Book Review: Crazy by Pete Earley
Published May 26, 2006
Imagine if the only way you can help a loved one is to lie to the police, say the person threatened your life and hope they are arrested. That's a situation an untold number of Americans face every day. As journalist Pete Earley explores in Crazy, America's jails and prisons are its new mental institutions. But Earley isn't relaying this information as a casual observer. It comes from firsthand experience.
Earley tells two related stories in this book. One is about his son, Mike, who suffers a breakdown and is diagnosed with bipolar disorder. The other is Earley's investigation of this country's mental health system, one that takes him to Miami and an exploration of the psych ward of the Miami-Dade County Jail and the resources available to those impacted by mental illness. Earley personalizes the lives of people most of us shun or studiously avoid on the street and the impact of their circumstances on themselves, their families and society.
Because it is that much more personal, Earley's account of Mike's story is compelling. Mike had his first psychotic episode during his senior year of college. During a later delusional state, Earley drove to New York to get Mike and took him to the emergency room in the hospital of their hometown. There, Earley learned that because his son was an adult, he could not be treated unless he was likely to hurt someone or himself or consented to treatment. Mike said he wasn't planning on hurting anyone and refused medications because they were "poisons." He was released with no treatment.
A few days later, Mike broke into a house to take a bubble bath, causing extensive damage to the interior. He was arrested and charged with two felonies, launching Earley directly into the relationship between the criminal justice system and mental health. It is a system of two evils. Is it better to have your loved one unmedicated on the street or in jail? That conundrum is the focus of most of the book.
The statistics are staggering. Fifty years ago, more than half a million Americans were in state hospitals for mental problems. Although the nation's population increased 66 percent by the year 2000, there are now fewer than 55,000 patients in state mental hospitals. More than 300,000 mentally ill individuals are in jails and prisons with another 500,000 on some form of court-ordered probation. In fact, the country's largest public mental health facility is the Los Angeles County jail, which houses 3,000 mentally disturbed inmates.
- Book Review: Crazy by Pete Earley
- Published: May 26, 2006
- Type: Review
- Section: Books
- Filed Under: Books: Health, Books: Nonfiction, Culture: Crime and Court, Review
- Writer: Tim Gebhart
- Tim Gebhart's BC Writer page
- Tim Gebhart's personal site
- Spread the Word
- Like this article?
- Email this
Save to del.icio.us
Comments on this articleComments
RR closed the mental hospitals when he was governor, and it filled the streets with homeless people. What's the point? The short term economies from cost reduction are quickly offset in other areas.
This book Pin points the very thing my family has endured for 15 years. My oldest child has went in the same direction as pete earley's son mike. I live in tennessee and can't get any help for my 38 year old child, because of the very things in mikes book I want to read all of the book hope it brings help to me and my family
Thanks to Pete for writing this book...it's been exactly the same for our family when my daughter, Karen was ill. It's an absolute miracle that she survived and is alive today. The mental health system is indeed "madness", an unbelieveable maze/
often a ridiculous and inefficient nightmare that parents have to cope with when their child is in terrible danger with his/her illness and the parents need to do something immediately to avert tragedy. Our beautiful daughter was continually thrown out on the street from hospitals, psych units, jails, and "rehab centers" only to find herself homeless, alone, irrational and vulnerable. Police Depts were even worse and often said they were powerless to help us. I congratulate Pete on writing the book...how he found the energy and time to do it, I will never know...we were so consumed with crisis after crisis and not being able to get competent help in emergencies, I never even had the time or energy to expain to people what was happening to our ill daughter( bipolar disorder) and us, her loving brother and sister, and her parents. NAMI (NATIONAL ALLIANCE FOR THE MENTALLY ILL) IS ATTEMPTING TO CORRECT THE SITUATION and bring the same attention and concern to mental illness as is given to breast cancer, heart disease, diabetes and other diseases. We need to organize more, lobby our legislators and demand better medical treatment and housing for our ill family members.
Chris S.
NY
Earley's work, Crazy, began as a research project for an advanced english class of mine, but his "muckraking" made the research come alive. I have since turned my attention more to humanitarian efforts and this book has made me painfully aware of the sad state of affairs we live in. Coming from a family where mental illness is all too familiar, I find Earley's writing both personable as Pete the father, and compelling, as Pete Earley the reporter. This work is a true eye opener and is one of the best reads I have ever encountered. The topic of the treatment of the mentally ill is one that is quite unapproachable and material on the subject is hard to come by. Earley's work is a precious jewel, for anyone.
Kudos to you Earley.
Add your comment, speak your mind
(Or ping: http://blogcritics.org/mt/tb/48354)
This article has been selected for syndication to Advance.net, which is affiliated with newspapers around the United States. Nice work!