Parole perspectives

Georgia State Board of Pardons and Paroles -- at work in the community
PAROLE PERSPECTIVES

MAY 2002

Parole gives mentally ill offenders strong prison aftercare

Marietta Parole Officer Cathy Plunk reviews Charles's weekly schedule of appointments and activities. Supportive structure, which is critical to the well-being of the mentally ill offender, can quickly collapse without attention to details such as reliable transportation. Robyn Bethea, TAPP case manager, drives Charles to many of his required visits with medical and social service specialists.

"Everyone could tell I was corrupt," Charles says in explaining the world he inhabited most of his adult life. "People could see the sin in my mind; it scared them and brought out the worst in them." Now being successfully treated for paranoid schizophrenia at age 48, Charles speaks with optimism about his future while trying to atone for his history. "The past don't ignore me," he says, "but I feel like I can do something good with it now by letting people know that change is possible."
Charles progresses, continued on page 3

Nearly 300,000 mentally ill offenders are incarcerated in the nation's prisons and jails.

PAROLE PERSPECTIVES

Bonnie, 43, is excited about her new apartment and the stable life she has finally discovered after years of drug abuse and transiency. With the proper medication and her support system in place, she is able to visualize and work on goals to achieve a productive, "mainstream" lifestyle.
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GEORGIA FACTS AND STATS
Most mentally ill offenders (44 percent) are serving for property crimes, followed by drug possession (17 percent)
58 percent of mentally ill offenders are diagnosed with co-existing alcohol or drug problems
Many have other medical conditions such as hepatitis and diabetes
Homelessness is prevalent in the mentally ill population
More than a third 36 percent of Georgia's MH cases report being employed full-time before prison
Corrections projects a general inmate population growth over the next five years of 6.6 percent but an 18 percent rise in mental health inmates
Georgia's parolee population of 22,000 includes approximately 1,500 parolees needing mental health treatment
Sixty-five percent of mental health parolees are male vs. 35 percent female; the majority of both genders are over 35

PAROLE PERSPECTIVES

Charles progresses with community support

"W hen Charles was released on parole, he was frozen with anxiety about his freedom," says Marietta Parole Officer Cathy Plunk, as she flips through his hefty file which documents drug abuse and aggressive behavior dating back to 1974. "He was especially uneasy about fitting into the household of his brother, a family man and well-established professional whose patience for Charles's unpredictable behavior was nearly exhausted from years of disappointment. Even though our parole supervision is set up for demanding cases, I knew this one would be a challenge." Officer Plunk was referring to Georgia Parole's award-winning resultsdriven supervision model which targets the highest need offenders with swift, individualized intervention tactics to prevent relapse to criminal behavior. With Charles, community-based intervention had begun before he took his first step out of prison, thanks to the Treatment Aftercare for Parolees and Probationers program (TAPP), which assigns a mental health caseworker to targeted offenders before they reach the community.

Using prison evaluations to expedite the community placement process as well as to ensure continuation of successful medications, the TAPP case manager and parole officer build immediate structure for the returning offender -- and security for the community. Previously, mentally ill offenders who had been stabilized in prison often derailed upon release while wading through bureaucratic delays of scheduling a new round of assessments.

Charles's file reflects a history of drug abuse and explosive behavior. More recent entries -- achievement certificates for life-coping training, substance abuse treatment, and mental health courses -- document his transformation begun in prison and continuing on parole.
continued on page 4
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PAROLE PERSPECTIVES
Charles progresses . . .
continued from page 3

