Mental Health Laws & Public Safety

Mental Health Reforms ~ Long Overdue

By Carl R. ToersBijns

 

 

Arizona lawmakers should heed the warning of the recent Newtown shooting and take immediate proactive steps to avoid such a mass shooting by a mentally ill person in our schools or other public places. The solution to this problem is multi-fold but we must be convinced by now  those persons identified to be mentally disabled or ill must receive better treatment and this process must be addressed in a most effective and expedient manner.

This should be identified as a two step healing process and will require legislative reforms in order for the process to be effective and applied to those severely mentally ill persons that live in our communities and prisons, yes prisons.

The first step is the prevention of crime by convicted felons released from prison and not tracked or clinically maintained to be stable law-biding citizens so they don’t pose a threat to our communities and their families.  

The reason this is the first step is based on the fact legislators have more control over legislation covering convicted felons than free citizens within our community. They can in fact mandate certain procedures and process a convicted mentally ill felon much like they can a sex offender under Megan’s Law and require them to register and maintain a treatment plan according to their parole conditions and release.

The second step is to address the void of severely mentally ill persons neglected or not placed within a therapeutic or clinical environment such as private or public funded outpatient treatment clinics, admission to the state hospital or other referred treatment based on professional diagnoses and treatment needs.

This will be more tedious in nature as it requires the commitment of community resources in the mental health field as well as the involvement of many groups of mental health advocate groups may recommend treatment alternatives to the legislative committee that in turn can pass legislation with minimum standards or treatment conditions to the mental health courts or superior courts for behavioral management purposes.

So ask the question – Where should the mentally ill be placed? Today most severely mentally ill persons that run afoul of the law are committed to state prisons.  Society has released this responsibility to the prisons rather than mental health courts and every study made has revealed the mentally ill do not belong in prisons just because there is no other place to put them. Severely mentally ill (SMI) persons do not cope or function very well in prisons and often get worse because of lack of mental health services available or provided in most populations.

These SMI persons often become targets or predatory non-mentally ill persons and abused and assaulted repeatedly without any relief or protection from the prison system.

Therefore they become more traumatized than when they entered the prison system and less likely to recover from such conditions resulting in suicides and other self-harm acts that puts them in a high risk classification.

There are other negative factors of putting SMI persons into prisons.  Arizona has limited bed space for such SMI persons and must choose which SMI are housed within these diminutive treatment centers and which ones are ignored. It has been projected up to 24 per cent of our prison population is in need for mental health treatment programs, medication and treatment needs.

These persons are subjected to lack of therapeutic environments that fosters healing and stabilization. They will risk being out of compliance of their medication because the side effects are detrimental to their coping skills and never talk to anyone about their choices or decisions thus basically left alone to cope the best they can.

They are often misunderstood by poorly trained correctional staff and classified to be behavioral misfits and placed into segregation for long periods of time while receiving either no treatment at all or worst, chemically restrained by psychotropic drugs that put them in a state of suspended functioning for the remainder of their time to serve until released from prisons. 

Then upon their release date they are given a 30 day blister pack of medication and put out in the street or with families that have no meant either financially or socially abilities to maintain such medication or treatment needs.  One must realize there is strong evidence of the large crossover between mental illness, criminal behaviors, incarceration and treatment.

Today the SMI persons in our community do not received adequate services or treatment as they require thus are stigmatized by society for being abnormal and thereby cast into prisons.  This makes it society’s problem and often left unresolved because of funding or lack of services available in the demographics involved with such needs. Thus we have to ask a few more questions and glean the answers.

• Why severely mentally ill persons aren’t hospitalized or offered outpatient treatment through the mental health court systems?
• Where do these criminal behaviors originate and what preventive measures are available within the community to help them?
• Where do these SMI persons obtain the guns they use to commit crimes and what are the traditional barriers of such activity?
• Are the laws in tune with our socio-political, economic and environmental systems functional or are there dire changes needed?
• What prompts the mass shooting mentality and where are the loopholes, the communication breakdowns and observation reports?
• Who is responsible for this problem; society, policy makers or lawmakers?
• When an SMI commits a crime, what do we do with them and what options does society have to avoid criminalizing the mentally ill persons?
• Can the courts order medication involuntarily and do we need to revisit the forced medication procedures to include more mandatory treatment inside our communities and keep them outside our prisons?

The problem has long been discussed and looked at for the past 40 years. Ever since the courts ruled an SMI had the right to refuse his medication. The problem is then multiplied by the number of mentally ill roaming the streets without medication. Not all are violent in nature but the fact is many do have drug or substance abuse addictions that exasperate their mental illness.

