Brutal murder prompts changes to mental health laws
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OLYMPIA, Wash. -- The gruesome murder of a Tacoma man, allegedly committed by his own mentally-ill son, has brought a call for changes in the law.
Prosecutors believe there's a loophole in the law that allows violent criminals to walk free, but a new bill in the state legislature could soon close it.
The case of Jonathan Meline has revealed what prosecutors call a dangerous gap in the law. Meline is accused of murdering his father, Rob, with a hatchet at their Tacoma home last October.
"It's highly disturbing," said Pierce County Prosecutor Mark Lindquist.
Lindquist said it's also disturbing that Meline had recently been released from Western State Hospital, where he was sent for a mental evaluation following an alleged violent car theft. Prosecutors were never told of the release, because state law doesn't require it.
The law also doesn't require the hospital to hold onto those accused of violent crimes if they're deemed incompetent to stand trial, even if it's believed they may offend again.
A psychologist said that was the case with Meline because of his schizophrenia. His own family believed he was too dangerous to be around.
"I think we all should be able to expect that he would stay civilly committed and he would stay in treatment and will stay off our streets until he's safe to be released back into our community," Lindquist said.
After the Meline murder, Lindquist put out a call to change the law. State lawmakers heard that call, and a bill has been drafted. It will get its first hearing next week.
"There is this gap through which violent offenders fit and this would change the standards," said Rep. Jamie Pedersen, the bill's sponsor.
Pedersen said his bill would allow suspected violent offenders to be locked up longer at mental hospitals. And when they eventually are released, prosecutors would be alerted so charges could be re-filed before the suspect walks free.
The public hearing on HB 1114 is set for next Thursday at 1:30 p.m. In the House Judiciary Committee in Olympia.
Prosecutors believe there's a loophole in the law that allows violent criminals to walk free, but a new bill in the state legislature could soon close it.
The case of Jonathan Meline has revealed what prosecutors call a dangerous gap in the law. Meline is accused of murdering his father, Rob, with a hatchet at their Tacoma home last October.
"It's highly disturbing," said Pierce County Prosecutor Mark Lindquist.
Lindquist said it's also disturbing that Meline had recently been released from Western State Hospital, where he was sent for a mental evaluation following an alleged violent car theft. Prosecutors were never told of the release, because state law doesn't require it.
The law also doesn't require the hospital to hold onto those accused of violent crimes if they're deemed incompetent to stand trial, even if it's believed they may offend again.
A psychologist said that was the case with Meline because of his schizophrenia. His own family believed he was too dangerous to be around.
"I think we all should be able to expect that he would stay civilly committed and he would stay in treatment and will stay off our streets until he's safe to be released back into our community," Lindquist said.
After the Meline murder, Lindquist put out a call to change the law. State lawmakers heard that call, and a bill has been drafted. It will get its first hearing next week.
"There is this gap through which violent offenders fit and this would change the standards," said Rep. Jamie Pedersen, the bill's sponsor.
Pedersen said his bill would allow suspected violent offenders to be locked up longer at mental hospitals. And when they eventually are released, prosecutors would be alerted so charges could be re-filed before the suspect walks free.
The public hearing on HB 1114 is set for next Thursday at 1:30 p.m. In the House Judiciary Committee in Olympia.
Ethical and Legal Implications of Managed Care
Richard C. W. Hall, M.D. CourtesyClinical Professor of Psychiatry University of Florida, Gainesville
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Abstract
     This article addresses several ethical, regulatory and legal issues in managed care with attention to recent court cases that focus on physicians' responsibility, fiduciary duty and the impact that these legal decisions have on physicians practicing in a managed care environment. Discussion of the impact of changes in the control of decision making processes for physicians, the use of managed care protocols, restriction of resources and gatekeeping systems are addressed as are the specific duties and obligations of physicians to their patients.Â
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Is mental health as big of an issue around the rest of the world as it is in the US? Just curious. It seems like US mental institutions don't seem to care about the whole mental issue. Why is this legislation bill finally being brought up? Why not have it brought up many, many years ago? When you look at a bunch of these killings, you find that mental health was a big part of the incident. It's not just the weapon but the person using the weapon.
Also, I'm not sure why mental health institutions would free a patient knowing that they are a threat to society. Is it because they have no funds and 'have to' release them?
 @Koreanman012 They send people home from ANY hospital because their insurance runs out NOT because they're ready. In the hospitals if you're admitted as "observation" status, make sure the door doesn't hit you in the cast/walker/gurney/wheelchair on the way out.
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If insurance says that per your diagnosis, you should be well in X days, then you better be.
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All too often people are not released from hospitals because they become well.
