Allen Ginsberg at Rockland State Hospital

by Ted Chabasinski on Thursday, December 30, 2010

I have always been aware that Allen Ginsberg had been an inmate at Rockland State Hospital.  Recently, after reading “Howl,” I realized that he and I had been at Rockland at the same time, he as a young man, myself as a child.  So I thought I would Google him, and find out more details about his stint at Rockland.  First I went to the Wikipedia article, and was shocked to find out they didn’t talk about it at all.  They talked about his mother, who, like my mother, was diagnosed as a paranoid schizophrenic, and locked up multiple times, including Rockland and Pilgrim State Hospital, where she and my mother both died.

They talked about his friend Carl Solomon, who was also incarcerated at Rockland.  They talked about a lot of things, but they would not say, basically, that this great poet was once an inmate at a state mental institution.  Ginsberg himself made no secret of it, and certainly the imagery throughout his great poem makes it clear how much he was influenced by his connection with the mental illness system.

I went through a whole bunch of other articles about Ginsberg, and found this same blackout about the fact that he was a psych survivor.

Why is this?  It is because, I think, that the writers of these articles think it would demean Ginsberg’s memory for the world to know that he was a psych survivor, just like me and many of the people reading this.

Usually, what is much more common is for us to be treated as non-persons unable to speak for ourselves and left out of the ongoing discussion of social issues, especially about “mental health.”  That could certainly not be said of Ginsberg, so instead an important part of his identity is almost erased from history, by well-meaning (perhaps) liberals who don’t want to deal with the reality of so many gifted and talented and famous and unknown people who have been put through the meat grinder of institutional psychiatry.

And what does this mean to us, the victims of this evil system?  It means that the stereotypes about us are perpetuated, that we are robbed of the heroes we could be proud of, that the public continues to think of us as weird creatures who wander the streets talking to themselves, who should be rounded up and drugged and stripped of our human rights.

I am writing an article,”Are Mental Patients Really Human?” that will deal with the attitudes I have just described.  It is subtitled “The Genteel Bigotry of the Liberal Establishment.”  No, hardly anyone would dare to call us “mental cases” or “nut jobs” in the polite company of those who like to think of themselves as enlightened.  Instead, we are portrayed as somehow non-persons.  And if, as in the case of Allen Ginsberg, we cannot be portrayed as non-persons, then it is denied that we are psych survivors.

I want to urge all of you reading this, whether psych survivors or sincere allies, to think about this.  Whether it is overt and crude, or subtle and somewhat hidden, bigotry is bigotry.  We need to recognize this and speak out against it, everywhere and in every way we can.  Else people with psychiatric histories will continue to be, either forced to be silent about their experience, or treated as subhumans.

–

Carl Solomon!  I’m with you in Rockland

where you’re madder than I am…

where fifty more shocks will never return your

soul to its body again from its pilgrimage to a

cross in the void…

I’m with you in Rockland

in my dreams you walk dripping from a sea-

journey on the highway across America in tears

to the door of my cottage in the Western night

–Allen Ginsberg, “Howl”  (1956)

Dear Members of Oregon’s Mental Health Recovery and Addictions Recovery Communities:

The Consumer/Survivor & Addictions Advisory Council is seeking applications for appointment to the Council from individuals representing all sectors of the Oregon mental health and addictions recovery community. The Consumer/Survivor & Addictions Advisory Council is a formal advisory body to the State Addictions and Mental Health Division (AMH) of the Oregon Health Authority (OHA). Oregon residents of all ages who are receiving, or have received, mental health or addiction services are eligible and encouraged to apply. Family members of qualifying youth who are under 16 years of age are also eligible and encouraged to apply. Up to 25 individuals will be appointed to Council seats through this application effort.

The Council has operated with an informal organizational structure since its inception in 2003. The Council is transitioning to a formal body in response to requirements specified in Oregon statute. The name of the Council in Oregon Revised Statute 430.073 is Consumer Advisory Council. Members will be appointed to the Council by Richard Harris, the OHA Assistant Director who oversees AMH.

It is crucial that the Consumer/Survivor & Addictions Advisory Council have a diverse membership. Efforts are being made in the membership recruitment process to ensure that the appointed members of the Council are representative of the diverse communities and groups of Oregon . This will provide AMH greater access to the full array of perspectives that exist within Oregon ‘s mental health and addictions recovery community. Toward this end, question number 11 of application provides the applicant an opportunity to share optional information about him or herself that may help the committee select nominees who collectively represent this array of perspectives.

Anyone who is receiving, or has received, either mental health or addiction services is encouraged to apply for membership of the Council, as are family members of qualifying youth under 16 years of age. It is highly important that the Council operate as a truly representative forum so that a voice is given to the whole spectrum of issues and concerns that are central to Oregon’s mental health and addictions peer communities.

The application is available on the AMH website. You may download an application using the following link:

http://egov.oregon.gov/DHS/mentalhealth/docs/csaac-app.doc

Please e-mail Michael Hlebechuk at Michael.Hlebechuk@state.or.us if you need assistance.