Above right: Charles studies brochures on schizophrenia to better understand the continuing symptoms of his condition which can undermine his success. The more he has learned, the more he has been able to forgive himself for past behavior. Parole Officer Cathy Plunk says that mental health parolees require much attention and frequently ask for it.
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"Our TAPP case manager Robyn Bethea called us on Charles's release date to see if he had checked in," says Officer Plunk. "Between her and our inhouse counselor, Scott Collins, we had no down time in getting Charles established on medication and enrolled in a day-treatment program. And there has been nothing but exceptional progress since then."
When Officer Plunk stops by for a home visit with Charles, he pulls out his own case file, brimming with certificates of

accomplishment, booklets on schizophrenia, as well as descriptions of his new mind peering into his former one. Filled with voices of judgment, the "feelings" of objects, and the ballooning of a word or phrase into a life of its own, his mind was chaos wrapped in self-loathing, a state he could understand only after experiencing its absence provided by medication. When he had a headache, he was relieved by its clear pain. "I was having something normal," he says.

"When I see mental health parolees making progress, giving them extra attention and reinforcement becomes one of the most rewarding parts of this job."

PAROLE PERSPECTIVES

"On the day of his initial report to the parole office, Charles told me he wanted to live independently. Even with his barely audible voice, I could hear his determination," Officer Plunk says. "Our parole supervision relies on goal-setting, so we outlined all the short-term goals he would have to achieve. Charles has carried out each step perfectly, including an eightmonth day treatment, and last fall he began working part-time at Kroger. He has built trust with his brother and is actively involved in church. He seems to thrive on acting responsibly. When he got his part-time job, he immediately informed Medicaid to drop his assistance, although they convinced him to wait awhile."
Charles incorporates his parole conditions into his self-composed tenets of life which emphasize building character through "earnest work" and "service to family and community." With strategic finesse, he manipulates a symptom of his mental illness -- repetition -- to promote his well-being. "Repetition of what's good in me allows it to come out. I realize I do have a good heart. I feel like a tender flower that's just been planted."

"That's the way he seems to me, too," says Officer Plunk, on her way back to the office to deal with a less rewarding case: a parole absconder who has just been arrested. "No matter how busy I am, I'll spend time with Charles. He reminds me of our mission: that the ultimate result of our results-driven parole supervision is not a statistic, but an individual human being who no longer needs to harm himself or others."

"I'm so grateful for these people who have surrounded me," Charles says. He calls them out by name and specific contribution, as if accepting an Oscar. "I was glad when I was sent to prison," Charles says. "I knew my time was running out on the street. I didn't even care about dying, because my life seemed below death. In prison, I began to understand what was happening to me. And I knew I wanted to live differently, although I didn't know how I could do it."

" . . . the ultimate result . . . is not a statistic, but an individual human being who no longer needs to harm himself or others."

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PAROLE PERSPECTIVES

Agency focuses on building structure for mentally ill offenders

Georgia's MH/MR inmate population growth

"From Board Members to line officers, this agency

is attuned to the mental health issues of offenders,"

says Parole Board Mental Health Program Manager

Nathan Davis. "That awareness drives us to collabo-

rate with other agencies to create better structure

for our mental health population. The problems are

simply too large for any agency to handle in isolation."

Davis says that prison becomes the residence

of default for many undiagnosed or unmedicated

mentally ill individuals. "Those who are not under

Nationally, nearly 8 in 10 mentally ill inmates report physical or sexual abuse. Males with a mental condition are more than twice as likely as other males to report abuse.

medical care may not be able to peacefully reside with family members, and others, because of limited income, will have few good options for appropriate housing. Frequently, their original offenses as well as subsequent relapses stem from efforts to self-medicate with street drugs easily available in their environments. Substance abuse is the most common co-existing disorder of mentally ill offenders."
"Housing has always been a major concern for mental health parolees," says Parole's Marietta-based Substance Abuse Counselor Scott Collins, "but it's a growing problem because more mentally ill offenders are going into prison. When they return

to the community, they face the double stigma of being mentally ill and having served

More than 75% of the nation's mentally ill inmates have been sentenced to prison, jail, or probation at least once prior to current sentence.

prison time." "Family members will sometimes drop them at our door," adds Parole Officer Cathy
Plunk. "They get frustrated and assume `the system' will take care of them. Sometimes jail is the only temporary residence we can find as we seach for other options."
"Working with other agencies and community groups is the only way we'll find ways to prevent the mentally ill offender from cycling in and out of prison," Davis says.