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And most people in psychiatric hospitals only have a certain amount of days (less than 2 weeks) and then their insurance no longer pays unless they meet nearly impossible criteria. If they are "stable" on the new cocktail of Seroquel, Celexa and some 'off label' seizure medication for 2-3 days, they're "ready" despite having lost the ability to walk, eat and talk.
 @Koreanman012 And don't get me wrong - there are definitely people who should not be allowed in society. They are just to dangerously mentally ill. I've seen it a multitude of times. I'm just saying that mental hospitals are not "fixing" them. They are detaining them. And often that's as it should be. People in jail are treated better most of the time.
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I can't comment briefly on the problems with our mental health system, so I am going to stop. I could write a book.
 @Koreanman012  @ThunderI think my comments were misleading in answering your question. In my comments I address a similar problem - insurance. But, in the above article, it has to do with a legal loophole, not insurance.
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The article appears to be saying that if someone is found "insane" and unable to stand trial, they are committed to the hospital, not sent to jail. BUT once the hospital says they are "ready to return to society", they can. This happens without the person having to face the charges for their crime. It also happens, apparently, without the hospital letting the prosecutors/courts know.
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So, he violently kills his dad, is charge with a crime, then is found "insane" instead of guilty. Is sent to a mental hospital, they drug him up and set him free without anyone knowing. All so he can stop taking his meds and harm someone else.
 @Thunder  @Koreanman012 Thanks for the commenting and education on the mental health industry. I will admit I'm not well-educated when it comes to mental health so I don't know what really goes on in the institutions and do not know how the doctors treat their patients.
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I do read a lot about how the US is lacking in mental health care and patients are released way too sooner than they should be. I did not know it was due to their insurance no longer paying. That's quite the sad situation because ultimately these individuals need to be treated until they can properly adjust and act accordingly in a society.
We can't even fix a pothole or repair a falling down bridge let alone fix mental health, crazy talk....
Western State Hospital should be closed down. Had an uncle that spent the last year of his life their. The staff was absolutely horrible. Watched 2 orderlies hold a man down on the floor in the waiting room just to give the guy a shave he didn't want. Saw another female orderly slap a patient for spitting his food back out because it tasted terrible. Its not the laws that need changing. Its that mental health needs to be funded so that these people could actually receive professional help versus giving them a psychoactive drug and then sent home.
When my wife worked at Western State as a RN she complained that sex offenders were cleaning the women's bathrooms. The answer to her was it gives the patient more self esteem. She quit that day.
 @Telman@ I had heard that some of the psychiatrists there were crazier than the patients. Case in point.
Good!! This is where we need to be at right now. Someone who broke into our home 2 years ago and tried to murder my husband and I is still committed to Western (as far as we know), but we are always fearful when we see someone that looks like him, because we don't know when or if he'll be released. I'm tired of living in fear because a violent and unstable person could be released without anyone being notified. He told the police and the courts that he would be back for us to finish the job if he got released, and they just didn't seem to care.
 @Ariel Layes Wow!!!!! I'm so sorry, Ariel.
 @Ariel Layes Not much the police can do. Society will never have enough police to provide 24/7 protection to those that are threatened by crazies, criminals, mobs, and others. Most of the time the police show up in time to collect the bodies and capture the assailant.
Where are the calls to ban hatchets?
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When will the ACLU and the Democratic Party stop protecting Deranged People at the expense of Children and Parents?
 @Attila Uh, funding for mental institutions went out the window in the '80s under a president named Reagan even after he'd been shot by a whack named Hinckley.
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Sorry, the right wing gets to claim that and the fact that their hero Reagan was also president of a union. You must be all twisted up now huh?
Hmmmm, hachet, gun, hachet, gun, hachet, gun. Seems to me you can commit a violent murder (that gets no uproar) with something other than a gun. But wait let's see if we can find a common link...oh yes, Mental Health!
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When will lawmakers, and gun banning idiots get on the right path to a Real Solution?
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Mental Health is the problem, not guns...or hachets.
Paranoid Schizophrenia: "My father is trying to kill me", therefore I must kill him first. That would be my guess. Those with fixed, paranoid delusions are one of the hardest to maintain in "normal" (and of course I use "normal" loosely) society. On medication is unfortunately rarely an ongoing theme for these people because psychotropic meds make people feel awful. And these people BELIEVE their reality, therefore they do not see anything wrong with what they do.
