Book Description
Crazy in America shows how people suffering from schizophrenia, bipolar disorder, clinical depression, and other serious psychological illnesses are regularly incarcerated because alternative care is not available. Once behind bars, they are frequently punished again for behavior that is psychotic, not criminal.
A compelling and important examination of a shocking human rights abuse in our midst, Crazy in America is an indictment of a society that incarcerates its weakest and most vulnerable citizens — causing them to emerge sicker and more damaged.
Customer Reviews:
Crazy in America.......2007-09-28
Crazy in America: The Hidden Tragedy of Our Criminalized Mentally Ill As a long time staff advocate for the National Alliance on Mental illness (NAMI), I found the book and its multiple story accounts very accurate and heart rendering. For the uninformed, the stories may be so impactful that they will find it hard to understand that a society could mistreat its citizens so badly. Good book.
Required reading.......2007-08-28
The heartbreaking stories in this beautifully written book expose what happens to people with psychiatric disabilities who reach the end of the line after not receiving desperately needed mental health care. Meticulously researched and at the same imbued with deep sympathy, Pfeiffer's case studies detail the journeys of six people as they move inexorably toward catastrophe, finding themselves in brutal interactions with the criminal justice system. With the closure of many psychiatric wards and an ensuing lack of decent, appropriate care in the community, our jails and prisons have been delegated as the mental health facilities of our time. They are utterly inadequate to the task. Behind those walls are hundreds of thousands of ill people who cannot adhere to rules. Many are placed in solitary confinement, where they violently injure themselves or commit suicide. Pfeiffer sensitively reveals the effects of this torture on vulnerable individuals with mental illness.
New York State is on the verge of passing a law that greatly restricts the practice of placing people with psychiatric disabilities in solitary confinement, the first state in the country to do so. We must immediately begin to improve mental health care in the community, so that people do not find themselves in jail as a result of untreated symptoms. Pfeiffer spells out this message unambiguously. Her book should be required reading for anyone with any interest in human rights and assigned as a textbook in every medical school.
Crazy in America is a call to action for all caring people.......2007-07-16
For years, I have watched the homesless people walk up and down the main streets in the city closest to where I live, the thought crossing my mind that these are the result of budget cuts which closed the nearby psychiatric center. While I'd read about the crisis for this same population, (Many of the articles were written by the same author as Crazy in America, Mary Beth Pfeiffer, an advocate for these people for many years.) the extent and the consequences of this institution's closing, and others across America, was never as clear as they have become as a result of reading this book.
Pfeiffer's heartbreaking case studies document the problem the mentally ill confront within the penal system, a system never intended to deal with this personnel. Through these tragic case studies, the author demonstrates that a system that punishes the mentally ill in the same ways it treats other prisoners is a set-up for these victims. At the same time that her book focuses on and evokes sympathy and compassion for the mentally ill, it also causes the reader to question how our prisons function for anyone in America.
While this book may hold particular interest for workers in the mental health field, it is of importance for employees in our schools, judicial system, and for anyone who has a mentally ill person in his/her family. It seems this book reaches out to everyone, and hopefully, will encourage people to work toward the changes in a system that is broken for a large percentage of the people involved in it. We must watch over those incapable of caring for themselves.
This is a must read for any socially responsible person in America.
As for the author, a superb example of investigative reporting! Well done!!!
Crazy In America is a national tragedy that demands action.......2007-07-13
The author of Crazy in America introduces us to 6 of our brothers and sisters whose lives were devastated by mental illness along with the families that care deeply about them. Three committed suicide while in isolation cells in both jails and prisons. Luke in a Texas jail, Jessica in the New York prison system and Joseph in the California Youth Authority Facility. Two more, Alan and Peter died in separate incidences at the hands of Florida police officers whose very presence exacerbated the symptoms of their illness. The pain and anguish of the five individuals and their families unfolds before your eyes as you read their stories.
The sixth person the author writes about is Shayne, my niece, the focus of my advocacy work and truly a special person and survivor. As I read Shayne's story I grieved for the horror that was unfolding once again before my eyes. The anguish of not being able to stop the crime that landed her in jail and eventually an Iowa prison. The self mutilations of her right eye and two years later her left eye. Six months after blinding herself she dislodged four of her teeth trying to bite off her finger. Visions of this vulnerable and sick woman destroying herself one digit at a time terrified my thoughts as I pleaded and begged for help from whomever would listen. Four months later Shayne tried to bite a whole through her cheek and I wondered if it would ever end. All of these incidences happened while in isolation cells. Shayne has proven, at least to me, that isolation is not treatment. The prison environment was to stressful for her coping skills and she started a downhill slide 1 year into what would be 5 years behind bars.
