A Real Exercise in True Democracy™
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LIST OF 86 MEMBER INSTITUTIONS OF FOUR METRO IAF AFFILIATES IN ILLINOIS AS OF MAY 1, 2018 A REAL EXERCISE IN DUPAGE UNITED (dupageunited.org) UNITED POWER FOR ACTION AND JUSTICE (united-power.org) ™ Church of the Holy Nativity, Clarendon Hills Ascension Catholic Church, Oak Park TRUE DEMOCRACY Congregation Etz Chaim, Lombard Chicago Sinai Congregation, Chicago Congregation Downers Grove Society of Friends B’Nai Jehoshua Beth Elohim, Deerfield Darus Salam Foundation, Lombard First United, Oak Park DuPage Initiatives Good Shepherd Lutheran, Oak Park Faith Lutheran Church of Glen Ellyn Grace Lutheran, River Forest Let’s Stop Jailing People Suffering First Church of Lombard Lawndale Christian Development Corporation First Congregational Church of Glen Ellyn Our Savior’s Evangelical Lutheran, Arlington Heights from Mental Illness First United Methodist Church of Downers Grove St. Augustine’s Episcopal Church, Wilmette Illinois Education Association Region 32 St. Gertrude’s Catholic Church, Chicago Islamic Center of Naperville St. James Catholic Church, Arlington Heights ere’s a question for you, whether Here is a two-step solution to cutting our Islamic Circle of North America (ICNA) Relief, Glendale Heights St. Mary’s Episcopal Church, Park Ridge you’re a Democrat, Republican, incarceration rates in the state and helping people Islamic Foundation, Villa Park St. Nicholas Catholic Church, Evanston Jericho Road Church of Wheaton St. Philip’s Lutheran Church, Glenview Independent, or just sick of the whole with mental illness get well. We intend to make Hpolitical process: If we could solve one of our Mercy Housing Lakefront The Mosque Foundation, Bridgeview it one of the top issues for this fall’s elections for Muslim Educational and Cultural Center of America, Willowbrook Trinity United Church of Christ, Chicago major social issues in Illinois while saving millions governor, attorney general, and every sheriff and Muslim Society Inc., Glendale Heights Ehresman Management, Chicago in state funds and helping tens of thousands of state’s attorney in our four counties. North Central College, Naperville Progress CIL, Forest Park Northern IL Conference of the United Methodist Church Southwest Organizing Project, Chicago people in need, would you be in favor of it? Second Baptist Church of Wheaton ICNA Relief, Chicago ··· St. Mark’s Episcopal Church of Glen Ellyn MAS-PACE, Bridgeview Of course you would. As a recent report from the National Alliance for Mental Health (NAMI) St. Paul Lutheran Church of Wheaton Josselyn Center for Mental Health, Northfield To stem the tide of mass incarceration, we St. Thomas the Apostle Catholic Church of Naperville has pointed out, “In a mental health crisis, people Union Church of Hinsdale UCC LAKE COUNTY UNITED (lakecountyunited.org) are more likely to encounter police than get need a robust system for preventing people who Unitarian Church of Hinsdale Christ Episcopal Church, Waukegan medical help. As a result, 2 million people with really don’t belong in jail from being sent there West Chicago Teachers Association Church of Holy Spirit Episcopal, Lake Forest mental illness are booked into jails nationally anyway. Step one in our approach is to train law Congregation Or Shalom, Vernon Hills enforcement and first-responder personnel in FOX RIVER VALLEY INITIATIVE (dupageunited.org/fox-river-valley-initiative/) Congregation Solel, Highland Park each year. Nearly 15% of men and 30% of The Association for Individual Development First Presbyterian Church of Libertyville women booked into jails have a serious mental what is called “Crisis Intervention Team (CIT) Bethlehem Lutheran Church, St. Charles Grace United Methodist Church, Lake Bluff health condition.”* This is not good for the law Training,” a forty-hour course with follow-up that Christ the Lord Lutheran Church, Elgin Holy Cross Lutheran Church, Libertyville enforcement and criminal justice system, for teaches police and others how to recognize and Congregational Church of Batavia Islamic Foundation North, Waukegan defuse what is happening when they encounter Ecker Center for Mental Health, Elgin Mercy Housing Lakefront our state and local budgets, for our families and First Congregational Church of Geneva Most Blessed Trinity Catholic Church, Waukegan communities, or for the people who are being sent situations with people who are suffering from Hesed House, Aurora North Shore Unitarian Church, Deerfield to jail or prison for creating minor domestic or mental illness and /or addiction. We have already Illinois Education Association St. Gregory’s Episcopal Church, Deerfield even public disturbances, committing petty crimes, worked to ensure this training is being offered in Lazarus House, St. Charles St. James Lutheran Church, Lake Forest or simple acting in inappropriate ways because of DuPage, Kane, Lake, and Cook counties. It works, Mercy Housing St. Joseph’s Catholic Church, Libertyville NAMI - Kane, DeKalb, and