Set Free and Set Up (to Fail)

Set Free and Set Up (to Fail)

Freedom isn’t justice when the person being set free isn’t free to find success. Freedom isn’t freedom when it limits a person’s ability to survive, let alone succeed.

‘No’ is just a word
That people say when they're afraid
And if you say "no" to me
Then I will fight you till I'm free.

Say freedom, brotherhood
Justice, just say ‘yes’.
(“Freedom”, sung by Madonna)

As a religious leader in a mainline Christian denomination, I take seriously Jesus’ mandate to care for the most vulnerable among us. This includes a growing number of mentally challenged, developmentally handicapped and troubled youth who find themselves dependent upon a faulty social services system and/or an even more flawed (in my experience) juvenile corrections department.

As a pastor in a rural community in America’s Heartland, I am all-too aware that this is not just a problem in the inner cities, but one that plagues also the rural communities. There are simply not enough “community-based services” to meet the needs of this population to begin with. The problem worsens for those who are allowed to slip through the cracks in the system.

As a mother to three special needs adopted children, one of whom was abused every way possible in his birth home before becoming abusive himself, this issue hits far too close to home. Our son is falling through the cracks of the juvenile justice system, gaps that are larger than we ever could have imagined. What’s worse is that he’s falling through those cracks in spite of having parents who can advocate for him, which is more than most juveniles in the “system” have in their favor.

Our son, whom we adopted at age 6, is mentally challenged, developmentally delayed and has a long list of psychiatric and psychological issues to contend with. He spent nearly two years in a children’s psychiatric center, as experts worked relentlessly to find just the “right” combination of medications and therapy to make him stable enough, behavior-wise and emotionally. That “lull” lasted almost two years before he began violent and harmful outbursts, as well as abusive behavior towards other children.

For the past six years, he has been incarcerated in, first, a court-ordered therapeutic institution and later, after re-offending, in a juvenile detention center. He was released nine months ago to a facility that my husband and I both believed was his best hope for a transition into a normal life-- whatever that is going to mean for him.

However, when he reached the age of 18, the detention facility allowed him to go off his psychiatric medications. I must admit that he functioned without them far better than I expected that he would. The structure of the detention facility was evidently rigid enough to offset the effect of having no psychiatric medications.

So, he began this transition without the medications that might have stabalized his behaviors and thinking patterns a little better. The facility that accepted him received nothing about his history prior to the arrest. Worst of all, this transition took place just before Christmas, which social workers agree is the worst time to move children who have been in abusive situations. He was set free, but set up to fail. And fail he did. Wonderfully.

He was immediately sent back to juvenile detention, even though the facility was willing to take him back. At the hearing, his parole officer promised to never send another juvenile back to that facility because, instead of calling him immediately, the therapists had showed some compassion and understanding of what a child like ours would need in order for the placement to succeed.

In the past week, he was released again to a different placement. This time, at least he has been on his medications, and a 30-day supply was sent with him. We were promised by the Department of Corrections that this transitional housing placement would assist him in finding a job, getting his GED, applying for the waivers that he will need in order to receive the social services he qualifies for, due to his disabilities.

Within 48 hours, one of the administrators told us that we had been somewhat deceived. Yes, he said, they can and will do those things for our son, as long as he is there. But lately, he said, the DOC has been dumping these boys in the apartments, and cutting off the finding within just a couple of weeks! With no where to go, they wind up on the streets of one of the larger cities in our nation. They’re being set free and set up to fail.

Yesterday afternoon, we received a phone call indicating that he had threatened staff and “had to be gone by midnight”. We were told this morning that a warrant had been issued and they would be arriving to transport him at any time. There were no guarantees that he would still be there when we arrived, but he was there. We expected to see a child who was out of control. Instead, he was calm. He seemed to have no sense of what was about to transpire, and indeed, when we questioned both he and staff, it seems that most of the “threatening” was simply threatening to leave. Yes, there had been “attitude”. There had been anger. But he hadn’t even torn his room apart!

His parole officer offered a solution: We could take our son and admit him to a hospital with a psychiatric unit. She was willing to free him from parole if we did that. What? I repeat: What? Never mind that he does not even have health insurance. Never mind that the papers for Developmental Disability services have not yet been filed. Never mind that there are waiting lists of months… sometimes years for some of these services. Let’s just clear him off of our “to do” list with the Department of Corrections.

No, thanks.

Our phone calls to several of the suggested hospitals were unsuccessful. If he was not an immediate threat to himself or others, they would not admit him. Even if we had found such a place that would accept him (which we did not), the length of stay approved by an insurance company is usually only ten days. What then?

According to the Report of the Re-entry Policy Council: Charting the Safe and Successful Return of Prisoners to the Community, about two out of every three people released from prison in the U.S. are re-arrested within three years of their release. Statistics are clear, our prisons are filled with people who are, like our son, mentally challenged, developmentally delayed or mentally ill. When they are released without supervision or support in place, there are few choices for them. Many wind up living under bridges or in alleys. They’ve been set free, but they’ve been set up to fail.

Jesus taught that the Spirit of the Lord had anointed him to “heal the brokenhearted, to proclaim release to the captives, recovering of sight to the blind, to deliver those who are crushed…” Our son is fortunate to have parents who will advocate for him, and do their best to try to keep him off of the streets. By the time these boys are “in the system”, many of the parents have already given up on them. It is both a matter of doing what is right and just that we, as disciples of Jesus Christ take action to see that those who are released have the opportunity to succeed. Only then can the captive be truly set free.

Freedom, brotherhood
Justice, just say ‘yes’

'Cause ‘no’ is just a word
That people say when they are lost
And if you say ‘no’ to me
Then I will fight you till I'm free.

Those of us with a voice must speak out for those who have no voice. We must fight until “freedom” really means “free”.

Set them free, but set them free to shine, to sail, to succeed.

September 25, 2009