"Obviously, some individuals are dangerous and cannot live in the community even with

the strongest structure, but many others are involved in disruptive but non-threatening

Data from U.S.Bureau of Justice Statistics, Special Report, July 1999

behavior directly related to their illness. Using prison beds to handle lapses in our own community support system is neither an ethical nor economically sound solution. Finding better options will be our challenge during this decade."

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PAROLE PERSPECTIVES

TAPP program reduces risks for high-need offenders

Begun in 1998 as a pilot program, Transitional Aftercare for Probationers and Parolees (TAPP), a collaboration of Corrections, Parole and Human Resources, now operates statewide to provide seamless prison-to-community care for mentally ill or retarded offenders.
By receiving notification from prison counselors about inmates returning to commmunities in their areas of service, TAPP case managers expedite the offender's appointments for community assessment and treatment. Previously, delays in linking these high-need individuals with mental health services created, at best, lost time for the offender and his family in establishing goals and a routine, and, at worse, relapse to behavior endangering himself or others.
After coordinating initial goals, TAPP's specialized caseworkers provide intensive monitoring of the offender's treatment for six months, or longer, if needed. They are "active" caseworkers, transporting their clients to appointments, dropping by their homes to see if pill counts reflect proper self-dosing, and talking with family members to learn about changes in the offender's behavior which indicate progress or regression.

TAPP case managers, parole officers, and parole counselors are teammates with the shared mission of building in the offender a routine of positive self-discipline and responsible community conduct.
High-need mental health offenders not only need structure and frequent coaching, but, according to TAPP Case Manager Robyn Bethea, "those who understand their illness ask for help, and show their gratitude by working extra hard to give back to the community."

Above: Substance Abuse Counselor Scott Collins and TAPP Case Manager Robyn Bethea discuss the progress of their mutual clients. Many mentally ill parolees must also be treated for drug or alcohol abuse, developed from years of "self-medicating" for their mental disorders.

For more information on parolee supervison, please visit our Web site at www.pap.state.ga.us
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PAROLE PERSPECTIVES

Building parole structure to outlast the parole term is our goal

"Most men and women released from prison need assistance to build new

lives in the community," says Parole Board Chairman Walter Ray. "Our

parole supervision model is forged on the principle of providing intensive

intervention and structure to prevent criminal relapse. Nowhere is that

approach more needed than with our mental health offender population.

Our agency has increased its focus on identifying mentally ill offenders

with less overt symptoms, on building community support to sustain the

individual after parole expires, and on providing sanctions with continued

mental health treatment for those who violate technical parole conditions

but do not threaten the community. While not sacrificing public safety for

compassion, we work with the mentally ill offender as long as possible

in the community. By maintaining continuity, we stand a better chance of establishing a network of specialists the offender will trust, and a routine

Board Chairman Walter Ray

that he or she can follow from habit.

Some offenders with serious psychiatric disorders cannot be paroled because of the nature of their crimes or the

public threat they pose. But the majority are non-violent individuals, with the desire and capability to live law-abiding

lives. We strive to help them attain that goal, in our roles as public servants seeking to prevent crime, and as private

citizens who understand that community support is vital to those who receive it, but also to those who give."

PAROLE PERSPECTIVES -- MAY 2002
State Board of Pardons and Paroles Office of Public Information 2 MLK Jr., Drive, S.E. Suite 458, East Tower Atlanta, Ga. 30334 tel: 404-651-5897
Walter S. Ray, Chairman Bobby Whitworth, Member Garfield Hammonds, Jr., Member Dr. Betty Ann Cook, Member Dr. Eugene Walker, Member
2002 State Board of Pardons and Paroles With attribution, text may be reproduced. Photographs cannot be used without permission.
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