It is hard to write a review of a book that causes you to feel so much pain and suffering. I do however thank Mary Beth for being the caring and knowledgeable advocate that she is. Shayne and her family are forever grateful that she has used her journalistic talent to tell the stories of these six vulnerable and loved individuals in the hopes that changes will be made before to many more have to suffer being criminalized because of a misunderstood illness.
If countries are judged by the way they treat their most vulnerable citizens than I grieve also for America because our mentally ill are being hidden from view behind prison walls which is where they were 150 year ago. The medications necessary to stabilize symptoms of mental illness are available. The knowledge of what needs to be provided to ensure their success living in the community is known. It will take the will of the people to provide these basic necessities. Call your legislatures and congressmen and tell them to support laws aimed at helping those with disabilities.
"Crazy in America" gives us insights to a national tragedy.......2007-07-12
Maybe it's just "in the knick of time" that Mary Beth Pfeiffer comes along and does what no one thus far has done, personalized a national scandal, that being the criminalizing of our mentally ill. She couldn't make this stuff up. Iowa is among the top offenders and she doesn't hold back, something I appreciate as an advocate for prison reform in Iowa for years. Only when the courts forced the issue did Iowa reluctantly begin to address the tragedy. So far she finds, and i agree, there is no real inclination to stem the flow of mentally ill persons into the prisons even though it's proven wrong to continue. Once they get there the "secret society" of the prison administration still assures no improved treatment which the death of a "special needs" offender at the womens prison just a couple of weeks ago, declared as due to "natural causes" at age 47, leaves us with many unanswered questions and doubts of meaningful progress just as this book reveals.
What Mary Beth Pfeiffer reveals will not have an effect on the system unless those ordinary persons who read her book demand change. Officials know the extent of the problem but are not willing to act without a big push from an enraged citizenry. Mary Beth Pfeiffer wants to move us to action.
Average customer rating:
- Good resource for educators and counselors.
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Acquaintance Rape: THE HIDDEN CRIME (WILEY SERIES ON PERSONALITY PROCESSES)
ANDREA,ED. PARROT
Manufacturer: John Wiley & Sons
ProductGroup: Book
Binding: Hardcover
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Coping With Date Rape and Acquaintance Rape (Coping)
ASIN: 0471510238 |
Customer Reviews:
Good resource for educators and counselors........2000-02-08
This text is an excellent overview of the subject of acquaintance and date rape. I have used this as a text (several times) in a graduate level counseling course for counseling individuals who have been raped or sexually assaulted and students routinely have positive comments about the book.
Book Description
Despite costing hundreds of billions of dollars and subsidizing everything from homeownership and child care to health insurance, tax expenditures (commonly known as tax loopholes) have received little attention from those who study American government. This oversight has contributed to an incomplete and misleading portrait of U.S. social policy. Here Christopher Howard analyzes the "hidden" welfare state created by such programs as tax deductions for home mortgage interest and employer-provided retirement pensions, the Earned Income Tax Credit, and the Targeted Jobs Tax Credit. Basing his work on the histories of these four tax expenditures, Howard highlights the distinctive characteristics of all such policies. Tax expenditures are created more routinely and quietly than traditional social programs, for instance, and over time generate unusual coalitions of support. They expand and contract without deliberate changes to individual programs.
Howard helps the reader to appreciate the historic links between the hidden welfare state and U.S. tax policy, which accentuate the importance of Congress and political parties. He also focuses on the reasons why individuals, businesses, and public officials support tax expenditures. The Hidden Welfare State will appeal to anyone interested in the origins, development, and structure of the American welfare state. Students of public finance will gain new insights into the politics of taxation. And as policymakers increasingly promote tax expenditures to address social problems, the book offers some sobering lessons about how such programs work.