Thus the bottom line was the mentally ill persons were criminalized by their own means and the lack of protection for society by the laws passed and has withstood time after time tests in court to be upheld. The homeless become victims of crime as they try to survive the environment without their treatment or medication needs. 

Not all SMI persons are homeless or have alcohol or drug abuse habits. However, they are all stereotyped and classified into the same group regardless of their social backgrounds. Society has stigmatized them severely. The laws, in order to offset this stigmatizing created another factor that also added to the criminalization of the SMI.

Under the HIPAA Act, the government passed privacy laws restricting medical records. This has severely impaired the process of allowing this vital information to be recorded in the National Criminal Information System for firearms background checks. Thus the passage of the HIPAA Act basically thwarted this information to be made available to law enforcement or the licensed gun dealers that submit the forms for background checks.

Lawmakers must make a decision quickly how to handle the severely mentally ill persons within our community. The current process of sending them to jail or prison is not working and leaves one important fact in place. We would serve ourselves well to re-evaluate the way we deal with the mentally ill from beginning to end. It must make delicate decisions between the right of others and the rights of the SMI when it comes to treatment, incarceration or other preventive measures.

We must not take away someone’s freedom just because society doesn’t want to deal with the problem and thereby casting them into prisons with an out of sight, out of mind mentality. They are, after serving their time, released back into the community in a worst condition than when they were incarcerated. The cycle returns them to a life of crime, sometimes violent and they are returned to jail and eventually prison.

December 29, 2012

Going Rogue ~ what does it mean?

What Does Going Rogue Mean?

By Carl R. ToersBijns

 

There appears to be many different definitions for this word “rogue” that is often thrown around in the media or the workplace during conversations regarding the actions or positions taken by another person. It seems when you look up the word in the dictionary, there is not one firm characterization provided for thus a word thus this must be a most misunderstood word thus it is time we look at how it fits in our world.

Going rogue can mean you are acting on your own and acting contrary to personal or professional expectations or the “normal” societal values within a certain political organization or persons. It can also mean you are pursuing your own interests and not of those you are or were associated with most of the time either in service or employment.

Whether you are going rogue or thinking about becoming a “rogue” person there are heavy consequences for taking such a stand depending what it is you are challenging, contradicting, speaking out against or the temperament of the culture you chose to antagonize or oppose. It has been recorded that some rogue leaders or persons have been killed for speaking out their mind and writing the things that may contradict the ideas, thoughts or laws of those that oppose such ways.

Going rogue carries with it no value or valor. It does not create heroes or martyrs as it is a non-popular position to be in. You are viewed as disgruntled person or employee, a whistleblower or worst, a snitch of the culture you oppose. Therefore, it carries with it sanctions that are politically and personally severe that includes banishment or expulsion from the group you belong to as well as character assassinations to defame or slander your credibility or reputation you may have worked decades for to establish.

It may mean you have chosen to stop following orders that requires silence on matters that may be criminal or at the very least unethical in nature and allows such misconduct to remain secret and hidden from the truth or the truth seekers. Going rogue poses a threat to some and enhances the opportunities for others. It depends on how the information provided aids or impacts the disposition of the matters discussed or deposed either to the media or inside a courtroom.

Going rogue does not mean you are a bad person or committing an act that is a sin. It does mean you [or a group that has departed together bound by common cause] are going against the politically correct flow and creating ripples in the water that is preferred by many to remain still and calm without someone stirring it up making muddy waters.

So whether you are walking alone or united for a common cause, going rogue means you are in a position that is creating conflict and sometimes, aggression against the very culture you are criticizing or a former member of but drifted from their same principles and ideas going instead the other way based on your own moral compass, ethics or ideas. 

December 26, 2012

The Devil's Pocket

Serving Time in the Devil’s Pocket

The good, the bad, the ugly

By Carl R. ToersBijns

You must be wondering where is this place we call the Devil’s Pocket and where does it stand in the state of Arizona? To even attempt to try to explain this concept in layman terms can best be said that this place can best be described as an evil paranormal and supernatural razor wire concrete steel-filled world where the bold and the bad live in camaraderie with the devil’ ways.

An evil way of life best said to signify tyranny, corruption and the unending and most challenging unnatural partnership between the good, the bad and the ugly.

The Devil’s pocket is what the Arizona prison system is and became since the governor and the majority of legislators began to ignore the civil rights and standards of those imprisoned and under their legal and moral custodial care that is required by the rule of law for incarcerated persons.

