CrazyCrazy
a Father's Search Through America's Mental Health Madness
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Book, 2006
Current format, Book, 2006, , All copies in use.Book, 2006
Current format, Book, 2006, , All copies in use. Offered in 0 more formatsA dual memoir and journalistic investigation into the criminalization of America's mentally ill describes the author's battle with the shortcomings of the nation's mental health system after his son was declared ill, and exposes what the author learned throughout his year-long investigation into the Miami-Dade County jail. 60,000 first printing.
A journalistic investigation into the criminalization of America's mentally ill describes the author's battle with the shortcomings of the mental health system and the Miami-Dade County jail after his son was declared bipolar.
Earley (a former reporter with The Washington Post) folds the narrative of his son's mental illness and related encounters with the criminal justice system in with the larger story of the nexus between mental illness and criminal justice in the US. This larger condemnatory story is based on a yearlong investigation inside the Miami-Dade County Jail in Florida, in which he followed the stories of mentally ill prisoners as their cases wound thorough the courts and as they lived in their communities, as well as interviews with correctional officers, public defenders, prosecutors, judges, mental health care professionals, police, family members, civil rights lawyers, legislators, and historians of the mentally ill. Annotation ©2006 Book News, Inc., Portland, OR (booknews.com)
Pete Earley had no idea. He'd been a journalist for over thirty years, and the author of several award-winning-even bestselling-nonfiction books about crime and punishment and society. Yet he'd always been on the outside looking in. He had no idea what it was like to be on the inside looking out until his son, Mike, was declared mentally ill, and Earley was thrown headlong into the maze of contradictions, disparities, and catch-22s that is America's mental health system.
The more Earley dug, the more he uncovered the bigger picture: Our nation's prisons have become our new mental hospitals. Crazy tells two stories. The first is his son's. The second describes what Earley learned during a yearlong investigation inside the Miami-Dade County jail, where he was given complete, unrestricted access. There, and in the surrounding community, he shadowed inmates and patients; interviewed correctional officers, public defenders, prosecutors, judges, mental-health professionals, and the police; talked with parents, siblings, and spouses; consulted historians, civil rights lawyers, and legislators.
The result is both a remarkable piece of investigative journalism, and a wake-up call-a portrait that could serve as a snapshot of any community in America
A journalistic investigation into the criminalization of America's mentally ill describes the author's battle with the shortcomings of the mental health system and the Miami-Dade County jail after his son was declared bipolar.
Earley (a former reporter with The Washington Post) folds the narrative of his son's mental illness and related encounters with the criminal justice system in with the larger story of the nexus between mental illness and criminal justice in the US. This larger condemnatory story is based on a yearlong investigation inside the Miami-Dade County Jail in Florida, in which he followed the stories of mentally ill prisoners as their cases wound thorough the courts and as they lived in their communities, as well as interviews with correctional officers, public defenders, prosecutors, judges, mental health care professionals, police, family members, civil rights lawyers, legislators, and historians of the mentally ill. Annotation ©2006 Book News, Inc., Portland, OR (booknews.com)
Pete Earley had no idea. He'd been a journalist for over thirty years, and the author of several award-winning-even bestselling-nonfiction books about crime and punishment and society. Yet he'd always been on the outside looking in. He had no idea what it was like to be on the inside looking out until his son, Mike, was declared mentally ill, and Earley was thrown headlong into the maze of contradictions, disparities, and catch-22s that is America's mental health system.
The more Earley dug, the more he uncovered the bigger picture: Our nation's prisons have become our new mental hospitals. Crazy tells two stories. The first is his son's. The second describes what Earley learned during a yearlong investigation inside the Miami-Dade County jail, where he was given complete, unrestricted access. There, and in the surrounding community, he shadowed inmates and patients; interviewed correctional officers, public defenders, prosecutors, judges, mental-health professionals, and the police; talked with parents, siblings, and spouses; consulted historians, civil rights lawyers, and legislators.
The result is both a remarkable piece of investigative journalism, and a wake-up call-a portrait that could serve as a snapshot of any community in America
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- New York : G. P. Putnam's Sons, c2006.
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