Family members Roger and Geraldine West

6 June 2006

The Honorable Deborah Ortiz, Chair
Senate Health Committee

Dear Senator Ortiz,

We write you about AB 2357 (Laura’s Law) today to ask you support this bill which extends the sunset of AB 1421.

We ask this because we feel very, very strongly about it. We supported AB 1800 which did not get through the senate because the former president of the senate, Senator John Burton, opposed it stating it would pass over his dead body.

We called Senator Burton’s office on September 1, 2000 because there was a dead body - but not his. A promising life was ruined and a family was devastated emotionally and financially due to the lack of legislation like this.

We do not want the lives of the mentally ill and that of their families ruined because you follow in his footsteps and do not pass this bill out of committee.

On that date, our daughter, Marie-Elise West, in an extreme manic state, killed an old Hispanic man with her car . She was charged with murder with the additional circumstances of a hate crime. She had graduated from UCLA and was at Boalt Law School in 1990 before her psychotic break. She had the intended to practice public interest law upon graduation. She had been hospitalized 22 times in the intervening 10 years between her psychotic break and the incident.

Had AB 1800 been enacted then or even AB 1421 this horrific incident and its consequences would not have occurred. Her third Not Guilty by Reason of Insanity (NGI) trial is scheduled for July 10th, after the first two trials ended in a hung jury and a mistrial after her conviction of second degree murder.

All this could have been prevented and the government could have saved the millions of dollars spent on this incident. Why subject other mentally ill persons and their families and loved one to this fate. Please vote it out of committee.

Yours very truly,

Roger and Geraldine West

Family member Heidi Sanborn

June 5, 2006

The Honorable Dave Cox
Senate Health Committee

Re: Support AB 2357

Dear Senator Cox,

As a constituent, I ask you to please support AB 2357, which is jointly authored by Assemblyman Yee, and Assemblywoman Karnette. AB 2357 was passed by the Assembly Judiciary Committee on April 18, 2006 and will be heard in the Senate Health Committee June 7th. AB 2357 extends the sunset to 2013 on AB 1421 (Thomson - 2002) the Assisted Outpatient Treatment (AOT) Demonstration Project.

California needs an outpatient intervention like Laura’s Law that can be triggered on grounds other than imminent physical danger to or by a person. It is wrong to require the mentally ill to become "dangerous" --- waiting for danger is too late in many cases---before giving them treatment when due to their illness, they can't make an informed consent.

My mother suffers with paranoid schizophrenia and I have watched her cycle from jail and the streets for 30 years until I was granted conservatorship. If Laura’s Law had been in-place, my mother, who has a master’s degree in biology and is a law-abiding citizen, would never ended up in jail and being victimized on the street. My family tried to get help but was told we had no rights and no intervention was legal except to wait until she became a “criminal”. This is cruel to my mom and our family not to mention the cost to society.
California counties already have involuntary treatment – it’s called arrest and incarceration, but the alternative to jails and prisons is AOT. Recovery from mental illnesses requires a supportive structure and AOT provides structure and support.

I urge you to support AB 2357 to bring treatment to those in the counties of California whose lives have been destroyed by untreated illness.

Sincerely,

Heidi Sanborn

Family member Mark Gale

May 28, 2006

The Honorable Senator Deborah Ortiz, Chair
Senate Health Committee

Dear Senator Ortiz,

I am writing to ask for your support of AB 2357 which is co-authored by Assemblymember Karnette and Assemblymember Yee, Speaker Pro Tempore. AB 2357 is scheduled to be considered by the Senate Health Committee on June 7, 2006. AB 2357 extends the sunset on AB 1421, “Laura’s Law,” the Assisted Outpatient Treatment (AOT) Demonstration Project. I ask you to support this measure.

I am the father of a young man who suffers from a serious mental illness called Bipolar Disorder. Our son suffers from a “lack of insight” called anosognosia. He cannot tell the difference when he is well or when he is sick. Yet it is quite clear to all when he is in need of treatment. There are many others who cannot comply with a voluntary treatment plan and are living a life of homelessness, incarcerations, and repeated hospitalizations. It is inhumane not to come to the aid of these individuals.

In the state of New York “Kendra’s Law” has reduced hospitalization by 77%, homelessness by 74%, arrests by 83%, incarcerations by 87%, and has increased collaboration and accountability between the mental health and court systems. We ask that California be given the same chance as New York to realize these positive results in our state. Passage of AB 2357 will extend the January 1, 2008 sunset of AB 1421 to January 1, 2013 and allow the implementation of this program across our state.

It is for these reasons that I ask for you to join me in supporting AB 2357 in order to retain the capacity to help those who are so ill that they don’t recognize their need for treatment. It is one of the best tools we have in fighting the criminalization of people who suffer from severe mental illness. If AB 2357 becomes law, Assisted Outpatient Treatment will be implemented in California and the most needy among us will finally get the assistance they need. I ask for your support.

Sincerely,

Mark S. Gale
First Vice-President, NAMI San Fernando Valley