It begun with the appointment of a man known to be the Devil’s advocate who spent his time in another devil’s pocket called Abu Ghraib.

This man was hired on by the governor of our state and recommended by many for the purpose of instilling justice in our prison systems and who with a swift stroke of the tainted and malevolent pen, turned justice into vengeance. Nothing irreverent was forced upon him.

He did this all by himself and with a little help of his henchmen and evil minded conspirators that have served him in the past.  He became the center of what was to be a desultory way to run prisons and harm those inside with harsh and toxic methods that destroys even the strongest soul that lives there.

Maintaining tight controls of the helm, he steered this evil vessel into the darkness where no light can reach the truth and no man can live beyond the capabilities of being supernatural in strength and fear.

There is no presence of religious scruples or moral compass guidance tools as the methods directed are deemed to be stupid, cynical and most harmful to the human mind. He has not yet been held culpable or accountable for all the tragedies, atrocities or misfortunes to date and it seems that his absolute power has silenced those voices who fear to speak out against him about the evilness and suffering souls under his thumb of power.

It is here where the good suffer the most. They must live and survive under the wrath of hate and fear imposed by their leader who has a mindset of the devil himself. He has boldly stated that a man is but a man and not one without a heart or mind. He has no face and carries with him no value of concern or worries. 

He reinforces the mindset with his belief that a man without a heart or mind and who carries no face is a dead man thus therefore does not exist. His voice whispers into selected ears and calls out the weak to join him in his venture. He carries with him a sharp sword to divide and conquer those that oppose him and cuts them down like a dagger in the heart. He cares not about age, race or religion. He worries not about the consequences as he destroys the souls of men by treating them with indignity and animal like behaviors.

There are basically two kinds of good people inside the devil’s pocket. Those that are good hearted and faithful to their ethical and moral compass and those that know the morality of life but are too weak to overcome the challenge to join the good-hearted for a triumphant victory over evil.

The good run the risk of losing good relationships with family, friends and team members due to the cutting of this evil man. They are double crossed and left for dead as they work for the devil’s right hand man that understands nothing about humanity and respect.  The good know very well this creature rarely misses his targets and find it hard to understand why he was chosen to be a leader when all that is important to him is power and greed and the glory.

Wretchedly the good also know that inside this Devil’s pocket, God is not on their side as this leader preaches hate and contempt as he finds other men to follow his paths of glory.  The good might as well save their breath until this leader is gone as they cannot manage resistance against his power. He manages it so tightly that if you oppose it, even merely in silent thoughts, he finds you out and after that you may surely die slowly, very slowly.

His wickedness makes you think and wonder if you truly know who you are and what your job is here where reality exists. He wants to confuse you and everybody around you. He is the son of the devil and the score of men that are bastards like him and that follow his every wish and desire unconditionally.

 There are basically two kinds of bad people inside the devil’s pocket; there are those in powerful positions that use their power to punish the good and those in roles empowered by those in power to further inflict deeper wounds into the goodness of people.

The bad are those wicked enough to join him in his capture of souls and the minds of men. They have chosen sides with the son of the devil as they believe that by following him, they too will reap the benefits of evil and power. They are in every sense disciples of doom and darkness carrying out those tasks that bring hate and deception to those they offend and pretend to be friends with as they seek out the good and manipulate a way to slay them.

You see in this devil’s pocket there are three kinds of people in the power structure; those in power [bad] and those that are subordinates [good[ and follow and those that prey on death and destruction [ugly]. In this supernatural place there are many followers that are both good and bad.

There are basically two kinds of bad people that exist inside the devil’s pocket; those that are ill experienced and temperamental and those who blindly mimic evil ways to satisfy their sadistic souls.

Basically, the bad are idiots and often confused themselves as they have not the power to think for themselves and are spoon fed every dose of evil the leader can muster for every task at hand. On must wonder what the leader pays them with and how does he make sure they follow his every whim and desire. He pays them with gold and silver. He pays them with glory and power and leaves them the wealth long after he leaves hoping they will carry on his work and evil. He pays them with positional supremacy over others and gives them the authority to bid his wishes.

The ugly know what time it is inside this devil’s pocket. They know how to live in war-like conditions and understand that conflict is the way of life to survive. They are prey and predators at the same time depending on their role. They are either the tormentor or the tormented decided on their strength and desire to live and let live.  There is no use to try to have the ugly listen to what is to be said inside such a man made hell-hole. They know nothing and think they know everything there is to know.

