Llano County Jail Death Prompts Lawsuit
When the Llano County sheriff arrived at her home in August 2011, Shirley Appell thought that her son, Shawn, had escaped from the county jail.
The 45-year-old Air Force veteran had been arrested five months earlier after driving his car into a local tire shop, which she says was because he was suffering from schizophrenia.
But the sheriff, Bill Blackburn, came to tell her that her son had died in the jail. He had been suffering from delusions, telling anyone who would listen, “I got demons in my head” and beating his head against the wall. After 24 hours, he ...
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Anonymous Anonymous
Yes, based on my nearly twenty-three years of experience in TDCJ-ID as a mental health profressional, I can assure you that dealing with offenders is hard enough. When you add major mental illness to the mix, the situation becomes even more complex & dangerous. Some officers, who have witnessed the changes in behavior of offenders with mental illness, after compelled psychoactive medications, typically know which ones are in need of more intrusive treatment. These officers were referred to as "blue shirts" since they wore different uniforms. They were assigned to inpatient psychiatric hospitals throughout the state. Frequently, those who don't want psychoactive medication are the ones to watch. Usually, compelled medication comes after a VITEK hearing has been conducted. However, many complicated problems occur after someone has been stabilized & released. Due to officer & medical staff shortages & an absence of liquid medications, medication compliance is difficult to maintain on an outpatient unit. Some offenders are quite talented at cheeking their medications. They may not want to take the medication for many reasons. For instance, many patients don't like to take anti-psychotic medication because of side effects. UTMB-CMC tends to use medications that have been out for many years while avoiding the more expensive ones with fewer side effects. Also, some offenders tend to feign mental illness in order to obtain medications for black market exchanges. I could write a book on the things I witnessed over the years. I've worked with inpatient psychiatric patients, those on death row, and those with mental retardation. The problems are widespread & enormous. Texas has missed the mark in effectively treating those with mental illness and mental retardation. Why? Community treatment programs have been poorly executed due to massive budget cuts & privitization. Consequently, mental patients are landing inside prison. I might add that this is a national trend. I left the system when the situation became unethical. Since I left, there have been more budget cuts for officers & mental health personnel professionals. Texas refuses to raise taxes to deal with these dire circumstances thinking they can pray them away, I suppose. But, this is not going to happen. The situation is going to get much worse unless people pull their heads out of the sand & address the issues. It takes money & resources.