Download Description
Despite costing hundreds of billions of dollars and subsidizing everything from homeownership and child care to health insurance, tax expenditures (commonly known as tax loopholes) have received little attention from those who study American government. This oversight has contributed to an incomplete and misleading portrait of U.S. social policy. Here Christopher Howard analyzes the "hidden" welfare state created by such programs as tax deductions for home mortgage interest and employer-provided retirement pensions, the Earned Income Tax Credit, and the Targeted Jobs Tax Credit. Basing his work on the histories of these four tax expenditures, Howard highlights the distinctive characteristics of all such policies. Tax expenditures are created more routinely and quietly than traditional social programs, for instance, and over time generate unusual coalitions of support. They expand and contract without deliberate changes to individual programs. Howard helps the reader to appreciate the historic links between the hidden welfare state and U.S. tax policy, which accentuate the importance of Congress and political parties. He also focuses on the reasons why individuals, businesses, and public officials support tax expenditures. The Hidden Welfare State will appeal to anyone interested in the origins, development, and structure of the American welfare state. Students of public finance will gain new insights into the politics of taxation. And as policymakers increasingly promote tax expenditures to address social problems, the book offers some sobering lessons about how such programs work.
Customer Reviews:
The Hudden Welfare State- Little Known Social Welfare Policies.......2006-08-22
An outstanding coverage of the use of tax deductions as an alternative to direct government entitlements. Includes the history of such deductions in the United States from the early twentieth century to the present
Average customer rating:
- Male Rape
- Mediocre get it at a Library
- Important - but flawed
- RAPE= EPAR
- Disturbing
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Male On Male Rape: THE HIDDEN TOLL OF STIGMA AND SHAME
MICHAEL SCARCE
Manufacturer: Plenum Press
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Binding: Hardcover
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Similar Items:
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Rape Recovery Handbook: Step-by-Step Help for Survivors of Sexual Assault
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Sexual Assault in Context: Teaching College Men About Gender
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The Men's Program: A Peer Education Guide to Rape Prevention, Third Edition
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Men Who Rape: The Psychology of the Offender
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Transforming a Rape Culture
ASIN: 0306456273 |
Book Description
False assumptions and popular stereotypes help us to ignore one society's most troubling problems - the rape of men by other men. A subject rarely discussed, let alone explored beyond tasteless jokes, same-sex sexual violence can burden survivors with an overwhelming sense of misery and confusion.Male on Male Rape examines a form of violence that, despite worldwide prevalence, remains vastly underreported and unrecognized. Michael Scarce, coordinator of a rape education and prevention program and a survivor of adult male rape, investigates the substantial effects of male-on-male sexual violence on individuals and society, dispelling popular myths and questioning why most communities cannot or will not confront the problem of same-sex sexual violence. This groundbreaking book is the culmination of years of research that includes numerous interviews with straight and gay male rape survivors, an analysis of popular media, case studies, and the author's own personal and professional experience.
The belief that men are not raped, or raped only behind prison walls, perpetuates the cruel stigma attached to male rape. Men who are sexually assaulted tend not to report their victimization, seek medical attention, or get counseling. While rape is undoubtedly a crime of violence, male survivors are often shamed by the taboo of same-sex sexual contact, contributing to a sense of isolation and despair. Male on Male Rape brilliantly shatters the silence surrounding this sexual violence in our society while offering concrete initiatives and strategies for addressing the rape of men by men. It is an invaluable resource for anyone interested in the prevention or rape or the healing of rape's devastating effects. Interweaving frank personal accounts and exhaustive scholarship, this is the comprehensive look at a disturbing phenomenon.
Customer Reviews:
Male Rape.......2007-08-04
This book looks at a societal taboo, that is, "male on male rape". It is our "skeleton in the closet" which is understudied and under researched. Male rape trauma syndrome is very real. The book looks beyond the lay myths of, "you ust have wanted it otherwise you would have fought him off". Any man, anywhere can be raped by another. The psychological, emotional, physical damage is perhaps more profound due to societal assumption of "you could have stopped it if you resisted". The man raped lives in a "netherworld" of anger, grief, loss, and desire for revenge. There are very rarely male rape hotlines, or male rape groups that process the trauma. It's secretness is insidious because it spills over into domestic violence, violent sexuality, recidivism.
Well written, easy read, informative. It is certain to unmask male rape myths and add insight into this subject. I would give it 4 stars.
Mediocre get it at a Library.......2007-01-09
This book reads like a Master's student's term paper but falls short of new insights and focuses too little on many profound subjects. As one who worked with assault survivors, men and women, I was keenly interested in this tome. Clearly I did not read the book for fun.
