If they can decern right from wrong they are treated as anyone else within the judicial system. Indivitual judges may be compassionate and try to rehabilitate them but many just write them off. Once in prison they cannot cope and often act out adding to their time and/or they become victims of more savy inmates.
If they are in the borderlin range as is my son it is even harder because many within the prison system do not belive that they are disabled even when presented with medical evidence. I have had the prison psycologist tell me that my son's suicide gesture was merely a manipulation to get moved to another area of the jail. This when he KNOWS that my son had been hospitalized for suicidal tendencies twice while waiting for his trial. There are many articles dealing with this subject on the internet. Just do a search on mental ilness, mental retardation and the criminal justice system. We need energetic and savy people in politics and the judicial system to advocate for the decriminalization of mental health and mental retardation. Leaving the fight to us the weary parents and family of thes inmates insures that these issues will not be properly addressed. We are in the trenches so to speak dealing with the everyday effects of a system that does not work. We are exhausted and weary and of ten tramatized and victimized ourselves. I have endured my son's PO screaming at me, lying to me and flip floping on issues. She is in a job she is ill suited for and floundering. I never know what to expect. One day she will be all sweet and kind another she is a screaming shrew. She is overworked, the MHME caseworker is over worked the group homes and Residential Treatment Center (RTC)'s and medical facilities are filled and inmates wait months for the services they need. It Stinks! It is a broken system. -RM