Instructions regarding the submission of your application are provided at the end of the application. We must have completed applications from individuals seeking consideration for appointment by 5:00 PM on January 14, 2010. We hope to be able to inform all applicants of their appointment status by January 28, 2010.

Thank you for your interest in shaping public mental health policy and working toward system change in Oregon . We look forward to receiving an application from you!

Yours sincerely,

Nominations Committee of the Oregon Consumer/Survivor Council

From the Salem Statesman Journal, December 29, 2010

An Oregon State Hospital patient apparently committed suicide Monday night in a single-person bedroom in the hospital’s forensic psychiatric program, officials said Tuesday.

The female patient died on Ward 50I, a medium-security forensic unit that houses more than two-dozen men and women.

A staffer reportedly found the patient near death in her room at 9:28 p.m. Monday.

Oregon State Hospital Replacement Project (OSHRP) is expected to cost approximately $458 million.

“It appears the patient committed suicide. As is standard procedure in these situations, we notified state police, and they are conducting an investigation. The family has been notified, and our thoughts and prayers are with them in their time of loss. We will make sure they, as well as patients and staff, have the support they need.”

Roberts said the hospital will conduct “a full review” of the death “to ensure all hospital policies and procedures were followed surrounding the incident.”

Oregon State Police identified the deceased patient as Anne Elizabeth Sellers, 32.

An autopsy was performed Tuesday by the state medical examiner, but the results “are not going to be released at this time pending the ongoing investigation,” said state police Lt. Gregg Hastings.

Other patients on Ward 50I told the Statesman Journal that Sellers hanged herself.

Sellers had a history of suicide attempts and often received around-the-clock staff supervision, patients said.

Several months ago, she was placed on intensive supervision — known as a constant watch in hospital parlance — after she tried to cut her throat with a kitchen knife while attending a cooking class, they said.

Sellers recently was taken off tight supervision and assigned to a private room after going for an extended period of time without any behavioral problems, patients said.

Her death shocked patients and staffers at the troubled mental institution.

“Some patients are really upset. Others are really sad,” said Renee Putnam, a patient on Ward 50I.

Putnam and other patients described Sellers as quiet, shy and a bookworm. They said she worked as the librarian at a centralized treatment mall and was well-known and well-liked by fellow patients and staffers.

“They’re upset, of course,” hospital spokeswoman Rebeka Gipson-King said. “We’re going to be making sure that all the patients’ needs are met so far as support. Some patients are going to need more help than others — those who were closer to that patient.”

Hospital officials said confidentiality laws prevented them from disclosing the patient’s name or specifics about the apparent suicide. Officials also declined to say when or how many times staff checked on the patient Monday, saying that the information also was covered by confidentiality laws.

Sellers was admitted to the state hospital in early 2007 after being found guilty but insane for Lane County charges of assault on a public safety officer, unlawful use of a firearm and resisting arrest, records show. She was to remain under the jurisdiction of the state Psychiatric Security Review Board for 10 years.

The last suicide at OSH occurred about two years ago. On Oct. 29, 2008, patient David Morse hanged himself on Ward 50F by tying a cloth around his neck and attaching it to a metal bed frame tilted up. Morse was still alive when staff cut the cloth from around his neck. Transported to Salem Hospital, he died of medical complications caused by the hanging.

Last year, a patient death prompted inquiries that pointed to lapses in patient care, leading to a shake up in hospital leadership and new bed-check procedures.

Moises Perez, 42, was found dead in his hospital bed on Oct. 17, 2009. Witnesses said his death was not noticed by anyone for several hours. An autopsy showed that Perez died of heart disease.

A state investigation concluded that the hospital neglected Perez by failing to provide him with adequate medical care. Investigators reported that Perez’s caregivers on hospital Ward 50F failed to properly treat his chronic medical conditions.

Former hospital superintendent Roy Orr was forced to resign April 2 — the same day the state released the critical report examining lapses in Perez’s care.

Five hospital employees subsequently received letters of reprimand for their shortcomings involving Perez and the doctor in charge of his care resigned.

In the wake of Perez’s death, the hospital instituted new bed-check policies, requiring expanded checks on patients.

Putnam praised staff members on Ward 50I for responding quickly to Monday night’s incident.

“They were just doing their rounds and found her and they immediately went into action,” she said. “They’re pretty good with their rounds up here. I mean, they’re pretty right on with the times.”

But another resident of Ward 50I, who asked to remain anonymous citing concerns about possible retaliation or other repercussions, said many patients have a hard time dealing with boredom, stress and friction caused, in part, by idle time.

“Right now, we’re on Christmas break, so there’s absolutely nothing to do,” she said. “We sit around in different rooms or our bedrooms and that’s when people can cycle, then the whole ward is basically involved in trauma or drama or violence.”

Below is a roughly chronological account through the media of what happened to Marcus Lagozzino, a SW Portland man with mental health issues who was shot by a Portland police officer on December 27, 2010.