There are two kinds of ugly people inside prisons; one that open the door and those that close the doors.

These doors are entries into hell and brimstone and are rarely forgotten to exist.   Ugly people are the Judas of the bunch. They hide and steal and take what is not chained down or left behind.  They are the bounty hunters of opportunity doing time and strip away a man’s dignity with the motive to collect the reward for doing so by those that open and close the doors to hell. These people do not shudder at death or misery but rather compliment the gory with the glory of being one of the ugliest ones there. They embrace violence and evil with a kiss of death for those that oppose them that includes even their own.

They believe they will inherit the Earth and feel that by harming those that are good will fulfill their social obligations to spend the rest of their time in the good graces of the Devil himself. The ugly battle the good in bloody battles for control of the environment and of the minds. They act like robots with desire to destroy humanity and annihilation of those that carry the goodness inside. Sometimes they join forces with the bad to achieve higher expectations of power and surpass even the ugliest of their peers.

There is an extreme prejudice against the good one that exceeds the normal limits of evilness as they fear the good will screw with their minds and make them weak at heart and vulnerable to changing their ways of thinking.

 

Strangely enough they worry more about the good people than the bad as they are plagued with the idea of being human again and do the things that are contrary to the Devil’s ways making them vulnerable and at the mercy of those who are bad.

They worry more about the good than the bad because they fear evolutionary thinking more than revolutionary behavior. They fear the “halo effect” and the damage it would do in their reputation and behavior among their ugliest of peers that insist that ugliness takes precedence over either the good or bad that exist there inside the devil’s pocket. 

Therefore they worship the bad for their similar qualities and assume that their common bond is potential for future successes in their way of life inside this man made hell.

December 24, 2012

Arizona Suicide Watches

Gaps in Arizona prison suicide watches

By Carl R. ToersBijns

 

Since prison director Charles L. Ryan took over in February 2009, Arizona inmates have taken their own lives at a record pace with no change in the future horizons. Although it is claimed that the agency is doing a good job in suicide prevention methods, the realistic accounts of those experiencing suicide ideations and attempts have demonstrated just the opposite.

It has become appearant that suicide watches are not as effective as they could be as the agency continues to report suicide deaths with no additional preventive measures in place to reduce such incidents.

If one was to take an account of these suicides and look closer at the systems in place, they would find two common denominators. The first being the lack of mental health attention provided for stabilization and treatment and the second being poorly conducted suicide watches that do little to prevent deaths or self-harm efforts by incarcerated persons.

One solution is the resurrection of attitudes and practices that embrace stabilization and treatment by mental health providers.  It is suspected that more than half of the severely mentally ill persons incarcerated are not getting the proper screening by a registered nurse or mental health professional.

This is most disturbing for the public and families of incarcerated persons and should be addressed immediately as the Arizona Department of Corrections contracts out such critical services with Wexford which is responsible for properly documenting such actions related to potential suicidal inmates.

This often results in a disastrous situation and hopeless situation as the inmates will find a way to kill themselves and place heavy burdens on responding correctional officers to resuscitate or apply first aid to them under very stressful conditions that are rarely successful in preserving life.

This process of properly documenting suicidal inmates is influenced by a “deliberate indifference culture” that tolerates prison related deaths and mentally ill inmates killing themselves creating deliberate and avoidable gaps in their treatment and prevention procedures.

Rather than finding occasional lapses in their service, the cultural tone consistently creates huge gaps that are often filled too late to save a life at the time the inmate is left along long enough to commit suicide. One would think that this high number of suicides would give the administration a “red flag” suggesting they have a “ticking timebomb” on their hands and is in need of dire attention. Instead, it is business as usual and nothing is being done to reduce these mental health problems within our prisons.

The second denominator is the quality of these suicide watches inside our prisons. Placing inmates on a suicide watch is merely a gesture for taking action. The inmate does not receive any treatment while on a watch and is observed and kept in isolation for purposes that resemble and exacerbate their existing conditions by pushing them further beyond the edge of insanity but beyond those already experienced leaving nothing but doom and darkness to cope with during that time.

Back in 2009, Charles L Ryan terminated a suicide awareness aide program that allowed inmates watching other inmates on suicide watches and reports to mental health their observations. It allowed a peer to peer relationship that was better than the inmate to staff relationship. 

 No reason was given for such termination of the program and no mention of reviving this program has been announced.  This concept is evidence based effective and was instrumental in the past for saving lives.

