Belinda--I wanted to address your comment about getting treatment while incarcerated. I wish that were so. We have a young male RSO in our family who was a one pound preemie survivor, abandoned for 7 months at a hospital, witnessed a gang murder in a Los Angeles foster home at age 3, was adopted by us at age 4, raped and sodomized by our neighbor's teen at age 9, and attempted to rape another teen in his special ed class at age 18. He has been on serious psychotropic medications all his life due to extreme anxiety and OCD which hamper any sort of normal life. He talks extremely fast, his mind races, he "flaps". He walks on his toes. He spent 14 years in special education and has an IQ around 75.
When he broke a rule of his probation; not attending treatment, he was sent to state prison for a year. No meds, no therapy .....whatsoever. I realize that he needs to address his offending but he's so stuck on the murder he witnessed and his own abuse, his mind will not focus. There simply is no treatment available. We inquired all the way up to our state senator and the only inmates who can participate in therapy sessions have to have it court ordered. We were told that because of budget cuts, it rarely happens.
Of course, Drew needs to pay dearly for his heinous crimes. The discussion of mental illness or competency is all speculation at this point on our part. I just wanted to point out that many people falsely believe that prisoners with mental illness are treated in prison. That is not often the case, at least in my experience.
To refuse a person medications which they need to function, is cruel to my mind. Would we refuse a prisoner their insulin?