From KOIN.com, December 27, 2010

From KGW.com. December 27, 2010

From KATU.com, December 27, 2010

Police identify man shot Monday night in SW Portland, report he is in critical condition
From the Oregonian, December 28, 2010

Portland police have identified the 34-year-old man shot Monday night by an officer as Marcus Lagozzino. Lagozzino is in critical condition at OHSU Hospital.

The police released this account:

Detectives are continuing to investigate the circumstances of the shooting. Investigators have learned that prior to the shooting, Lagozzino had an argument with his parents and assaulted his 61-year-old mother and his 60-year-old father then went outside the house and began breaking windows and armed himself with a machete with a 22 inch blade. At 5:15 p.m., Lagozzino’s mother called 9-1-1.

At 5:21 p.m., the first officers arrived in the area and as additional officers arrived, they began to formulate a plan to safely approach the residence and make contact with Lagozzino. As the call taker stayed on the line with Lagozzino’s mother, officers began their approach to the residence.

As officers neared the house, Lagozzino saw the police and while still armed with the machete, began rapidly advancing towards the officers in a threatening manner. Officers gave Lagozzino multiple verbal commands and deployed less lethal bean bags and a Taser. At 5:38 p.m., officers broadcast that shots had been fired. The time from the first contact with Lagozzino to the time shots were fired was less than one minute.

Medical personnel arrived approximately five minutes later and transported Lagozzino to an area hospital with a gunshot wound. Lagozzino remains in the hospital in critical condition.

At this point in the investigation, detectives have interviewed seven police officers and a number of civilian witnesses to the shooting but consider this an ongoing investigation as additional interviews need to be conducted.

The involved officers names will not be released until Thursday afternoon.

READ – Police shoot man in SW Portland who was pacing with a machete, December 27, 2010

UPDATE #3: Officer-Involved Shooting Investigation in SW Portland December 28, 2010 10:55

The subject involved in last night’s officer-involved shooting has been identified as 34-year-old Marcus Lagozzino. Lagozzino is in critical condition at an area hospital.

Detectives are continuing to investigate the circumstances of the shooting. Investigators have learned that prior to the shooting, Lagozzino had an argument with his parents and assaulted his 61-year-old mother and his 60-year-old father then went outside the residence and began breaking windows and armed himself with a machete with a 22″ blade. At 5:15 p.m., Lagozzino’s mother called 9-1-1.

At 5:21 p.m., the first officers arrived in the area and as additional officers arrived onscene, they began to formulate a plan to safely approach the residence and make contact with Lagozzino. As the call taker stayed on the line with Lagozzino’s mother, officers began their approach to the residence.

As officers neared the residence, Lagozzino saw the police and while still armed with the machete, began rapidly advancing towards the officers in a threatening manner. Officers gave Lagozzino multiple verbal commands and deployed less lethal bean bags and a Taser. At 5:38 p.m., officers broadcast that shots had been fired. The time from the first contact with Lagozzino to the time shots were fired was less than one minute.

Medical personnel arrived approximately five minutes later and transported Lagozzino to an area hospital with a gunshot wound. Lagozzino remains in the hospital in critical condition.

At this point in the investigation, detectives have interviewed seven police officers and a number of civilian witnesses to the shooting but consider this an ongoing investigation as additional interviews need to be conducted.

The involved officers names will not be released until Thursday afternoon.

###PPB###

###ORIGINAL MESSAGE BELOW###

This evening, Monday December 27, 2010, at approximately 5:15 p.m., Portland Police officers were dispatched to a residence in the 3500 block of Southwest Dakota Street on the report of a disturbance. The caller to 9-1-1 stated that her 34-year-old son was outside the house breaking windows, throwing things at the house and that he was armed with a machete and pacing in front of the residence. The caller also reported that her son has been suicidal in the past and that he might be trying to commit suicide-by-cop and that she believed he would be confrontational with police. The caller reported that she and her husband were hiding inside the house.

Several officers and sergeants arrived and worked to develop a plan to approach the subject safely, who was still outside the residence armed with a machete. As the officers approached the residence, the subject confronted the officers, while still armed with the machete.

Officers gave verbal commands to the subject and deployed less lethal munitions, including bean bag shotgun rounds and a tazer. The armed subject continued to present a threat to the officers and was shot by one officer as a result. The subject was transported to an area hospital and is expected to survive. No officers were injured.

At this point, detectives are in the initial stages of their investigation into the shooting and are working closely with the Multnomah County District Attorney’s Office and the East County Major Crimes Team. Traffic is blocked from Southwest 35th Avenue to 37th Avenue along Dakota Street as detectives work to process the scene.

No additional information will be released until at least Tuesday December 28, 2010, in the late morning.

###PPB###

###ORIGINAL MESSAGE BELOW###

For Media on scene at Southwest 35th Avenue and Southwest Vermont Street: Sgt. Simpson will meet media at that location for an update on this officer involved shooting at 9:00 p.m. this evening.

***Original Message Below***

Portland Police are investigating an officer-involved shooting in the 3500 Block of Southwest Dakota Street.

PIO is onscene and media staging is at Southwest 35th and Vermont.

No additional details at this point.

