must be something for me to do."
"If I am cold, they are cold; if I am weary, they are distressed; if I am alone, they are abandoned."
HELLO, NEW AIMI MEMBER! You have already help incarcerated mental patients just by joining AIMI. Your membership helps legislators see that many people want to decriminalize mental illness in America!
Will you please donate a few minutes a week to working on one of AIMI's committees? You are sure to find a committee that suits your interests and skills under the blue PETITIONS, CALL TO ACTION tab. Even if you only have time to CHECK THE BLUE TABS to sign petitions and see what others are doing to help incarcerated sick people, please do.
PLEASE USE THE HANDY INVITE FRIENDS BUTTON ON UPPER RIGHT POSITION OF OUR HOME PAGE TO INVITE ALL OF YOUR FRIENDS! All are welcome and automatically approved.
Our quest is to decriminalize mental illness, discontinue gassing sick people in jail, Tasering them, and using restraint chairs and tables. Just by discussing mental illness, we hope to also help remove the stigma associated with this common, treatable health condition. Thank you for joining our quest to promote greater respect for the humanity and civil rights of psychiatric patients. Diffabled citizens are now commodities in this nation's burgeoning prison system. The prison industry costs taxpayers $50 BILLION per year, without counting costs for police services for arrests, court, and lawyers' fees for the indigent.
Of the 2.3 million inmates in America, 1.25 million inmates have mental disorders. Assisted outpatient treatment (AOT) programs like Kendra's Law that combine mandatory psychiatric treatment with subsistence assistance have proved to reduce homelessness, incarcerations and recidivism, as well as hospitalizations of chronic mental patients by better than 80%. AOT is less expensive for taxpayers and certainly more humane for mental patients than prison. See NY's results from the first five years with AOT at this link: http://www.treatmentadvocacycenter.org/index.php?option=com_content&task=view&id=41&Itemid=70
As is true with every battle for human rights, AIMI has opposition. If you ever encounter problems posting your news and views or inviting your friends to AIMI, please get in touch with one of the hosts or with me as soon as possible, and don't hesitate to contact Care2's technical staff. We are happy to facilitate your involvement in decriminalizing mental illness in America and delivering psychiatric patients to a more humane existence.
Welcome to AIMI. We are so glad you came!
This post was modified from its original form on 19 Apr, 1:24
NEW MEMBERS, PLEASE USE THIS LINK TO CONTACT YOUR REPRESENTATIVES: http://www.house.gov/writerep
Please start rendering Assistance to the Incarcerated Mentally Ill immediately by contacting your representatives and letting them know you favor AOT for nonviolent diffabled people imprisoned in your state, and hospitalization for the violent offenders.
WELCOME TO THESE, OUR NEWEST MEMBERS WHO CAME TO HELP BRIDGE THE GAP BACK TO WHOLESOME LIVING!
Welcome! At AIMI, your news and views are invited, appreciated, and needed to help with a matter of major importance - rendering Assistance to the Incarcerated Mentally Ill. Whatever you do to help - contact your representatives, sign petitions, post news articles, share your input - makes a difference to desperate families whose loved ones are imprisoned today because of behavior arising from their illness. So don't hesitate to post comments and start new conversations. Review your AIMI home page carefully, meet fellow members on previous WELCOME NEW MEMBERS strands, and look through all of the topics under DISCUSSIONS. There is much to learn. Then, please get involved. You are welcome here.
We are dusting off the welcome mat just for you.
Thanks for the invitation Pamela! 
Welcome, Jamie! Thank you, Pamela, for helping to enlist more support for incarcerated sick people.
Mary, Hosts, and Members
A very warm welcome to our latest members. We sincerely appreciate your coming to help render Assistance to the Incarcerated Mentally Ill! Just by joining, you already helped. You showed our legislators that you CARE about decriminalizing mental illness. Other things you can do to assist are under the blue action tabs. Here is why your joining AIMI is so important:
VIDEO: Trapped: Mental Illness in America’s Prisons
A diamond studded welcome to all our new members.
Jamie L., Teresa D., Melinda E., Maria O., & Balakrishr V.
Welcome!
[Mary's Care2 profile] [Mary's channel 'DUO' on NowPublic]
[Mary's C2NN submissions] [Mary's webpage about her brother]
THANK YOU FOR COMING TO RENDER ASSISTANCE TO THE INCARCERATED MENTALLY ILL! WELCOME BACK, LINE L.
Many many thanks to our new members!
The comments some of you have posted me personally have been heartwarming.
Nancy M
Nancy P
Kathleen H
Chhiv Leng Koeu
Just Carol
Fae L
Nadja W
All New Members and Thanking you as well for wanting to make a difference in the lives of those who are unable to do so.