Kendall Counties St. Lawrence Episcopal, Libertyville a mental illness and /or addiction. it is not expensive, and it can be run locally. Northern IL Conference of the United Methodist Church St. Mary of Vernon Catholic Church, Vernon Hills St. Charles Episcopal Church, St. Charles St. Paul’s Lutheran Church, Waukegan Tri-City Family Services Trinity Episcopal Church, Highland Park Unitarian Universalist Society of Geneva Libertyville United Methodist Church Lake County PADS Lake County Residential Development Corporation Waukegan Public Library For more information call 800-397-2282 and ask “Metro IAF.” Waukegan to College ere’s the second step. With CIT training, will begin to receive the medical and psychological We have the support of the two major candidates f course, when we win on this first, H law enforcement officers can size up a care they obviously need. for Illinois Attorney General (Republican O crucial step, we will still have a lot of situation, judge it for what it is, help deescalate it, Erika Harold and Democrat Kwame Raoul) to work to do. As the NAMI report concludes: SUs need to be well-staffed and funded, and then remove the person or persons causing promise to work on this issue with us, and we “After leaving jail, many suffering from open 24-7, and be prepared to admit people the problem. Even if law enforcement and first C mental illness no longer have access to needed brought to them either voluntarily or by law responders learn to recognize and diffuse a At least 83% of jail inmates healthcare and benefits. A criminal record situation obviously being caused by mental illness enforcement or emergency responders and then with a mental illness did often makes it hard for individuals to get a or drugs, however, they most often still need keep them either for a few hours or even a few not have access to needed job or housing. Many individuals, especially to deal with it by removing one or more of the days until they are able to address their crisis and begin to show signs of recovery. CSUs are a far treatment. without access to mental health services and participants in an altercation from the scene. They supports, wind up homeless, in emergency are required then to take the people involved superior option — from both a service and a cost rooms and often re-arrested. At least 83% of somewhere. For most of Illinois, the choices are point of view — to putting people in jail or prison are demanding that both major candidates for jail inmates with a mental illness did not have either jail or an emergency room. We need a third or warehousing them in large mental institutions Governor of Illinois (Democrat Jay Pritzker and access to needed treatment. Jailing people with option, which we call “Crisis Stabilization Units (as was done in Illinois in the not-too-distant Republican Bruce Rauner) speak to it as well. past). As NAMI states: “The vast majority of the mental illness creates huge burdens on law (CSUs).” What are CSUs, how do they operate, ··· how much do they cost, how many of them do we individuals are not violent criminals—most people enforcement, corrections, and state and local ur goal is to eliminate or seriously curtail need, and—most importantly—do they work? in jails are have not yet gone to trial, so they are budgets. It does not protect public safety. And not yet convicted of a crime. The rest are serving O the practice of putting people in jail or people who could be helped are being ignored.”* SUs already exist. For example, Dade short sentences for minor crimes. Once in jail, prison who are suffering from mental health and C County (Miami) Florida, has had this system many individuals don’t receive the treatment they / or addiction, not only because it is the right We can stop both the fiscally irresponsible in place for several years, and they have cut the need and end up getting worse, not better. They thing to do but because it makes so much sense and socially destructive ways of responding to prison population by so much that they have stay longer than their counterparts without mental and will have such a significant impact on our those with mental illness. Will you get involved? been able to close one entire prison. A couple of illness. They are at risk of victimization and often families and the social fabric of our communities. You can also donate to our work at http:// metro-iaf.org/donate. Thank you! See if your behavioral-health hospitals in the Chicago area their mental health conditions get worse.”* ou—yes you—can definitely help! First, can and do function as CSUs, including Sinai religious institution or other organization is ere is the most surprising thing about Y tell your friends and family and any pollsters Holy Cross in Cook County. Other hospitals and or politicians or reporters who might ask what listed on the back of this flyer as a member of behavior health providers in Kane, DuPage, Lake, H this idea: We don’t need that many CSUs one of the four county-wide organizations that in Illinois to make this solution work.