Day 73 (12/4/14) "She was on 4 different meds"

Well, my roommate actually listened to me and took my advice instead of nagging the deputies and complaining non-stop. She’s just documenting the things she feels is not right or justified. She seems to have taken it down a notch. I’m glad to see the change. I think a combination of her Father passing away and the meds they had her on made her very aggressive and hostile. She finally saw the Psychiatrist yesterday and got her meds changed. She was on 4 different meds during the day and night. Now, she’s on 1 in the morning and 2 at night. I am already seeing an improvement. It’s sad that all they do here is drug people up. There is no other help or treatment. She lost her Dad, why don’t they have a grief counselor ? Why isn’t there group counseling. Less on meds, more on therapy and treatment for the mentally ill. I mean, I would like to participate in counseling or a group counseling to deal with being in here, my actions, and how to understand the impact on my family. I think jail should build a housing unit for those that need mental health services. Services not containment. You can’t tell me there isn’t any money. Between Securus, JPay, and Global Tel Link, there’s plenty ! Anyway, Right now, psych ward is a bunch of one man cells with 24/7 lockdown. The psychiatrist comes 1-2 times a month. So, you’re treatment is lockdown and meds. They need a unit that is based around treatment, therapy, and counseling. Bring psych interns from local colleges to run groups to save money. This unit would have deputies to insure safety, but trained staff that know how to deal and treat the mentally ill. A lot of women could benefit from this and possibly succeed when they get out. Part of the program would be a “pre-release” class. So that these women continue their treatment, have a place to live, and some assistance with food, clothes, finding a job, medication and so on. We need to find a better way to re-enter them into our communities other than handing them a trolley token and putting them back on the streets. 

The rain has stopped and the clouds have cleared. The sun is out. We got to walk to the chow hall for dinner. How I missed that walk the last couple of days. After dinner, before we locked down, they were bringing the drug sniffing dog to housing C. I’m sure they are looking for anything leftover from Saturday nights raid. Just another night at Las Colinas Detention.