We are all brought together to HELP MAKE CHANGES.....This is no mistake....Our positive light shines much brighter than those who are corrupting the system.
Thank You & Bless You
MzJanice
to A.I.M.I.
Welcome! NOT ONLY DO WE WELCOME ALL NEW MEMBERS FROM OUR CARE2 COMMUNITY, BUT WE ALSO ISSUE A WARM WELCOME TO OUR MANY ONLINE VISITORS. YOUR ATTENTION TO AIMI'S EFFORTS TO BRING JUSTICE AND INCREASED COMPASSION TO MENTALLY ILL PERSONS IN OUR COUNTRY, PARTICULARLY THOSE BEHIND BARS, IS IMPORTANT TO US, AND WE APPRECIATE YOU.
WE SEE MANY PROMISING DEVELOPMENTS IN THE AREA OF CRIMINAL JUSTICE, AND WE APPREICATE BEING A PART OF THE MOVEMENT FOR POSITIVE CHANGE.
IF YOU HAVE SUGGESTIONS OR WISH TO HELP WITH OUR JUSTICE QUEST FOR THE MENTALLY ILL AND OTHER MATTERS THAT ARE ADDRESSED IN THIS GROUP, PLEASE JOIN CARE2, THEN LOOK IN THE HUMAN RIGHTS GROUPS FOR THE RED JAIL HOUSE WITH THE BUZZARD ON THE ROOF. THAT IS AIMI! WE WOULD BE PLEASED TO FACILITATE YOUR GREATER INVOLVEMENT IN THE PROCESS OF DECRIMINALIZING MENTAL ILLNESS AND HELPING TO TURN AMERICA FROM ITS DIRECTION OF BECOMING A PRISON NATION.
TO OUR MANY ONLINE VISITORS, 
.
This post was modified from its original form on 24 Apr, 17:32
I'm grateful to see these new members - thanks for your support for the mentally ill in US who have been imprisoned.
Balakrishna V. Maria O. Phyllis P. Line L.
AIMI, YOU ARE MAKING A DIFFERENCE! Prison torture within America is being discussed more now. The Philadelphia Inquirer wrote an article endorsing Assisted Outpatient Treatment programs for mentally ill offenders instead of prison. Texas' Law of Parties may be set aside, which would save Jeff Wood, retarded Texan who has been on death row almost since high school for a murder because he drove with someone to a store and did not know a murder was being done. LA County Jails is being assessed, and we can be hopeful something will be done for the thousands of mentally challenged prisoners and healthy prisoners in that overcrowded, abusive environment. NM repealed capital punishment, and there is hope that 10 other states will follow soon. Improvements in the area of criminal justice are being discussed in Congress and in municipalities across the nation! Keep on keeping on AIMI! Remember that in less than three weeks, we will meet in downtown Atlanta for this event to support prisoners and speak in favor of change! I hope to see you there. Please RSVP, and let me know if you will be available for dinner at 6:00 p.m., following the 6 block march.
Human Rights for Prisoners March - Atlanta, May 16
www.nowpublic.com/world/human-rights-prisoners-march-planned-may-16-atlanta
Thank you, Line L. I am so pleased you were able to post directly to the group again. I don't always get to post the lovely cards you send to my email promptly, but everything you and all AIMI members do is very appreciated. Just discussing these issues is enough to effect much needed change.
EVERYONE, PLEASE THINK OF THIS!
Remember that elected officials care about what voters care about, and voters cannot care about conditions they don't know about. Mention AIMI and the need to decriminalize mental illness often when you write online, comment on news, talk to your friends and family, and write to your representatives. YOU ARE ALL HUMAN RIGHTS ACTIVISTS NOW! Seek out opportunities to speak on behalf of AOTs rather than prison. Call in at BlogTalk radio shows and put forth your viewpoint on incarcerated sick people. Check the RSS feeds on AIMI's home page and write your own articles. As you browse the Internet, put "mental health" in the browser and bring us some news from the web. Keep doing all you can to help mentally ill prisoners and support their families.
Blessings!
Mary Neal
BIG WELCOME FOR OUR NEW MEMBERS!
A very warm welcome and thank you to our latest new member, Makala K.!
Thank you, Mikala, for coming to give ASSISTANCE TO THE INCARCERATED MENTALLY ILL! Our desire is to help those who are imprisoned for behavior arising out of their mental dysfunctions and assist others in exercising treatment options in order to avoid incarceration. Kendra's Law works!
We want to help our brothers and sisters in distress today.
He Ain't Heavy - He's My Brother .
Hello, Susan! Thank you for coming to give ASSISTANCE TO THE INCARCERATED MENTALLY ILL! A WARM WELCOME FROM ALL OF US!
