Andre Thomas: The Mentally Ill, From Asylums to Jails
This is Part Two in a six-part series exploring the intersections of the mental health and criminal justice systems in Texas. It examines the case of Andre Thomas, a death row inmate who began exhibiting signs of mental illness as a boy and committed a brutal triple murder in 2004. Blind because he pulled out both of his eyes while behind bars, Thomas awaits a federal court's decision on whether he is sane enough to be executed.
SHERMAN, Texas — Wanda Banks remembers Andre Thomas and his brothers from the Sunday school classes she taught at Harmony Baptist Church, a ...
Comments (2)
Roberta Dillania de Geldofinez via Texas Tribune on Facebook
This is kind of random, but I've always wondered why the media tends to focus on the criminally insane when I believe it's 3 out of 5 Americans who suffer from some sort of mental illness.
Veronica Villalpando via Texas Tribune on Facebook
Well Roberta, I have a brother who developed schizophrenia serving 7 years. The system failed him twice. My mother sexually abused for a number of years. We were placed in foster care and he did not receive the care he needed. He was ejected from foster care with no place to go and ended up on the streets. He was in and out of jail (psych units) for sleeping in abandoned buildings. Rather than help this mentally ill individual, the penal system kept releasing him to the streets. The court system was aware of his mental condition because they ran all his cases through mental health court. My brother brutally assaulted someone after his last release. I found him in jail and I followed him through court and to prison. If they would have provided him with what he needed the first and second time then maybe he wouldn't be in prison. But because programs are so underfunded and waiting lists are so long to get services, he fell through the cracks. See this article doesn't make sense to you because it doesn't touch home for you. When my brother went to prison he was taken off his medication, risperdone, and it didn't take long for him to start in again about being an appointed super hero who kills people that molest and rape their children. He reported to me that his mattress and things were taken from him. See it doesn't touch home for you. And what happens to him after he leaved prison. He goes on waiting lists and in the meantime because he's not sane enough to care for himself he attacks again and ends up in prison where they will be cruel to him because the untreated trauma of being sexed by your mother caused you to develop schizophrenia.