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I must qualify by saying that paranoia comes in all forms, and sometimes it's just: "I have an electrode in my stomach & 'they' listen to my thoughts through the TV". There are many who are non-violent and still paranoid.
this is just like the 4 time rapist who got let out of the mental hospital and went to portland to live homeless and K2tv keep the heat on him and now he is moving to seattle. He is not under supervision as he has been released with no conditions form the mental hospital. He is a danger to any females under the age of 50.
Do we have hatchet regulation coming our way? Registration, licensing, insurance required on all hatchets under 3 inches....anything bigger is banned.
Well if the assault weapons can't bring us change, I guess an axe can. Whatever it takes. At least Washington is looking into something that can be dealt with now (hopefully). Lord knows anything D.C. comes up with will be too-little too-late and pointless. Maybe if we can set the bar, the rest of the country will follow suit.
Yes, please close the loopholes!
I hope this discussion is moved to the national stage, so it can be discussed alongside gun laws. You can't ignore that mental issues are at the heart most of the mass shootings in the last seven years. There might not be story today if the Aurora gun shooter was held for 72 hours when his psychiatrist sought help by campus individual but declined police intervention.Â
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 @quinoline2 Shall we start with you? Because your statement is insane.
The crazy and the criminal have more rights than the sane and the good.
The US have reached a tipping point. Which way we gonna go ?
The current law is a revolving door for those charged with crimes. Weather they are a few bricks short of a load or not if you are charged with a crime you need to do the time. Those whose cheese has slide a little off the cracker should go to the hospital and have the help needed to get the cheese back on the cracker then go off to the big bed and breakfast for a little time out..... Well maybe a long time out......
Be wary of these kinds of laws. What is basically happening is that the essentially oppressive and corrupt US psychiatric/psychological institution is gaining the power to lock people up in mental institutions for virtually unlimited periods of time, EVEN IF THE OFFENDER HAS NOT BEEN FOUND GUILTY OF A CRIME. While in the context of this news story, the changes sound like a good idea, I guarantee you that it's a really bad idea to give more power to the only institution in the United States that has the power to hold people against their will EVEN IF THEY HAVE NO BEEN FOUND GUILTY OF ANY CRIME.
@ILikeTaEatTakos Ya got to keep the nutjobs at bay - regardless of any proof of guilt or innocence in a crime -Â a nutjob is a nutjob either way you slice it, and we should do whatever the hell we need to to ensure they don't interfere with normal people trying to live their lives in peace without having to worry about having a hatchet driven into our heads.
@Throbbinhood but was his family afraid of him?
 @Throbbinhood  @ILikeTaEatTakos Show me where in the DSM "nutjob" is shown. There are 57 MILLION people with a diagnosed mental illness. Almost all of them are not violent. Are not criminals. Are not predators. I am glad you are not the one deciding whose freedom to take away based on stigma.
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Yes this is a case that fell through the cracks and yes there need to be changes -- a lot of changes. Locking everyone up with diagnosable mental illness would be challenging, expensive, and wrought with trouble.
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Are you going to indefinitely lock up the 14 year old emo kid down the street because she shoplifted a pack of smokes and cuts herself?
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Of course the right-wing wingnuts will also complain about the > $40tn pricetag to lock up all those 57 million people.
 @Willow  @Nic Stevens Yes. There is a huge problem of violently ill people being put back on the street. We need changes in both scope and quality of mental health care. If a person is deemed unfit to stand trial that should not mean they should be put on the street again.
 @Nic Stevens   "Lindquist said it's also disturbing that Meline had recently been released from Western State Hospital, where he was sent for a mental evaluation following an alleged violent car theft. Prosecutors were never told of the release, because state law doesn't require it. The law also doesn't require the hospital to hold onto those accused of violent crimes if they're deemed incompetent to stand trial, even if it's believed they may offend again."
Galileo was considered a nut job, and locked up for it. Who makes the determination of what constitutes a threat to society? Who has the ultimate authority to say that someone 'must' be locked away from society? And how do you keep the corruption of this power from eliminating opposing forces? This is a very dangerous road to tread.
 @SargeMcC What makes the determination? Engaging in violent crime.
@SargeMcC  It is  very dangerous road yes, but it is one we need to get on an explore. Past behavior is the best predictor with the chronically mentally ill.
Off meds for some just means increased depression/eccentricity/odd behavior.
Others get violent. How many chances do we give the violent ones ?
The system is broken, how many more hatchet deaths are we gonna put up with ?
The old saying from a parent "I brought you into this world, and I can take you out" is starting to make sense in cases like this.  Too bad this guy is getting away with murder because of his mental state. I have a mentally challenged brother and he can barely add one plus one, but he does know right from wrong.
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@deadcandance it sounds unthinkable. but i suspect this happens more than we realize - family members wanting to protect society from their violent loved one.