MANSFIELD — Pete Earley tried to take his son to a mental hospital soon after showing signs of mental illness, but they were turned away because Mike was found to not be a danger to himself or his father.
“‘Come back when he tries to kill himself or you,’ they said,” Earley said.
Just 48 hours later, Mike broke into a stranger’s home and took a bubble bath. He then became one of 367,000 prisoners with mental illnesses.
After that, Earley, a 14-year journalist, decided to do some investigative reporting on mental illnesses. He spent 10 months inside the Miami-Dade County Jail following victims of mental illness through the criminal justice system.
The National Alliance on Mental Illness Richland County held their “Evening of Hope” event Thursday to raise awareness of mental illness and advocate for keeping mental health treatment available for families in the county.
Earley gave the Keynote speech at the event.
“We want to thank all the mental health services in the county, but we also want people to know we need more help,” said Mary Pierce, NAMI executive director. “We need to keep our services available for the people across our state who need our help.”
The event was held at OSR because in Ohio, there are five times more people in state prisons with mental illness than in mental hospitals, Pierce said.
“Ohio is one of the most progressive states,” Earley said. “Your state pays $50 million extra in correctional cost because of people with mental illness. 16 to 17 percent of people in state prisons have mental illness.”
During his presidential campaign Ohio Gov. John Kasich was the only one to mention mental illness and prisons, he added.
During his investigation at the Dade County prision, Earley said he found the mentally ill prisoners were not dangerous, but misunderstood.
“I found out most of the people were not dangerous. They were scary, but there was no community treatment. You can’t force them in to help, and so they were forced into jails and prisons.”
His book, a New York Times Best Seller, titled “Crazy: A Father’s Search Through America’s Mental Health Madness” helped bring light to the illnesses.
The event Thursday evening was aimed to create more empathy, Pierce said.
“We’re here to give people hope. But because of the stigma, it’s not talked about a lot,” Darlene Reed, associate director of NAMI said.”We hope the audiences gain empathy for our loved one. That’s what NAMI is: families helping families.”
