23 January 2008:
My psychiatric patient had missed several monthly visits. Why? He'd been riding his bicycle in Newark, NJ, going against traffic. Stopped by a policeman and cited for that and for not wearing a helmet. Appeared in court and got fined $60 plus $22 court costs. Unable to pay, he was sentenced to NINETY DAYS IN JAIL!! (Instead of the court getting their $82, the local taxpayers are underwriting the $100 or so for each day he was incarcerated.) Further, he got no medication in jail, though they did give him paper clothing as a suicide preventive and he slept on a mattress on the floor in seclusion.
In contrast, there's the violent husband of my patient's daughter who, after she went to the emergency room following a beating, followed her to the ER and attempted to assault her. The policeman who restrained him had his hand slashed. This man got nine months in jail.
Unhappily, the woman went back to her husband who subsequently stabbed her six times with a butcher knife and then slashed her face repeatedly. In jail again, he is repeatedly telephoning my patient, sometimes as late as 11 pm, demanding to talk to his three year old son. The last thing she wants is to have any contact with the murderer of her daughter. But the DYFS worker dropped by her house last week questioning my patient as to why she was keeping the murderer from talking with his son!!!!
What a world!
