The Michigan DHHS head should be fired immediately

[km1125]

"A spokesperson with the Michigan Department of Health and Human Services said the agency cannot provide an update on Wolfe’s status or his release due to patient privacy laws. "

I'm thinking that those kinds of patients should lose those protections for some period of time if they are allowed an 'insanity' defense for a felony.

[Constant Listener]

The release of this cold blooded murderer from custody is extremely frightening and a complete and total outrage.

https://www.woodtv.com/news/kalamazoo-c ... tting-out/

As someone who works for this department and is thankfully leaving at the end of the year, I can tell you that your anger should be directed towards the lawmakers in Lansing who write the laws, not towards the DHHS head (although she’s a politically connected figurehead doing a so-so job).

By law, once they’re deemed incompetent to stand trial, they have to try to rehabilitate them and make them competent. What the law SHOULD also say (but doesn’t) is that once they’re deemed competent, they go to prison.

We had a very similar case in my hometown about 40 years ago where a guy, undergoing a divorce, walked into a local mall and shot his wife to death in the store she worked in. He literally laid the gun down on the floor after shooting her and waited for the police. He also was found incompetent to stand trial. He spent about 5 years in the psych center, was rehabilitated and released. It angered the victims family and I had thought that the law had changed as a result of that case. Maybe not.

Currently, our office is dealing with a teen girl who committed a couple of felonies and got the same diagnosis - mentally incompetent. Unfortunately she now knows this and has done more delinquent actions that she knows are wrong. I’ve talked to cops who’ve dealt with her who say she knows exactly what she’s doing. What I’ve been told is that they will probably do another evaluation on possible new charges with another evaluator. We can only hope.

Don’t kill the messenger for the message. We are only working under what laws are on the books

[TC Talks]

The release of this cold blooded murderer from custody is extremely frightening and a complete and total outrage.

Would you be willing to increase your taxes to properly fund mental health services? I didn't think so.

We wouldn't have 30% of our crime if we had mental healthcare.

[Rate This]

The release of this cold blooded murderer from custody is extremely frightening and a complete and total outrage.

https://www.woodtv.com/news/kalamazoo-c ... tting-out/

As someone who works for this department and is thankfully leaving at the end of the year, I can tell you that your anger should be directed towards the lawmakers in Lansing who write the laws, not towards the DHHS head (although she’s a politically connected figurehead doing a so-so job).

By law, once they’re deemed incompetent to stand trial, they have to try to rehabilitate them and make them competent. What the law SHOULD also say (but doesn’t) is that once they’re deemed competent, they go to prison.

We had a very similar case in my hometown about 40 years ago where a guy, undergoing a divorce, walked into a local mall and shot his wife to death in the store she worked in. He literally laid the gun down on the floor after shooting her and waited for the police. He also was found incompetent to stand trial. He spent about 5 years in the psych center, was rehabilitated and released. It angered the victims family and I had thought that the law had changed as a result of that case. Maybe not.

Currently, our office is dealing with a teen girl who committed a couple of felonies and got the same diagnosis - mentally incompetent. Unfortunately she now knows this and has done more delinquent actions that she knows are wrong. I’ve talked to cops who’ve dealt with her who say she knows exactly what she’s doing. What I’ve been told is that they will probably do another evaluation on possible new charges with another evaluator. We can only hope.

Don’t kill the messenger for the message. We are only working under what laws are on the books

That shouldn’t be once they are made competent… it should be once they are safe for the prison population. That’s a lower, cheaper and quicker bar to cross I would think. If they are due to be released at some later date then do that as part of the exit from prison.

The biggest solution is to rebuild the pre-1963 mental health system that kept crazy people from running amok in the numbers they do now. The people who supposed they could turn things over to the private sector for outpatient services and it would work out just fine were high as a kite.

[Constant Listener]

The release of this cold blooded murderer from custody is extremely frightening and a complete and total outrage.

https://www.woodtv.com/news/kalamazoo-c ... tting-out/

As someone who works for this department and is thankfully leaving at the end of the year, I can tell you that your anger should be directed towards the lawmakers in Lansing who write the laws, not towards the DHHS head (although she’s a politically connected figurehead doing a so-so job).

By law, once they’re deemed incompetent to stand trial, they have to try to rehabilitate them and make them competent. What the law SHOULD also say (but doesn’t) is that once they’re deemed competent, they go to prison.

We had a very similar case in my hometown about 40 years ago where a guy, undergoing a divorce, walked into a local mall and shot his wife to death in the store she worked in. He literally laid the gun down on the floor after shooting her and waited for the police. He also was found incompetent to stand trial. He spent about 5 years in the psych center, was rehabilitated and released. It angered the victims family and I had thought that the law had changed as a result of that case. Maybe not.

Currently, our office is dealing with a teen girl who committed a couple of felonies and got the same diagnosis - mentally incompetent. Unfortunately she now knows this and has done more delinquent actions that she knows are wrong. I’ve talked to cops who’ve dealt with her who say she knows exactly what she’s doing. What I’ve been told is that they will probably do another evaluation on possible new charges with another evaluator. We can only hope.

Don’t kill the messenger for the message. We are only working under what laws are on the books

That shouldn’t be once they are made competent… it should be once they are safe for the prison population. That’s a lower, cheaper and quicker bar to cross I would think. If they are due to be released at some later date then do that as part of the exit from prison.

The biggest solution is to rebuild the pre-1963 mental health system that kept crazy people from running amok in the numbers they do now. The people who supposed they could turn things over to the private sector for outpatient services and it would work out just fine were high as a kite.

Completely agree but there’s just one problem -

In a case of twisted logic, the legislature sees keeping these folks with some mental health issues in jail/prison cheaper than actually having to adequately fund a in patient mental health system. Thank John Engler for closing all these state run mental health facilities back in the mid 90’s. Then thank the GOP majority legislature under Rick Synder for changing sentencing guidelines for several felonies to a minimum of 1 year. Why? If they are sentenced to a felony with a minimum 1 year, they serve it in the county jail, not prison