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ACTION: Please sign the petition to STOP Involuntary Outpatient Commitment (IOC) and offer comments at www.NoIOC.org
NEW YORK STATE FACES INVOLUNTARY OUTPATIENT TORTURE BECOMING PERMANENT.
YOU CAN HELP STOP IT.
On Tuesday, April 27, 2010, WE THE PEOPLE and allies will be meeting with Assemblyman Felix Ortiz, Chair of the Mental Health Subcommittee to oppose Involuntary Outpatient Torture being made permanent or being extended. "Kendra's Law" which exhibits structural and institutional racism and classism was suppose to sunset in June 2010 - and the new proposed aw is even more social control than its previous version.
The proposed new law includes provisions such as increasing the original court order from 6 months to one year; not requiring doctor testimony, requiring fiscal management, allowing an expired order to be renewed 60 days after it expires without needing a new hearing, and viewing "non-compliance" with drugs, urine or blood tests, or drugs and alcohol use as grounds for "dangerousness".
Hundreds of millions of tax-payer dollars have been spent on Kendra's Law legislation, which was first enacted in 1999 after a young woman - Kendra Webdale - died when struck by a train after being pushed off a subway platform by Andrew Goldstein. The law allowed for people who were accused of "mental illness" but not considered a present danger to be court ordered to receive outpatient drug treatment. Andrew Goldstein was an individual who had been institutionalized and drugged. After he was released from lock-up he sought voluntary outpatient treatment. However, he was repeatedly turned away by "mental health" treatment providers. He received no compassion, - no support, - no services, - not even the medications he was accustomed to and was willing to take. He was refused help- and then pushed Kendra Webdale - and then got attention. He would not even have qualified or been subject to the law named after his victim. This law is just an attempt to draw attention away from the real problem, which is lack of real help and assistance from providers, and a knee-jerk response of social control and blaming the victim.
WE THE PEOPLE are survivors and escapees of the current treatment methods of organized psychiatry. WE THE PEOPLE maintain that too many people have been victimized by experimentation, drugging, and electro-convulsive "therapy". They continue to state national statistics that people who have been treated as "mentally ill" die an average of 25 to 30 years younger than their contemporaries.
WE THE PEOPLE view the "mental illness industry" as cruel, costly, powerful, and profitable. As citizens of the United States we maintain that the human rights of ALL people must be protected and promoted. When the needs of people are met, force is not necessary. Forced drugging and unwanted "treatment" is torture. We will be heard.
ACTION: Please sign on your support and offer comments on your opinion at www.NoIOC.org
All comments will be printed and presented to Assemblyman Ortiz on Tuesday, April 27, 2010.
Please act now. If Involuntary Outpatient Torture becomes permanent in New York, it will set a standard for the country and the world to follow.
Please Support us in New York State, today!
Thanks,
WE THE PEOPLE
www.NoIOC.org
www.TheOpalProject.org/vigil.html
www.TheOpalProject.org/ectban.html |
Application (DOC)
Application (PDF)