There is no better time to join in our efforts than Memorial Day. This is a holiday set aside to honor military personnel who laid it all on the line for the ideal of liberty and justice for all, and some lost their lives in the sturggle. Others, like Sgt. John Russel, lost his mental health. What a difference! Military personnel who lose their limbs in combat are treated with honor and given medals. Those like Sgt. Russel who lose their reasoning ability to PTSD are given the same as other mentally ill people in America - HOMELESSNESS, PRISON, AND DEATH.
Please jump right in, Susan, and start your advocacy! Please begin with your representatives and let them know that you favor treatment over imprisonment for mentally ill people in your state.
Mention AIMI and our advocacy whenever you can appropriately do so in your comments to news here at Care2 and other online sites.
Take the time to look at the Host Announcements, and group posts. Especially review those with the blue action tabs. Those are petitions and other actions that need immediate attention from people like you, Susan, who care about suffering human beings.
Thanks again your coming to AIMI, and Happy Memorial Day!
This post was modified from its original form on 24 May, 18:38
THANK YOU, LADY L. AND LOCAN S. FOR JOINING US IN THE QUEST TO RENDER ASSISTANCE TO THE INCARCERATED MENTALLY ILL!
We are delighted that you see the importance of helping our most vulnerable members of society to be restored to a meaningful existence. Many of the incarcerated mentally ill are beyond being able to function in society, and they need to be contained. However, we feel that they should be hospitalized, NOT imprisoned. But thousands of incarcerated mentally ill inmates are non-violent. Many of them were arrested for simple offenses and once imprisoned, time was added to their sentences because of their inability to conform to prison life. Therefore, 60% of the people in solitary confinement 23 hours per day are actually mental patients who should be treated more humanely than that! We advocate for Assisted Outpatient Treatment programs that combine subsistence assistance with mandatory psychiatric treatment, realizing that many acute mental patients lack the wherewithal to continue their treatment once released from jails and mental institutions, and this often leads to their re-arrest or re-hospitalization. That creates an unnecessary tax burden on the people as well as avoidable suffering for mental patients and their families.
WELCOME, and many Blessings for coming to help decriminalize mental illness in America!
Mary, hosts, and members
AIMI Members, whether you are brand new or have been with us for the entire 10 months since organizing to decriminalize mental illness, this welcome is for you! Please don't forget to invite your friends and check the blue action tag items often. Hundreds of thousands of incarcerated mental patients and their family members need your input!
~WELCOME TO AIMI~
And Welcome To AIMI
A warm hello to all new members!!! Thank You for joining us to help make change!!!
Your presence is a Beautiful thing!!! Sending my blessings...
~Peace~Love~Light~Janice~
And a Warm Welcome Too!
To
All new Members !
200 MEMBERS STRONG! After about 300 people have joined AIMI, our membership list finally registers 200 this week! Care2 members, please check your list of groups often to ensure that your AIMI membership is still intact. Like all human rights efforts throughout history, the effort to decriminalize mental illness suffers attack. Many powerful people are prison profiteers, and 1.25 million of the incarcerated persons in America are mentally ill. Thank you all for joining in this effort to remove mentally ill people from prisons and jails and into decent environments for treatment and containment, if violent, or into community care if they are non-violent and capable of living without constant overview. It costs no more to treat than to imprison, so why do you think prisons are chosen for mentally ill people in America?
MANY THANKS TO AIMI MEMBERS ON BEHALF OF 1.25 MILLION MENTALLY ILL PRISONERS AND THEIR FAMILIES!
WELCOME TO CHRIS, PAM, ABIA, AND FRANCES! Thanks for joining AIMI in our efforts to decriminalize mental illness in America and restore many sick people to a more wholesome existance through hospitals for acute mental patients who were incarcerated following acts of violence, or community care for mentally ill offenders who are non-violent. YOUR participation and support for this human rights effort is greatly appreciated!
WE LOOK FORWARD to your full participation here, so please don't be shy. Please share your news and views at AIMI. Find a subject and jump right in with your opinions. When you read news regarding violence against mentally ill people or about legislation that impacts their lives, please share it with your AIMI members and the world through the World Wide Web here at AIMI. Thank you, new members, for coming forward and showing that you CARE!
Blessings,
Mary, Hosts, and Members
Welcome, Alyssa and Kisha, to the Dorothea Dix group, a/k/a ASSISTANCE TO THE INCARCERATED MENTALLY ILL. Please read about the life and work of Ms. Dorothea Dix. If she decriminalized mental illness in the 1800's, we can do it again! Thanks so very much for joining this human rights effort.
Dorothea Lynde Dix (April 4, 1802 - July 17, 1887)
http://www.care2.com/c2c/share/detail/865865
A SPARKLING WELCOME AND MANY THANKS ARE EXTENDED TO THESE TWO NEW AIMI MEMBERS WHO JOINED IN JULY 2009!
