Caregiver seeks help for prisoners with disabilities

[BarbaraAnnVT]

Caregiver seeks help for prisoners with disabilities

May 4, 2008

By KEVIN O'CONNOR Staff Writer

How do you spur people to care about a 25-year-old man who faces prison time because, unfocused and forgetful after a traumatic brain injury, he didn't check in with his probation officer?

Katherine Davis, the man's court-appointed guardian, appealed to Gov. James Douglas.

"I don't quite know how to begin this letter to you, as it is a confusing and complex situation to present," the Forest Dale woman wrote Douglas.

Davis may not have known where to start, but she can explain clearly and concisely why a state that spends an average of $45,000 a year to jail a prisoner should pay more attention to judicial issues involving people with disabilities.

Davis has worked for three decades with hundreds of clients at the former Brandon Training School, Rutland Mental Health Services, Vermont Supported Living and, since 2000, as a manager at Lenny Burke's Farm, a Wallingford center for people with traumatic brain injuries. In recognition, the Vermont Traumatic Brain Injury Program named her Caregiver of the Year at its most recent conference.

Some people would have simply savored the award. But Davis, seeing the governor in the conference crowd, couldn't stop thinking about her 25-year-old ward — a Vermont native now in prison for not checking in with his probation officer almost a decade after his month-long stay, at 17, in a juvenile detention center.

On March 3, Davis decided to write Douglas. She told the governor her ward's name and location but has asked this newspaper not to publish those details out of concern for the inmate's safety. She has his consent, however, to share the rest of his story.

'I need help'

Davis' ward suffered two head injuries as a preschooler. At age 3, he fell from a supermarket cart. When the boy was 5, he bumped into a raised window, sending it down on his head.

Doctors didn't X-ray the boy and instead prescribed ice and baby aspirin. Entering elementary school, he soon had difficulty focusing his attention. Unable to get dressed in a timely fashion, he'd often miss the school bus. In class, he struggled to sit still, acted up angrily and sometimes required physical restraint.

At first, educators responded by assigning him a special education aide. Then doctors diagnosed him with attention deficit hyperactivity disorder and oppositional defiant disorder.

The 7-year-old soon found himself on Ritalin, but the drug made him sick to his stomach. Professionals prescribed other medications that brought some improvement, though by age 11, he entered the first of two residential facilities for students with emotional and behavioral challenges.

The boy returned to public school in ninth grade, but his struggles continued. After he learned how to drive, he rolled up court charge after court charge. He operated a vehicle that at various times lacked a state inspection sticker, registration, car insurance and proper lights. He drove without a license. He backed into a parked car and, frightened, fled the scene.

Increasingly frustrated in school, he dropped out in 10th grade. The day after his 17th birthday, he faced a new charge of disorderly conduct. A judge sent the teen to a juvenile detention center, but he was convicted as an adult.

After a month in the center, he was released and placed on probation.

End of story? Not for Davis. The social worker has known the boy all his life. But it wasn't until she started working with people with traumatic brain injuries that she realized her ward's symptoms mirrored those suffered by her clients.

Neuropsychiatric doctors at Dartmouth-Hitchcock Medical Center in New Hampshire examined the young man and confirmed he had severe memory impairments and cognitive difficulties. They called for a different regimen of medications and more help in keeping him to a daily schedule.

The young man is receiving his new prescriptions. But Davis says finding him full-time support is even more important — and even more challenging. The probate court appointed her as his guardian in 2004 to help manage his legal contracts and medical treatment and serve as his advocate. That year the federal government deemed the man disabled and eligible for Social Security payments.

Davis, however, isn't paid ("it's strictly volunteer") and, as a result, she can't be with him at all times. Because of probation restrictions and a lack of government funding, the man has yet to find a supervised-living arrangement that would help him stay on task. That, in turn, has led to the prospect of a more costly prison term.

The man hasn't repeated any of his past crimes for nearly a decade. (Two years ago, he received money he later learned was stolen and, as a result, had to pay restitution.) But he has remained on probation because he hasn't been able to finish the required paperwork and programs. When he repeatedly forgot to check in with his probation officer, the state in February put him in prison.

"I am in tears right now writing this and I can't stop shaking," he wrote Davis in a recent letter. "I need help, (but) nobody wants to help me. It just seems like there is no light at the end of the tunnel."

That's when Davis sent her letter to Douglas.

'Please understand'

"Governor, please understand that (her ward), even now, is far from being an adult," she wrote. "He has been struggling with such severe cognitive deficits and compromised abilities for nearly his entire life, and continues to be impaired in ways we haven't even delved into as of yet — at under 26 years of age."

Davis isn't denying any of her ward's lengthy court record — she told the governor the full particulars of the man's situation (and asked this newspaper not to publish that information for reasons of confidentiality). She simply wants help steering him through the probation system.

"He himself wants nothing more than to restart his life, to connect and contribute," she wrote the governor. "He is ready to have a chance to counter the ability gaps and gain the opportunity to succeed."

Douglas forwarded the letter to officials at the Vermont Department of Corrections, who wrote Davis to reiterate why the probation violation led to her ward's jailing and to say they hoped "you will continue to work closely with his caseworkers to develop a program … to meet his needs."

The Corrections Department won't elaborate publicly on specific cases to respect inmate confidentially, Commissioner Robert Hofmann says. But he confirmed that finding individual solutions to different situations can be challenging.

"We have people who have mental health and developmental disabilities, we have people who have problems of various degrees and causes," Hofmann says. "We don't choose the people who are sent to us. It's an ongoing struggle for our staff to deal with these cases."

Davis believes the problem begins in the courtroom. She wants the judicial system to be more knowledgeable of the issues faced by people with disabilities. She's also concerned about a lack of funding for support programs that, as a result, are causing more people like her ward to land in prison.

"He's more focused when on medication, but he needs monitoring to ensure he takes it as prescribed. He'd lie in bed all day with a spiking fever rather than think to call me. He'd benefit if he had supervision, starting with the basics: sleeping at the appropriate time, eating proper meals, hygiene. If some of these things were in place, maybe he wouldn't have all the probation violations."

Davis points to a recent pilot project by the University of Vermont's Division of Public Psychiatry that studied people with mental disabilities who were sentenced in a special court instead of the regular system. The program offered supervised living and employment opportunities, education, counseling, medications and, if needed, short-term jail or hospital stays to refocus participants.

Of the 43 people in the project, only seven faced future prison time.

Officials say the state faces a budget crunch and can't afford additional programs. But Davis fears without more support for people like her ward, Vermont will face higher prison costs.

"Correctional facilities nationwide are becoming residential facilities for people who suffer from disabilities."

Davis remembers when Douglas spoke at her conference.

"He talked about soldiers coming back from the war and not getting services for traumatic brain injuries, and how he felt there needed to be more of a focus on that."

Davis agrees. But she also wants help for civilians facing the same issues.

"Where's the light at the end of the tunnel? I'm a strong advocate. I hate to see people falling through the cracks. I do whatever's in my power to prevent that. But this has been a 10-year struggle. How long does this have to go on?"

Contact Kevin O'Connor at kevin.oconnor@rutlandherald.com.


http://www.rutlandherald.com/apps/pb...90/1024/NEWS04