Improving Care for Mentally Ill Prisoners

Karen James interviews Bob Joondeph, Executive Director, Disability Rights Oregon (DRO), about a Memorandum of Understanding (MOU) it recently entered into with the Oregon Department of Corrections (ODOC). This MOU came after an investigation by DRO of ODOC’s Behavioral Health Unit (BHU) at the Oregon State Penitentiary in Salem. BHU is an intensive behavioral management and skills training unit for incarcerated adults with serious mental illness. The MOU will reduce isolation and improve the care of seriously mentally ill adults in the BHU. In the second half of the show, parents  discuss their mentally ill son's involvement with the criminal justice system and his recent experience in solitary confinement in an Oregon county jail.
Disability Rights Oregon https://droregon.org/
Memorandum of Understanding https://droregon.org/2244-2/
Behind the Eleventh Door https://droregon.org/bhu/
Contact your state legislators to urge funding for the MOU: https://www.oregonlegislature.gov/
NAMI http://namior.org/