Name: Crazy
ISBN: 9780425213896

Pete Earley

A dual memoir and journalistic investigation into the criminalization of America's mentally ill describes the author's battle with the shortcomings of the nation's mental health system after his son was declared ill, and exposes what the author learned throughout his year-long investigation into the Miami-Dade County jail. Reprint. 50,000 first printing.

A Father's Search Through America's Mental Health Madness

Crazy

“A magnificent gift to those of us who love someone who has a mental illness…Earley has used his considerable skills to meticulously research why the mental health system is so profoundly broken.”—Bebe Moore Campbell, author of 72 Hour Hold Former Washington Post reporter Pete Earley had written extensively about the criminal justice system. But it was only when his own son—in the throes of a manic episode—broke into a neighbor's house that he learned what happens to mentally ill people who break a law. This is the Earley family's compelling story, a troubling look at bureaucratic apathy and the countless thousands who suffer confinement instead of care, brutal conditions instead of treatment, in the “revolving doors” between hospital and jail. With mass deinstitutionalization, large numbers of state mental patients are homeless or in jail-an experience little better than the horrors of a century ago. Earley takes us directly into that experience—and into that of a father and award-winning journalist trying to fight for a better way.

Jennifer

I picked up this book because I wanted to learn more about bipolar disorder and the (broken and flawed) mental health system in the United States. I became interested in this after reading My Lovely Wife in the Psych Ward and wanted to read more memoirs about it. Definitely required reading for people who live in the US. But definitely definitely required reading for people who know and/or love somebody with a mental illness. His story could easily be yours. Worth reading because it’s from a father’s perspective and this father just happens to be an investigative journalist. I also wonder if any of the laws have changed since this was written. Is there an updated version of this book? (Maybe not written by Earley but another similar book that’s more recent?)

Crazy A Father's Search Through America's Mental Health Madness

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