*************

Shots fired seconds after Portland police contacted machete-wielding man, from The Oregonian, December 29, 2010

Fifty-six seconds after Portland officers radioed to dispatchers they were “moving up” to a Southwest Portland house where Marcus Lagozzino was reported to be pacing outside with a machete, police shot the 34-year-old man with a Taser, beanbag rounds and bullets, leaving him critically wounded.

Now, Portland detectives are investigating the officer-involved shooting to bring the case before a grand jury, and relatives are struggling to make sense of what occurred.

“This is a family tragedy,” said Marcus Lagozzino’s mother, Marlynn Lagozzino, on Tuesday.

Marlynn Lagozzino had called 9-1-1 at 5:15 p.m. to report a disturbance at her home, on Dakota Street near Southwest 35th Avenue. According to police, she and her husband had an argument with their son Marcus. He had assaulted them and then went outside where he began throwing things and breaking windows. He also was armed with a machete.

By 5:21 p.m., the first Portland officers had arrived and met at Southwest 32nd Avenue and Vermont Street, out of sight of the home, to come up with a plan. The officers were getting updates from a dispatcher who remained on the phone with Marcus’ mother. Marlynn Lagozzino was hiding with her husband, Christopher, inside the home. She told the dispatcher that her son had been suicidal in the past and had talked about “suicide by cop.”

At 5:37:34 p.m., the officers reported they were moving in. They walked up from different directions in an effort to contain the man with the machete, police said. Ten seconds later, officers radioed they were “moving up” closer to the house. Less than a minute from their first contact with Marcus Lagozzino outside the house, gunshots were fired.

Police said that when officers neared the residence on foot, Lagozzino saw them and “began rapidly advancing toward the officers in a threatening manner.” They yelled commands to put down the knife, fired less lethal beanbags and a Taser, and by 5:38:40 p.m., gunshots.

“It’s just incredibly fast,” said Sgt. Pete Simpson, police spokesman. “As soon as he saw the police, he began rapidly advancing on them.”

Police on Tuesday said Marcus Lagozzino is in critical condition. They would not identify the officers who fired the shots, describe the sequence of shots taken, say how many shots were fired, or where Lagozzino was hit.

“You got a situation where all the training is being followed,” Simpson said. “You arrive on scene, develop a plan, dial in all less-lethal resources and decide who’s going to do what. Figure out a safe approach, keep communication open from the house, but ultimately you can’t walk away.”

“You have a family scared to death and a man out front wielding a machete,” Simpson added. “Ultimately, officers have to engage this person. Even in the best scenarios and best intentions, ultimately the suspect can dictate the outcome by their own actions.”

“Suicide by cop”

Criminal justice experts say that when police hear “suicide by cop,” they think of someone intent on provoking an officer into shooting them.

James Drylie, a retired police captain who now serves as executive director of the School of Criminal Justice and Public Administration at Kean University in New Jersey, cited a study that estimates one-third of the roughly 300 justifiable police shootings that occur annually around the nation could be characterized as “suicide by cop.” The study was published in the Journal of Forensic Sciences.

Clint Van Zandt, a former FBI hostage negotiator who wrote a paper on suicide by cop, said the most effective response is to bring in a police hostage negotiator and trained mental health professionals. But as emergency calls unfold, these specialists may not be available right away. He said that police in this case were probably thinking they had a man who was a danger to himself and who could go back into his house and hurt his parents or break into a neighbor’s house to take a hostage.

“The police are thinking, ‘I’ve got to contain this guy. He’s either going to jail or for a mental evaluation. We’re not leaving him in the neighborhood,’” Van Zandt said. “The impetus is on the police to resolve it as safely as possible and as quickly as possible and not give him a chance to escalate the situation.”

Drylie said any good police strategy aims at keeping “time and distance between the officer and the potential threat.”

In the Lagozzino case, no hostage negotiator was called. Simpson said all officers have undergone crisis intervention training and are capable of verbal communication. The bureau has a mobile crisis unit, pairing one Central Precinct officer with a mental health specialist, but the pair work day shift.

“Who knows if that would have changed the situation or not, who knows?” Van Zandt said.

History of mental illness

Jason Renaud, a volunteer with the Mental Health Association of Portland, said all of the people shot by police in the last year — Lagozzino is the sixth person shot by Portland officers in 2010 — have either suffered mental illness or untreated addiction. “It’s incumbent on the police bureau to become a sincere advocate for mental health and addiction treatment. And they need to understand that not everyone will comply with commands. They need a second option other than lethal force,” Renaud said.

Marcus Lagozzino, the oldest of three sons, had a history of mental illness and was living with his parents. He’s had 10 contacts with Portland police as an adult, but all were low-level noncriminal, Simpson said. He was cited and convicted of an alcohol in the park violation in 1997 and had a criminal trespass charge in Sandy from August 2010. Police hadn’t been called to the house since 2004, and that was a vandalism call.

Lagozzino’s interests, according to his Facebook page, include stone carving, camping, cats, cooking, enjoying the outdoors and creating art, and his favorite authors spanned from Carl Sagan and Stephen King to Charles Dickens and Edgar Allan Poe. His favorite quotes: “Do what thou wilt shall be the whole of the Law” and “Love is the law, love under will.”