We appreciate your support in helping to restore 1.25 million Americans to a wholesome existence - treatment, not punishment, for the mentally ill. Please make yourselves at home. Begin work right away by checking the blue action tabs for petitions and other avenues to lend your support. Most importantly, please contact your representatives and let them know you support H.R. 619 which would make Medicaid available for mental health care. It was the deletion of Medicaid funding that led to the reduction in inpatient mental health facilities in America. This saved taxpayers zero, because treating the mentally ill in prison costs an equivalent amount of money. PUT IT BACK AGAIN!
Here is a handy link to contact your reps - www.house.gov/writerep/
Please feel free to post your news and views. Find a strand of discussion that you wish to comment on, or start a new one! Just by discussing mental health care, we help to end the stigma attached to the health condition. Post articles, graphics, videos, petitions, etc.
Your membership and participation are appreciated by
Mary, hosts, and members
Welcome to our new members - Thanks for making a difference!
This is a wonderful group, with wonderful people... get to know us!
The plight of the mentally ill (all too often homeless and imprisoned) is a desperate one. There are petitions to sign, and lots of news to note and share so don't hesitate -- get stuck in...
Mary is magnificent. If you didn't know that already, I'm sure you'll find it out soon. Her dedication to the cause is truly inspiring.
Best Wishes,
Jenny
WELCOME TO AIMI! THANKS for coming to join our human and civil rights struggle for mentally dysfunctional persons to be released from prisons into community care programs or hospitals, depending on their offenses and ability to manage outside a controlled environment.
Welcome! AIMI is pleased to have your help with this important human rights advocacy.
The incarcerated Mentally ill need your help so much. Just by joining, you already started giving ASSISTANCE TO THE INCARCERATED MENTALLY ILL. Your membership tells elected officials that you agree that treatment is needed for sick people, not punishment. Violen mentally ill offenders belong in hospitals. Many non-violent mentally ill offenders can be restored to healthy lifestyles with enforced psychiatric care and subsistence assistance. Assisted Outpatient Treatment is less expensive than prison by far!
PLEASE USE THIS FORUM TO SPEAK TO THE ISSUE OF DECRIMINALIZING MENTAL ILLNESS. This is your opportunity to make a needed difference that could impact millions of people - mentally dysfunctional inmates and at-risk persons and their families who suffer along with them. Your input is very welcome on AIMI - have your say! Endorse the petitions at the blue action tab. Start new discussions if you want, or comment on those already started. Please write to your representatives and let them know you joined our effort. INVITE YOUR FRIENDS! All of this will help to say:
THANKS FOR JOINING ASSISTANCE TO THE INCARCERATED MENTALLY ILL (AIMI), a/k/a The Dorothea Dix Group!
Many thanks and a very warm welcome to you! Thanks so much for answering the call for help to render ASSISTANCE TO THE INCARCERATED MENTALLY ILL, David and James. Please read the home page and our discussion items. Comment on any that you find interesting. Make yourselves at HOME among us. You are very needed and appreciated.
not sure where to start,Im just happy I found people that are on the same page as I am in trying to restore justice for the mentally ill as my son and others with dissabilities well ablities if given a real chance.God Bless.
Hello, Mindy! Welcome to Assistance to the Incarcerated Mentally Ill; you have found the right group to help support you and your son and give you an opportunity to reach out and help others who suffer as you do. I am sure your son has many marvelous abilities. Some call people with mental incapacities "differently abled." We all have things we can and cannot do well, and none of us at AIMI like mentally challenged people being cruelly incarcerated or stigmatized for having a common and treatable health condition like any other!
Blessings. Don't be shy, Mindy. Look around your new home and comment or start a new strand. Tell us more about your son and his diagnosis. If there is anything you need us to do to help you and him, just give a shout-out. My personal contact info is on the home page. If it is not a private matter, write on the comments to articles posted at AIMI so the world can see your input!
Welcome! THANKS FOR JOINING! Your support is appreciated. If there is anything AIMI can do to assist you, please let us know. Please begin your advocacy for the incarcerated mentally ill by contacting your representatives to let them know you would appreciate their support for H.R. 619 to resume Medicaid insurance for inpatient mental health treatment and the other bills on our home page. Also, use the blue tab to access petitions that need your support. Tell your friends and relatives that they are invited to come join us and help give ASSISTANCE TO THE INCARCERATED MENTALLY ILL! Join in the discussions, or start a new one. Please read some of the discussion items and review your home page. 
We are very pleased to have you. You can tell us more about yourselves at this welcome strand or start a new discussion item. Thanks again for joining AIMI!
