News Article: Prison for Fun and Profit

At the beginning of the 1980s there were no privately-operated adult correctional facilities in the United States. As of 2009, more than 129,300 state and federal prisoners were housed in for-profit lock-ups. Prison privatization has become an acceptable practice and the private prison industry is now a multi-billion dollar business. How did this drastic expansion of incarceration-for-profit occur, and more importantly how has it rearranged the criminal justice landscape?

Read Full Article: Prison for Fun and Profit

News: Mental Health Issues Put 34,500 on New York’s No-Guns List

A newly created database of New Yorkers deemed too mentally unstable to carry firearms has grown to roughly 34,500 names, a previously undisclosed figure that has raised concerns among some mental health advocates that too many people have been categorized as dangerous.

Read full article at:
http://www.nytimes.com/2014/10/19/nyregion/mental-reports-put-34500-on-new-yorks-no-guns-list.html?emc=eta1&_r=0

Job Posting: Safe House

Safe House www.safehouse-fri.org has an opening for a Housing Specialist. If you are interested in this position-please send your resume to mportnoff@friendsresearch.org

UCLA Study Shows Why One of the Biggest Obamacare Fears May Not Come To Pass - California Healthline

UCLA Study Shows Why One of the Biggest Obamacare Fears May Not Come To Pass - California Healthline

NAMI: Mental Illness and the Right to Vote

Many people with mental illness mistakenly think that they have lost their right to vote.  Unless they have had their rights revoked due to criminal convictions or through conservatorship, they have a right to vote.   Voting can now be done on-line and there are free computers in most public libraries.

If the right to vote has been lost there are procedures to reclaim the right to vote. 

http://www.nami.org/election

Attend L.A. County Supervisor Debate - 3rd District

Live from NAMI Walk Los Angeles October 11th

A few friends and I at the NAMI Walk this morning in Los Angeles. Mark Gale, NAMI criminal justice committee is a speaker today.

Live from NAMI Walks Los Angeles: Barbara B. Wilson

Mental Health Hookup is at the 11th annual NAMI walk in Los Angeles county today. Lots of excitement, NAMI groups from all over L A County from Antelope valley to Long Beach east to inland empire. 

In the photos:

Dist Attny Jackie Lacey ; dr Marvin southard, director of Los Angeles county dept of mental health

The Network: NAMIWalks LA County

October 5th through the 11th is Mental Health Awareness Week