Below is a letter concerning an inmate with mental illness who is allegedly not receiving proper care. If anyone can assist this individual please contact us or the inmate directly.
"Hardy Lloyd Doc #101182 is currently at the allegheny county jail on
detainer due to a probation violation. He has been diagnosed with Autism,
Asberger's syndrome. The Allegheny County Jail put him in DHU detention housing and he did nothing wrong in the ACJ to be placed in the hole. Due to his mental illness he can not handle being in the hole yet they keep him there. "
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Thu, 10/01/2009 - 03:15
In addition to promoting education, the most powerful thing prison administrators can do to assure that inmates do not come back is to encourage maintenance of close ties between prisoners and their families -- especially through quality visiting.
1 Though involving families in the rehabilitation and reintegration of inmates sometimes is a struggle and always requires balancing acts, research seems to suggest that good family relationships with relatives, spouses, and children play a significant role in reducing recidivism.
Studies over the past 50 years — looking at records of recidivism from 1925 on — 70-536 have consistently found positive correlations between "strength of family-social bonds and parole success... across very diverse offender populations and in different locales."2 The author of a review of decades of research concludes: "It is doubtful if there is any other research finding in the field of corrections which can come close to this record."3 Recently the Florida legislature declared in the preamble to a new law governing prison visiting that "maintaining an inmate's family and community relationships through enhancing visitor services and programs and increasing the frequency and quality of visits is an underutilized correctional resource that can improve an inmate's behavior in the correctional facility, and, upon release... will help to reduce recidivism."4 In the same year lawmakers in Oklahoma echoed the opinion and passed similar legislation.5 220-602 In what ways do families make a difference? In April 2003 we asked 186 parents in the Allegheny County Jail to tell us who provided help to them and their children while they were in Jail.6 Almost 70% answered, "only family." Family members cared for their children, put money in their accounts, accepted collect phone calls and paid for three-way calling so the inmates could talk to their children and other family members. Some family members visited and made it possible for children to visit. Here's more of what inmates told us:
• Overwhelmingly, parents reported that their children were currently living with family members. 77% of the children of incarcerated mothers and 87% of the children of incarcerated fathers were living with their other biological parent, grandparent, or other close relative.
• Many families had been providing help to inmates and their children before this incarceration. 70-647 At the time of their mothers' arrests, 40% of the children were already being cared for by someone else, mostly their other biological parents or close relatives; this was true to an even greater degree for children whose fathers were in Jail.
• The stability that family members provide may, in part, cushion some of the impact of parents' incarceration. Fewer than 1/3 of the children in our study had to move when their parents were incarcerated.