prisons & crime

Remembering John Brodie, 1970-2006

admin — Mon, 26 Jan 2009 11:01:35 -0500

John Brodie was a Vermont man who died in an encounter with Brattleboro police in 2006 after neighbors called 9-11. At 36, John was a Princeton PhD and already a world-reknowned physicist widely published in scientific journals. He was also a psychiatric abuse survivor, whose non-ordinary mental states were repeatedly met with force in hospitals. On the night of his death, he was not violent or suicidal, but was behaving in a strange way -- knocking on doors at 11pm. Confused neighbors called the police, which escalated a harmless situation into a tragedy. John ran away, terrified of the police, and went into the freezing river.

Gazette Covers Panhandling Campaign

admin — Fri, 17 Oct 2008 13:30:36 -0400

The Hampshire Daily Gazette just did a 10-17-08 story on the proposed panhandling law in Northampton that Freedom Center opposes, and quotes Caty Simon from Freedom Center speaking at a recent protest and City Council meeting:

"It's clear that this legislation does, de facto, criminalize panhandling, if not in the letter of the law, then in the spirit," said Catherine Simon, reading from a prepared statement at a recent council meeting....

Simon, meanwhile, said the homeless and the poor are already the victims of economic violence.

Poverty Is Not A Crime - Local Campaign

admin — Fri, 03 Oct 2008 16:15:42 -0400

Caty Simon of Freedom Center is coordinating Freedom Center's involvement with the Poverty Is Not A Crime campaign, to stop the city from adopting anti-panhandling laws.

Get latest info at the Povery Is Not A Crime Blog here.

Listen to the recent WXOJ Madness Radio show on the campaign.

SHARC Position Paper on Mandated Treatment and Harm Reduction

admin — Wed, 29 Oct 2008 21:27:09 -0400

A statement written for the Statwide Harm Reduction Coalition on why mandated treatment is not consistent with Harm Reduction philosophy, developed by Caty Simon and Will Hall.

FC Joins SHaRC to Oppose Prison Mental Health Units

admin — Thu, 10 May 2007 17:35:53 -0400

Freedom Center is a member of SHaRC, the Statewide Harm Reduction
Coalition, and we join in opposing the proposed creation of new mental
health treatment units in MA prisons. Read the testimony before the legislature that SHaRC recently presented.

Virgina Tech Tragedy Info + Resources

admin — Wed, 02 May 2007 06:51:04 -0400

Info on the Virgina Tech mass killing and implications for mental health policy can be found on the Mindfreedom website Info Center page.

NY Times Quotes Will in Story; Whitaker Replies

admin — Mon, 18 Sep 2006 23:34:04 -0400

Posted on Sep 19, 06

www.freedom-center.org/pdf/9-19-06NYTSlaying_Deepens_Debate.pdf

Essay
A Psychiatrist Is Slain, and a Sad Debate Deepens
By BENEDICT CAREY
Published: September 19, 2006
New York Times