Mayor Sam Adams, who serves as police commissioner, showed up at the scene of the police shooting Monday night; Chief Mike Reese is out of town on vacation.

Tuesday proved another busy day for detectives. While some were continuing to interview officers who were involved or witnesses to the Lagozzino shooting, others were presenting testimony to a grand jury on the Dec. 17 Portland officer-involved fatal shooting of another man.

*************

Police fired a Taser, beanbag shotgun and an AR-15 rifle at a Southwest Portland man with a machete

From The Oregonian, December 30, 2010

Marcus L. Lagozzino, the Southwest Portland man who was shot by Portland police Monday night when officers say he threatened them with a machete, was hit by at least three rounds from a police AR-15 rifle, police said today.

Officer Bradley Clark, 31, a nearly five-year member of the Police Bureau, fired four shots from an AR-15 rifle at Lagozzino, striking him at least three times.

Another officer fired a single Taser shot, and two other officers fired a total of seven beanbag rounds from a shotgun, police said.

Police did not describe the sequence of shots or where the officers were standing when the shots were fired. Dispatch records show the gunshots were fired within 56 seconds of officers radioing that they were “moving up” to Lagozzino’s home.

Lagozzino, 34, was upgraded from critical to serious condition at OHSU Hospital, hospital spokesman Jim Newman said Thursday.

Officer Jamin Becker, a two-year bureau member, fired the Taser. Officer Ralph Elwood, a 14-year bureau veteran, fired four rounds from a less lethal beanbag shotgun; Officer Scott Foster, a 17-year bureau veteran, fired three beanbag rounds.

The Police Bureau waited three days before releasing the identities of any of the officers involved in Lagozzino’s shooting, veering from its past practice of releasing names of officers involved in shootings within 24 hours of an incident.

Sgt. Pete Simpson, a bureau spokesman, said detectives wanted to wait until all the officers’ interviews were completed.

Also Thursday, a Multnomah County grand jury found no criminal wrongdoing by Portland Officers Jonathan D. Kizzar or Kelly T. Jenson in their Dec. 17 fatal shooting of Darryel Dwayne Ferguson. Police said Ferguson, 45, emerged from a unit of the Ventura Park Plaza Apartments holding a realistic-looking air pistol. Ferguson died of multiple gunshot wounds to the chest and abdomen.

Kizzar, 29, and Jenson, 30, work out of East Precinct and have been with the bureau for four years.

Portland police detectives have been busy this week. While a team of detectives has been presenting testimony before the grand jury in Ferguson’s shooting, another team continues to investigate Lagozzino’s, which is expected to go before a grand jury next week.

“It’s definitely taxing police resources,” Simpson said.

Police said Monday night’s shooting occurred after Lagozzino’s mother called 9-1-1 about 5:15 p.m. to report a disturbance at their home at 3514 S.W. Dakota St. Marlynn Lagozzino told police her son had assaulted her and his father and was reported to be outside the house pacing with a machete and breaking windows. She told them he had been suicidal in the past and had talked about “suicide by cop.”

Two sergeants and six officers met a few blocks from the home to develop a plan before approaching, as the mother stayed on the phone with an emergency dispatcher while she and her husband hid inside their home.

When officers walked up to the home, they said Marcus Lagozzino rapidly approached them with a machete that had a 22-inch blade.

Sgt. David Michaelson, an 11-year-veteran, was the on-scene supervisor. Sgt. Rick Stainbrook, an 18-year veteran, Officer Curtis Pak, a 10-year-veteran, and Officer Daniel Spiegel, a two-year-bureau member, assisted as cover officers.

The Dec. 17 shooting began with a 9-1-1 call from the apartment building at Southeast Burnside and 122nd Avenue at 2:56 a.m. The caller complained that an argument had escalated to threats.

After talking to the man, police left and returned just after 3:45 a.m. This time, the caller said the same man was armed with a 9 mm handgun and had threatened to shoot him. He said the man with the gun told him last week “not to mess with” his friends.

Kizzar and Johnson went to the door to confront the man with the gun. Within seconds, Simpson said, the officers reported that shots had been fired and that the man had pointed a handgun at the officers. Police recovered a Colt Defender BB air pistol, modeled after the model 1911 .45 caliber handgun used by the military for years.

Another tenant, Shawn Bartmess, counted 16 shell casings littering the hallway.

Opinion editorial from the Salem Statesman Journal, December 26, 2010

Governor-elect John Kitzhaber must tackle the issue head-on

There is much on John Kitzhaber‘s to-do list as he prepares to return to the governor’s office. Yet, it’s evident that the governor-elect is well aware of the U.S. Department of Justice’s interest in the Oregon State Hospital.

Kitzhaber has indicated he might meet with U.S. justice officials, who have been closely monitoring the state hospital for the past four years. If that meeting happens, it won’t take place until February at the earliest, according to a Statesman Journal report by Alan Gustafson.

