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Statement Regarding the James Logan, Jr. Trial

Maryland NAMI

Reprinted with permission.

By Evelyn Burton, Moira Davenport, and Katy Crane

NAMI-Maryland grieves for the sheriffs who lost their lives, their families and friends, and for the Logan family who, for all intents and purposes, have lost a cherished son, husband, and father. Perhaps the most tragic aspect of this case is that it need not have happened at all. Had the mental health system been designed to provide James Logan, Jr with timely treatment, this terrible outcome might have been avoided.

Serious mental illness, such as schizophrenia, bipolar disorder, and major depression are biologically based brain disorders. They are not a defect in someone's personality, a sign of poor moral character, or a result of poor parenting. Mental illness can strike persons of any age, race, religion or socioeconomic status at any time.

Some people with schizophrenia or bipolar disorder experience anasognosia, impaired awareness of their illness and need for treatment. Untreated mental illness can result in the inability to reason, and recognize reality. In certain cases, it can result in actions that the person would never have engaged in when in treatment. Research has shown that with treatment, people with mental illness are no more violent that the rest of the population and can live safely and successfully in the community.

For those whose psychiatric disorder prevents them from understanding that they are ill, society has an obligation to provide a full range of both voluntary and assisted treatment before the horrendous consequences of lack of treatment occur: homelessness, suicide, victimization, criminalization, and, in rare cases, violence.

The real villain in this tragedy is a broken system of mental health care that provides inadequate community services, and inadequate emergency interventions including timely court ordered assisted treatment. Providing appropriate timely treatment is the only way to prevent future tragedies.

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