I came out of the experience with minimal extended knowledge than what I knew before. The book tries to cram a very, very feminist agenda down your throat. As one who adores Dianism, I revere the Feminine aspect of us quite deeply.
The book tries to be clinical but comes across too "focus groupy."
We need a book about the meat, potatoes, the way to cope with this subject from a MASCULINE perspective. This guy does not quite get that.
Get it at a library but would not reccommend the purchase of this as a resource either for personal or clinical purposes.
Important - but flawed.......2002-09-12
This is a fantastic book for raising awareness. However, it is unfortunate that such an important topic - and what I had hoped would be a truly informative and helpful book in my work with male survivors - has so many inaccuracies. The descriptions of state's sexual assault legislation alone is now more than 13 years out of date - and were 8 years out of date when published. Though it has not been a simple process, many rape crisis centers, who face the same lack of information about male rape as survivors, have been doing much to help male survivors since the early 1990s.
RAPE= EPAR.......2002-07-31
I found this book to be most needed in the gay community, since he is the only author with balls enough to conquer a subject so taboo. HATS OFF TO HIM!!! Chock full of ideas Scarce has given me and others hope that this taboo subject will not be swept under the rug anymore. Thank you Michael.
Disturbing.......2000-08-02
Very disturbing how this problem is swept under the rug. Even more disturbing is the very real possibility that this is a very prevalent crime that happens every day. It makes me very upset over the lack of published works about the rape of men and peoples' perception that it is either impossible, rarely happens(or only in prison to people who "deserve it"), or is not half as common as the rape of women.
Average customer rating:
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Savings for the Poor: The Hidden Benefits of Electronic Banking
Michael A. Stegman
Manufacturer: Brookings Institution Press
ProductGroup: Book
Binding: Paperback
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ASIN: 0815780931 |
Book Description
Beginning this year, federal payment recipients will receive their government benefits through electronic funds transfer (EFT) what most of us call direct deposit. Although cost-cutting is the driving force behind the move to a virtually all-electronic federal payment system, Michael Stegman believes the initiative has a far broader potential: to bring poor Americans into the banking mainstream.
In this book Stegman outlines how many families will enter the mainstream banking system through EFT 99, as the program is called. He explains in careful detail the thinking behind the shift to EFT and the implementation of the program this year. He also argues that, for maximum success, EFT '99 should be combined with a program of national Individual Development Accounts (IDAs), dedicated savings accounts for low-income people that can be used for purchasing a first home, acquiring more education or job training, or starting a small-business. Essentially, EFT '99 will bring people into the banking system, and IDAs will give them an incentive to use the system to its fullest in order to make their money work for them and their children.
There are other steps that the government can take to boost EFT's ability to help public aid recipients achieve self-sufficiency. It can: add a direct deposit option to state benefits payments programs; give banks significant additional Community Reinvestment Act Credit for establishing accounts for EFT recipients; and regulate fees for cashing government benefits and voluntary accounts so that people are not charged excessively for accessing their money.
This book demonstrates that with careful planning and a relatively small investment the government's EFT initiative can have a major payoff in real assets and improved prospects for those who have been, for far too long, on the fringes of the country's mainstream banking system.
Average customer rating:
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The Vulnerable Child: The Hidden Epidemic of Neglected and Troubled Children Even Within the Middle Class
Richard Weissbourd
Manufacturer: Perseus Books
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Binding: Hardcover
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ASIN: 0201483955 |
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The Hidden Welfare State.(Review) (book review) (book review): An article from: National Tax Journal
Janet Holtzblatt
Manufacturer: National Tax Association
ProductGroup: Book
Binding: Digital
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ASIN: B0008HBYX2
Release Date: 2005-07-28 |
Book Description
This digital document is an article from National Tax Journal, published by National Tax Association on June 1, 2000. The length of the article is 3411 words. The page length shown above is based on a typical 300-word page. The article is delivered in HTML format and is available in your Amazon.com Digital Locker immediately after purchase. You can view it with any web browser.
Citation Details
Title: The Hidden Welfare State.(Review) (book review) (book review)
Author: Janet Holtzblatt
Publication:
National Tax Journal (Refereed)
Date: June 1, 2000
Publisher: National Tax Association
Volume: 53
Issue: 2
Page: 323
Article Type: Book Review
Distributed by Thomson Gale
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