Any meeting would be an encouraging sign, given that outgoing Gov. Ted Kulongoski steadfastly has refused to meet with federal investigators. That stalemate in discussions hasn’t deterred the U.S. Department of Justice, which recently announced plans to expand its investigation to determine if the state is adequately providing community-based mental health services.

In 2006, federal investigators began examining whether patients were jeopardized because of poor conditions at the state hospital. The state, thanks to a big legislative push by Senate President Peter Courtney, has responded by finishing the first phase of a new Oregon State Hospital in Salem.

Federal investigators remain skeptical that the state has delivered, which is why a settlement hasn’t been reached between the U.S. Department of Justice and the state.

No settlement creates the possibility of a costly lawsuit, which wouldn’t help Oregon’s financial cause.

Kitzhaber likely recognizes that the state doesn’t have much flexibility because of the state’s economy and budget challenges.

It’s also significant that Oregon Attorney General John Kroger is involved in these discussions – another sign that the state is taking a different approach to dealing with the feds’ concerns about mental health programming.

Why Kulongoski’s administration wasn’t more proactive during the investigation remains baffling, but that’s less important now. Kitzhaber must recognize that it doesn’t hurt to have a face-to-face meeting to hopefully resolve this long-simmering dispute.

From the Oregonian, December 28, 2010

An Oregon State Hospital patient was found dead in her room Monday night from apparent suicide, officials said Tuesday.

Citing privacy laws, officials declined to name the patient. A fellow patient at the hospital, Chris Crawford told The Oregonian her name was Elisabeth Sellars and Sellars’ attorney, Harris Matarazzo, confirmed his client’s death.

Sellars was living in a medium-security, co-ed ward and was in the hospital’s forensic psychiatric program, according to Rebeka Gipson-King, a spokeswoman for the hospital. Patients in the forensic program have been found guilty of a crime.

State police are investigating the woman’s death, as is the normal procedure, Gipson-King said.

Additionally, the hospital “will conduct a full review to ensure all hospital policies and procedures were followed surrounding the incident,” Superintendent Greg Roberts said in a statement. “I will keep the board apprised as more information becomes available.”

Roberts said that Sellars’ family had been informed and that patients and staff would receive any necessary counseling.

Sellars, whose family could not be reached for comment, was found dead at 9:28 p.m. while staff were doing routine checks. Gipson-King said confidentiality prohibited her from giving a time of death.

The Oregon State Hospital came under scrutiny last year after a patient, Moises Perez, 42, was found dead in his hospital bed. His death went unnoticed for many hours.

An investigation found that staff had neglected Perez. As a result of the findings, five employees were issued letters of reprimand. Then-superintendent Roy Orr resigned the same day the investigation’s findings were released.

18 years ago, a few Consumers who attended the same mental health agency in Washington County starting talking, and said they should get together with some of their peers, and a dance was organized, with donated cake, and things just snowballed from there… All these years later, the Washington County Consumer Council operates the Comfort Zone, a full-featured Drop-In Center that serves 175 to 200 meals a month, and offers real jobs, at $9 an hour, for office personnel, kitchen helpers, janitors, and a CyberCafe Technician.

The Council and the employees of Comfort Zone are themselves all Consumers of Mental Health Services – right up to and including their Executive Director, Nona Clarke, who I spoke with recently on the telephone.

Comfort Zone has their own kitchen, their own space. Their CyberCafe has 10 computers on the Internet, and a technician to help you get an E-mail address or provide whatever other assistance you require.
Some of the people who created the Consumer Council all those years ago are still with it today – which says good things about the community they helped create.

The warmth of that community has extended to an 11-year-old boy with mental illness. For Christmas this year, the Comfort Zone members chose to make this child’s life a little better by sponsoring him. They did this instead of throwing a Christmas Party.
There is a lot more that can be said about the Comfort Zone, and hopefully soon I can get there in person to get info for a more in-depth article.

If you are lucky enough to live in Washington County, come on down to this warm and comforting place…

From the Boston Globe, December 24, 2010

Are they religious fanatics? Deluded ideologues? New research suggests something more mundane: They just want to commit suicide.

Qari Sami did something strange the day he killed himself. The university student from Kabul had long since grown a bushy, Taliban-style beard and favored the baggy tunics and trousers of the terrorists he idolized. He had even talked of waging jihad. But on the day in 2005 that he strapped the bomb to his chest and walked into the crowded Kabul Internet cafe, Sami kept walking — between the rows of tables, beyond the crowd, along the back wall, until he was in the bathroom, with the door closed.

And that is where, alone, he set off his bomb.

The blast killed a customer and a United Nations worker, and injured five more. But the carnage could have been far worse. Brian Williams, an associate professor of Islamic studies at the University of Massachusetts Dartmouth, was in Afghanistan at the time. One day after the attack, he stood before the cafe’s hollowed-out wreckage and wondered why any suicide bomber would do what Sami had done: deliberately walk away from the target before setting off the explosives. “[Sami] was the one that got me thinking about the state of mind of these guys,” Williams said.