Suicide watches are punitive in nature and treated accordingly. Staffs do not want to sit there and observe an inmate not worthy of staying alive as the culture has marginalized the value of inmates inside Arizona prisons.

This task is most resentful and boring and is often neglected by leaving the area where the inmate is housed and ignoring their duties to check on them every ten minutes, thirty minutes or constantly as the mental health assessment form dictates the watch to be conducted.

The majority of the times, inmates are stripped of their clothing, bedding and other personal items that can be used for self harm or hanging. They are often kept under such duress for more than three days and quite frequently more than ten days depending on their behavior while on the watch.

What is not documented is the constant egging and badgering that staff performs to provoke or create a hostile relationship between inmates and the officer assigned to watch them.

Rather than placing suicidal inmates in a therapeutic environment conducive to treatment and stabilizing them they are placed in areas isolated from general population but shared with other “crazies” around them or worst, behavioral misfits in their proximity that encourage destructive behaviors as they impose peer pressure to go through with the suicide and motivate to do something negatively to themselves.

Under these conditions, a suicide watch is most ineffective and serves no purpose what so ever except to punish the mentally ill person or suicidal inmate for taking their time away from doing another job and restricted to movement and creating attitudes with staff that see no value in such a service.

They watch the inmate for 24 hours or more throughout their entire shifts and instead of making the climate more therapeutic in nature, they are subjecting the inmate to more distress as they know that the officers do not want to be there watching them and taking it out on them.

It is likely Director Ryan will decline to comment or deny these conditions exist within his prisons. In the meantime, he has ordered a re-invented [designed] pseudo suicide prevention training program that has the same content extended for eight hours rather than the formerly three hours it was in the past. This has done more harm than good as staff becomes bored and frustrated with this repetitive and redundant training curriculum that does nothing to change the culture or value of inmate lives inside Arizona prisons.

Perhaps it is time for a legislative oversight committee or a human rights commission to visit this practice and recommend and implement new measures to reduce suicides inside Arizona prison and comply with sound correctional practices that are placed in the written guidelines of relevant policies but are circumvented and ignored in all practical aspects of the suicide watch creating serious gaps in the prevention and preservation of human life.

December 24, 2012

Will Arizona Prisons sustain budget cuts?

Will Arizona Prisons sustain budget cuts?

By Carl R. ToersBijns

The Arizona governor and state legislature will have some tough choices to make this coming session regarding budget cuts and contingency plans for their operating funding costs. It is likely that the big bus of the Corrections Department will have to take some of those cuts and rely on operating their prisons with a reduction in staff and other resources.

Although any closures of prisons is not likely to happen as it is in other states, there will be a big change how they will have to operate them and endure the entire fiscal year on less money than last year or the year before. It will depend on how deep the cuts are and what has to be cut back in order to meet allocations and expectations.

Although it may seem premature, it is likely that at this moment, based on feedback from the governor’s office and key legislators, initial budget scenarios are being developed as well as revised staffing patterns based on prison population projections and other anticipated needs. 

 

The agency will address attrition rates, pending retirements, freeze hiring and maintain a strategy for vacancy savings for the entire fiscal year leaving staff pretty much with what is left over after these employees leave state service. If the past is an indication of the future, disciplinary actions will increase and probation periods will be used to lay off officers before they reach their permanent status and termination will be used as a management tool to reduce staffing patterns and personnel.

The director and his staff will submit various formats of scenarios that will allow the governor’s staff and legislative members a good peek at what the bottom line is and how deep a cut the agency can survive without compromising public safety. The main concerns are three fold; personnel and benefits, medical costs and other fixed expenses related to prison capacity and population needs.

Perhaps there will be a shift in priorities and the director will re-allocate more resources towards new or existing community corrections programming that are less costly and easier to manage.  They will have to focus on reducing their enormous water and electric utility bills and implement other waste reduction methods to acquire a better handle on the costs of food and clothing, cable services, and other costs that may be considered either frivolous or unnecessary for prisons to have.

The director will likely increase the number of low custody level prison work details outside the prisons and into the communities to acquire shared funding for operating such mutual government agreements that include inmate work details for county and municipal government agencies and related public services.  This is a viable avenue for the agency but will require the mutual agencies to provide the supervision and transport costs in order to be eligible for such inmate services within their community and local government public works.

 

Perhaps for once in the last five years, there will be a serious focus on recidivism and manage it more effectively so that the prison population may indeed be reduced and the incident of repeat offenders coming back into prisons be reduced by looking at those technical violators a little closer and continue their parole time in the community corrections programs rather than paying a premium price for a bed inside the prisons.

