Embrace GRAYce

I lovingly started called the Friday Track 3 Mental Health (MH) court docket “Fun Fridays” after having a participant run UP the down escalator before coming to court. Impressive. Not even mad.

Confirmed our suspicions he was in a manic state. At least we knew so we could appropriately respond with treatment & change his meds, instead of let society react in the comments on a newspaper article when he commits “another crime”….

Just another criminal, like Anthony. Not embrace GRAYce with, “Oh man he must be going through something let’s help him.”

A few months prior, we didn’t catch his MH relapse in time. I don’t blame the cops for arresting him when he allegedly threatened kids at a bus stop. The Deputies on the street handled his mental illness beautifully, were aware of PSC, contacted his case manager to get him out of custody & get him help.

Two choices in that situation:

1) REACT & charge a mentally ill man with criminal acts, likely Class C Disorderly Conduct, by the letter of the law give him court supervision or a conviction and call it a day; or

2) Identify it as impulsivity—a momentary lapse in judgment— stemming from a “relapse” in his mental health treatment & treat him accordingly?

THROW AWAY THE KEY!!!

I can tell you from experience what’s more cost efficient and effective. I’d much rather tell you by way of a story…

MH court typically deals with co-occurring disorders (MH diagnosis self treated with substance abuse) or severe MH diagnoses that aren’t suitable for a general jail population i.e. paranoid schizophrenia, bipolar.

PSC had over 100 participants in MH court. I can tell you with a high level of confidence that sticking escalator man in four walls to think about what he did would only escalate said mental illnesses.

June 3, 2022: My cell phone unexpectedly started ringing about noon that Friday. I was sitting at my desk checking emails after an always eventful high risk, high needs MH court call. Hence “Fun Friday”.

I said “unexpectedly” calling solely because it was my supervisor Greg*. I had been begging to meet with my supe for over a year to discuss additional support at Problem Solving Courts (PSC).

The only time Greg willingly communicated with me at work was to make plans for happy hour, which didn’t help my caseload. Alcoholic bevvies didn’t make up for the lack of support at PSC.

“Hey Jack, wish I had better news. I just got a call from the DuPage State’s Attorney…… one of your mental health court defendants was shot and killed by Naperville police……. Jack….. Are you there?”

Ironically, I was in the same spot seven months earlier when I found out about Mady’s crash.

Caution: This video shows actual footage of an attack on a police officer that resulted in an individual being shot & killed. More facts below for those who can’t stomach watching the incredibly intense situation.

If you cast any judgment on police officers, I’d encourage you to watch this video first & ask yourself one question:

Would I put myself in that Officer’s shoes?

Viewer advised.

“[Edward] drove his vehicle on June 3, 2022 directly to a police engaged traffic stop. He stopped next to the officer and aggressively exited his vehicle and quickly charged a [police] officer with a hatchet. The officer defended himself from the unprovoked attack. Edward was wearing a black backpack and had an earpiece on at the time. The officer was responding to [an unrelated] traffic stop, the young man involved in the traffic stop was uninjured.”

Happy place and source of my actual & vicarious trauma from 2014-2023. No False Dilemma Fallacy of either-or.

A few of my questions & thoughts in the seconds that followed hearing the news. Severe executive dysfunction means my brain works fast.

• Are any officers injured?
• That’s my dad’s old police department.
• Was it an Officer I know?
• I hope they are ok.
• Thank god they have 5 social workers on staff.
• What the hell happened?
• Did they respond appropriately?
• Was the force excessive?
• Who’s dead?
• Oh my god. Oh my god. Oh my god.
• Did I accept someone into the program that was a harm to others?
• Could I have prevented this from happening?
• I’m going to get fired.
• I need to fix this.
• How do I fix it?
• I can’t fix it.

My reformed codependent nature makes me want to fix things. I also have a passion for problem solving. Don’t worry, in therapy since 2021.

“Who was it Greg?!” I finally cracked out.

Rest of the conversation is unimportant, like Greg. Don’t get me wrong, he’d run Jimmy G’s office with a brain versus ego & for cheaper. Unfortunately, Greg spends his six figure salary placating the celebrity, I mean, elected official at the helm.

MEET 22CF5. Edward S.

He wasn’t one of my participants.

I couldn’t help but take a brief & guilty sigh of relief.

I had rejected Edward from PSC six weeks earlier. Call it a gut feeling (spoiler alert: I call it lack of appropriate resources).

The underlying facts of Edward’s case made me too concerned for the safety of the staff…. We didn’t have appropriate resources to handle an individual who dislocated a Sheriff’s Deputy’s arm with a baseball bat…

My heart felt heavy whenever I voiced the very rare objection to an eligible participant. There are only 18 crimes ineligible for PSC. I laid them out, and PSC responsibilities, in a 2022 memo that got the State’s Attorney’s Office $$ from the Will County Board.

That did a lot of help.

That memo was drafted three months after receiving Greg’s phone call about Edward…. Happy Clappy Court wasn’t & isn’t a priority unless a press op arises. See You’re Born Looking Like Your Parents, You Die Looking Like Your Decisions for a prime example of that.

My heart hurt. For the Officer….. and for Edward.