Eventually a fuller portrait emerged. Sami was a young man who kept to himself, a brooder. He was upset by the US forces’ ouster of the Taliban in the months following 9/11 — but mostly Sami was just upset. He took antidepressants daily. One of Sami’s few friends told the media he was “depressed.”

Today Williams thinks that Sami never really cared for martyrdom; more likely, he was suicidal. “That’s why he went to the bathroom,” Williams said.

The traditional view of suicide bombers is well established, and backed by the scholars who study them. The bombers are, in the post-9/11 age, often young, ideologically driven men and women who hate the laissez-faire norms of the West — or at least the occupations and wars of the United States — because they contradict the fundamentalist interpretations that animate the bombers’ worldview. Their deaths are a statement, then, as much as they are the final act of one’s faith; and as a statement they have been quite effective. They propagate future deaths, as terrorist organizers use a bomber’s martyrdom as propaganda for still more suicide terrorism.

But Williams is among a small cadre of scholars from across the world pushing the rather contentious idea that some suicide bombers may in fact be suicidal. At the forefront is the University of Alabama’s Adam Lankford, who recently published an analysis of suicide terrorism in the Journal Aggression and Violent Behavior. Lankford cites Israeli scholars who interviewed would-be Palestinian suicide bombers. These scholars found that 40 percent of the terrorists showed suicidal tendencies; 13 percent had made previous suicide attempts, unrelated to terrorism. Lankford finds Palestinian and Chechen terrorists who are financially insolvent, recently divorced, or in debilitating health in the months prior to their attacks. A 9/11 hijacker, in his final note to his wife, describing how ashamed he is to have never lived up to her expectations. Terrorist recruiters admitting they look for the “sad guys” for martyrdom.

READ – about Adam Lankford’s book, Human Killing Machines.

For Lankford and like-minded thinkers, changing the perception of the suicide bomber changes the focus of any mission that roots out terrorism. If the suicide bomber can be viewed as something more than a brainwashed, religiously fervent automaton, anticipating a paradise of virgins in the clouds, then that suicide bomber can be seen as a nuanced person, encouraging a greater curiosity about the terrorist, Lankford thinks. The more the terrorist is understood, the less damage the terrorist can cause.

“Changing perceptions can save lives,” Lankford said.

Islam forbids suicide. Of the world’s three Abrahamic faiths, “The Koran has the only scriptural prohibition against it,” said Robert Pape, a professor at the University of Chicago who specializes in the causes of suicide terrorism. The phrase suicide bomber itself is a Western conception, and a pretty foul one at that: an egregious misnomer in the eyes of Muslims, especially from the Middle East. For the Koran distinguishes between suicide and, as the book says, “the type of man who gives his life to earn the pleasure of Allah.” The latter is a courageous Fedayeen — a martyr. Suicide is a problem, but martyrdom is not.

For roughly 1,400 years, since the time of the Prophet Muhammad, scholars have accepted not only the ubiquity of martyrdom in the Muslim world but the strict adherence to its principles by those who participate in it: A lot of people have died, and keep dying, for a cause. Only recently, and sometimes only reluctantly, has the why of martyrdom been challenged.

Ariel Merari is a retired professor of psychology at Tel Aviv University. After the Beirut barracks bombing in 1983 — in which a terrorist, Ismalal Ascari, drove a truck bomb into a United States Marine barracks, killing 241 American servicemen — Merari began investigating the motives of Ascari, and the terrorist group with which the attack was aligned, Hezbollah. Though the bombing came during the Lebanese Civil War, Merari wondered whether it was less a battle within the conflict so much as a means chosen by one man, Ascari, to end his life. By 1990, Merari had published a paper asking the rest of academia to consider if suicide bombers were actually suicidal. “But this was pretty much speculative, this paper,” Merari said.

In 2002, he approached a group of 15 would-be suicide bombers — Palestinians arrested and detained moments before their attacks — and asked if he could interview them. Remarkably, they agreed. “Nobody” — no scholar — “had ever been able to do something like this,” Merari said. He also approached 14 detained terrorist organizers. Some of the organizers had university degrees and were intrigued by the fact that Merari wanted to understand them. They, too, agreed to be interviewed. Merari was ecstatic.

Fifty-three percent of the would-be bombers showed “depressive tendencies” — melancholy, low energy, tearfulness, the study found — whereas 21 percent of the organizers exhibited the same. Furthermore, 40 percent of the would-be suicide bombers expressed suicidal tendencies; one talked openly of slitting his wrists after his father died. But the study found that none of the terrorist organizers were suicidal.

The paper was published last year in the journal Terrorism and Political Violence. Adam Lankford read it in his office at the University of Alabama. The results confirmed what he’d been thinking. The criminal justice professor had published a book, “Human Killing Machines,” about the indoctrination of ordinary people as agents for terrorism or genocide. Merari’s paper touched on themes he’d explored in his book, but the paper also gave weight to the airy speculation Lankford had heard a few years earlier in Washington, D.C., while he was earning his PhD from American University. There, Lankford had helped coordinate antiterrorism forums with the State Department for high-ranking military and security personnel. And it was at these forums, from Third World-country delegates, that Lankford first began to hear accounts of suicide bombers who may have had more than martyrdom on their minds. “That’s what sparked my interest,” he said.

