Mental Health Resources For The Wrongfully Imprisoned
January 4, 2008 by Alicia Sparks, Mental Health Notes
Filed under Diseases & Conditions
DNA tests get man freed after 27 years.
I admit it: Sometimes DNA scares me. I read my friend Dr. Hsien-Hsien Lei’s blog, Eye On DNA, and sometimes it scares the hell out of me. Many folks are logged in a national DNA database. Our abandoned DNA samples can be scooped up at any time. Shoot, a good old fashioned game of “Let’s Hock a Loogie at the Bus Driver” is no longer safe.
Of course, I’m not stupid. I know what good things can come from our research and knowledge of DNA. It can help test for cervical cancer, it can help adoptees learn more about their medical histories, and, as mentioned above, it can help free the wrongfully imprisoned.
After reading DNA tests get man freed after 27 years, my praises of DNA research were quickly replaced with a question:
What mental health resources are available for the wrongfully imprisoned?
I just can’t fathom keeping a man imprisoned for 27 years – over a quarter of a century! – and not providing him with some kind of counseling, therapy, psychiatric treatment for the overwhelming anger he must’ve been harboring all that time…because I know that I, for one, would be pissed.
If those of you readers who are new to Mental Health Notes chose this little post hoping to find a list of mental health resources available for wrongfully convicted and imprisoned people…well, you’re not going to find it. Trust me, I understand your frustration. I couldn’t find anything, either. Nothing with any substance, anyway.
However, if you continue on with your search, or if any of you faithful readers know of any resources, I’d be thrilled if you’d shared.
“Shoot, a good old fashioned game of “Let’s Hock a Loogie at the Bus Driver” is no longer safe.”
MOST disgusting game ever!
Haha, isn’t it? Back when I was in elementary school, my school bus was the first one in our county to have a camera installed in it – and we weren’t hocking loogies at the bus driver. You can only imagine how horrible we must have been!