You more than will likely see a consolidation plan with the private prison contractors for transferring some of the state’s secondary custodial roles to the private prisons to save money and reduce staffing costs. This would also cancel or reduce some of the private vendor contracts the state currently has to keep essential services going but at a cost that can be done cheaper if absorbed in the consolidation plan.

December 23, 2012

Mental Health & Gun Control Background Checks

Mental Health and Gun Background Checks

By Carl R. ToersBijns

 

Many states are researching the need to share mental health records in a better manner than it is being done today. Every time there is a mass shooting, it is revealed the shooter has experienced mental health issues that may have prevented the shooter from buying a firearm if the background check was done in an appropriate manner. This is only one element of problem but it needs to be addressed at the local and federal levels.

According to a news story in the Main newspaper Sun Journal, that state has a horrendous record of maintaining mental health records for such a purpose. It is likely that you will find this symptom occur in many other states as it reveals a serious breakdown or linkage in sharing important information that could prevent some of the tragedies occurring today.

Staff writer Bonnie Washuk writes “When it comes to sharing mental health records with safety officials for gun background checks, Maine is among the worst performing states, according to a national group promoting gun control.” She refers to a report that reveals how the National Instant Criminal Background Check System (NICS) is flawed because of submissions omitted or lacking to make the process work better.

Ms. Washuk adds “Under existing laws, the Maine court system is required to send mental health records to the Maine Department of Public Safety, then to the federal NICS, in three cases: When the court has involuntarily committed a mentally ill person, when a person has committed a crime and been found not responsible because of mental illness, and when the court finds a person not competent to stand trial.”

In their report, the Mayors Against Illegal Guns report “August 16, 2012 - Mayors Against Illegal Guns has launched an interactive map showing how many mental health records each state has submitted to the National Instant Criminal Background Check System (NICS), and comparing this performance with the best-performing states.

Based on new FBI data updating the coalition's November 2011 Fatal Gaps[1] report, the map shows that 21 states have each submitted fewer than 100 records. The report writes “Since its creation in 1999, the National Instant Criminal Background Check System (NICS) has blocked more than 1.6 million permit applications and gun sales to felons, the seriously mentally ill, drug abusers and other dangerous people who are prohibited by federal law from possessing firearms.”

“Completing the necessary paperwork for a background check takes a gun buyer mere minutes, and more than 91 percent of these electronic screens are completed instantaneously. And, amidst a polarized national debate about gun control, the background check system enjoys nearly universal public support. Despite its relative success, NICS has serious gaps and limitations that still allow firearms to be sold to dangerous people, including some of the nation’s worst mass murderers.”

But, for complex legal and logistical reasons discussed in this report, records about the kinds of serious mental health and drug abuse problems that disqualify people from gun ownership have proven more difficult to capture.

Arizona legislators need to assure that there are no barriers within existing laws that prevent the transfer of such information. Arizona legislators must ensure funding for establishing a sound and efficient electronic infrastructure is created for civil and criminal records to improve background checks specifically for those who have a mental illness or disability as well as those convicted of felonious crimes and have established criminal histories.

This is not to imply that all mental health persons are a threat to society or posses a propensity to be violent. It is likely that only a small percentage actually fall into this risk category but since this is about preventive measures and identifying those ineligible for such firearms purchases, it must be included in the criminal information system to disqualify them from purchasing a firearm. 

Legislators could amend the laws to include mandatory reporting by the Corrections Department to forward all names of those felons incarcerated and having a mental illness on file. 

This database could be incorporated with the Department of Public Safety and strengthen the NICS report status giving them more access to two additional sources for the database.  The first being an ex-felon convicted and the second being an ex-felon with mental health illness on file.

The fact is we are already doing such reporting under the law called Megan’s Law for sex offenders throughout the state. It would take another stroke of the keyboards to add this data to the system and make our communities safer.

In addition, closing loopholes in the background checks for every state is essential to maintain adequate control over information sharing and validating the criminal justice information process to be effective and instrumental in the prevention of having guns fall into the wrong hands in our communities.

There are currently federal grants available to make such changes if the state wants to apply for such additional funding resources.

Sources:

www.mayorsagainstillegalguns.org/.../maig_mimeo

http://www.sunjournal.com/news/lewiston-auburn/2012/12/19/report-maine-shares-few-mental-health-records-back/1296712

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[1] www.mayorsagainstillegalguns.org/.../maig_mimeo_revb.pdf