He began an analysis of the burgeoning, post-9/11 literature on suicide terrorism, poring over the studies that inform the thinking on the topic. Lankford’s paper was published this July. In it, he found stories similar to Merari’s: bombers who unwittingly revealed suicidal tendencies in, say, their martyrdom videos, recorded moments before the attack; and organizers who valued their lives too much to end it, so they recruited others, often from the poorest, bleakest villages.

But despite the accounts from their own published papers, scholar after scholar had dismissed the idea of suicidality among bombers. Lankford remains incredulous. “This close-mindedness has become a major barrier to scholarly progress,” Lankford said.

Not everyone is swayed by his argument. Mia Bloom is a fellow at the International Center for the Study of Terrorism at Penn State University and the author of the book, “Dying to Kill: The Allure of Suicide Terror.” “I would be hesitant to agree with Mr. Lankford,” she said. “You don’t want to conflate the Western ideas of suicide with something that is, in the Middle East, a religious ceremony.” For her, “being a little bit wistful” during a martyrdom video is not an otherwise hidden window into a bomber’s mind. Besides, most suicide bombers “are almost euphoric” in their videos, she said. “Because they know that before the first drop of blood hits the ground, they’re going to be with Allah.” (Lankford counters that euphoria, moments before one’s death, can also be a symptom of the suicidal person.)

One study in the academic literature directly refutes Lankford’s claim, and that’s the University of Nottingham’s Ellen Townsend’s “Suicide Terrorists: Are They Suicidal?” published in the journal Suicide and Life Threatening Behavior in 2007. (The answer is a resounding “no.”)

Townsend’s paper was an analysis of empirical research on suicide terrorism — the scholars who’d talked with the people who knew the attackers. In Lankford’s own paper a few years after Townsend’s, he attacked her methodology: relying as she did on the accounts of a martyr’s family members and friends, who, Lankford wrote, “may lie to protect the ‘heroic’ reputations of their loved ones.”

When reached by phone, Townsend had a wry chuckle for Lankford’s “strident” criticism of her work. Yes, in the hierarchy of empirical research, the sort of interviews on which her paper is based have weaknesses: A scholar can’t observe everything, can’t control for all biases. “But that’s still stronger evidence than the anecdotes in Lankford’s paper,” Townsend said.

Robert Pape, at the University of Chicago, agrees. “The reason Merari’s view” — and by extension, Lankford’s — “is so widely discredited is that we have a handful of incidents of what looks like suicide and we have over 2,500 suicide attackers. We have literally hundreds and hundreds of stories where religion is a factor — and revenge, too….To put his idea forward, [Lankford] would need to have a 100 or more stories or anecdotes to even get in the game.”

He’s working on that. Lankford’s forthcoming study, to be published early next year, is “far more robust” than his first: a list of more than 75 suicide terrorists and why they were likely suicidal. He cites a Palestinian woman who, five months after lighting herself on fire in her parents’ kitchen, attempted a return to the hospital that saved her life. But this time she approached with a pack of bombs wrapped around her body, working as an “ideologue” in the service of the al-Aqsa Martyrs Brigade.

Lankford writes of al Qaeda-backed terrorists in Iraq who would target and rape local women, and then see to it that the victims were sent to Samira Ahmed Jassim. Jassim would convince these traumatized women that the only way to escape public scorn was martyrdom. She was so successful she became known as the Mother of Believers. “If you just needed true believers, you wouldn’t need them to be raped first,” Lankford said in an interview.

Lankford is also intrigued by the man who in some sense launched the current study of suicide terrorism: Mohammed Atta, the ringleader behind the 9/11 hijacking. “It’s overwhelming, his traits of suicidality,” Lankford said. An isolated, neglected childhood, pathologically ashamed of any sexual expression. “According to the National Institute of Mental Health there are 11 signs, 11 traits and symptoms for a man being depressed,” Lankford said. “Atta exhibited eight of them.”

If Atta were seen as something more than a martyr, or rather something other than one, the next Atta would not have the same effect on the world. That’s Lankford’s hope anyway. But transporting a line of thought from the halls of academia to the chambers of Congress or onto field agents’ dossiers is no easy task. Lankford said he has not heard from anyone in the government regarding his work. And even if the idea does reach a broader audience in the West, there is still the problem of convincing those in the Middle East of its import. Pape, at the University of Chicago, said people in the Muslim world commit suicide at half the rate they do in the Jewish or Christian world. The act is scorned, which makes it all the more difficult to accept any behaviors or recurring thoughts that might lead to it.

Still, there is reason for Lankford to remain hopeful. The Israeli government, for one, has worked closely with Merari and his work on suicidal tendencies among Palestinian terrorists. Then there is Iraq. Iraq is on the verge of autonomy for many reasons, but one of them is the United States’ decision to work with Iraqis instead of against them — and, more fundamentally, to understand them. Lankford thinks that if the same inquisitiveness were applied to suicide bombers and their motives, “the violence should decrease.”