street roots
April 11, 2014
J A
For the 1
A compilation of facts, large and
STAFF W R ITER
.
• Humber of flight operations PDX H l
saw in February: 14,877
'
• Percent of Oregon population that is
;;< <
.
• Percent of cyclists wearing their
H
*
Portland bicycle count: 80- H H H R
• Percent of female cyclists during the
2012 City of Portland bicycle count: 31
jWMedbYHoftie Forward, the
region's housing authority, as of B
February:48
H
I 1 1
• Number of family households
residing in Home Forward public
housing: 1,955
say w as marked by a
• Percentage of households
wtM <^8dren Hng in Home Forward
• Humber
y y HfiBHR H I
registefed votersin
Multnomah County as of January
2014:442,132
• Humber of registered voters in
Portland as of January 2014:363,302
• Pounds oftrash removed .by
SOLVE’s cieanup work in 2013 from
across Oregon: 43,584 g S X v ?'
• Humber of native plants SOLVE
pM e d in 2013 b Oregon: 427
• Humber of SUH schools in
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J ||f
• Humber of schooldistricts SUH 11
• Percentage of SUH schooled
children and families who receive free
or reduced loooh: 74 J / I
n th e desk in Juliet Follansbee's
downtown Portland office is a thick
book of Oregon laws. It contains
only a few sentences that grant the state
agency she Operates tremendous power
over the lives of hundreds of Oregonians.
In May Follansbee was made interim
executive director of the Psychiatric /
Security Review Board, a position she was
permanently appointed to in November.
Created by Oregon lawmakers in 1977, the
10-rtiémber interdisciplinary board has
-authority over individuals who have
successfully asserted the “guilty except for
insanity” defense, meaning they’ve
committed a crime, but because of a
mental illness or developmental disability
did not fully understand what they were
doing at the time.
Follansbee takes the
reins of the PSRB at a
Trie Mental Health time when the state
Association of
has aspired to shift its
mental health system
Portland will be
holding a talk with to more community-
Juliet Follansbee, based rather than
institutional settings.
6-8:30 p.m.
Follansbee says that
Tuesday, April 29
the PSRB has more
at Oregon Health
.resources to place
& Science
people in community
University.
settings than ever
Admission is free before. Mental health
but seating is
advocates are also
limited.
hoping that Follansbee
will set a new tone for
I the PSRB. which some
0
received from flights in February: , | | ( j
1¿ 3 2 5 > 5 7 U ~ | | §
I I H
5
BY JAKE THOMAS
IH
• Percent of runaway youth served by
Multnomah County Runaway Youth H
Services that are reunited with their
families: 85
• Homeownership rate in
2 0 M 1 2 :^ S
■
V -L
Director of Oregon5» psychiatric review
board Says she welcomes change
¡iD w nii
small, about our community
- '
I [ 1 j j l
Multnomah Comity, Oregon: Port of
Portland: U.S. Census Bureau: The
City of Portland, Oregon; Home
Forward: SOLVE Oregon I 1
I |||
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climate of fear and intimidation fostered by
her predecessor.
Follansbee says she’s open to changing
thePSRB’s processes and operations. She
also wants to help standardize training and
foster a collaborative approach with
community health care providers. She says
she wants the PSRB to accommodate
change, the biggest of which is the
increase in resources to treat clients in
community settings.
“We (serve) just a small portion of the
people who receive community mental
health services,” says Follansbee.
Being placed under the PSRB, says
Follansbee, who previously ran a program
that restored the gun rights of Oregonians
whose mental health had prevented them
from owning firearms, is different from a
civil commitment, where someone is
involuntarily placed in a mental health
setting. “This is something that our clients
have chosen to do because they thought
that they woiild do better in a mental
health setting,” She says, i
However,, those who successfully assert
the insanity defense grant the PSRB
sweeping control over their lives.
Depending on the severity of the crime
committed, the PSRB (in consultation with
community-based mental health providers)
determines the settings clients are
released into along with what sort of
treatment and supervision they receive.
Some clients living in more independent
settings may have to check in twice a day
with mental health workers. If someone is
placed under the purview, of the PSRB,
odds are it will have authority over them
longer than if they.had gone to prison.
Sometimes they will remain under the
board’s authority for life. For. most PSRB
clients, the first stop after successfully
1 pleading insanity is the Oregon State
Hospital.
“We have the/least amount of people in
the hospital than we ever have, and the
most amount of people in the community
than we ever have,” says Follansbee. “And
The Psychiatric Security Review Board was established by the Legislature in
1977 to assume jurisdiction over adults who successfully assert the insanity
defense to a crime and are a substantial danger to others. Its duties were expanded
in 2007 to include jurisdiction of young persons found responsible except for
insanity. In 2009, the Legislature added the responsibility of conducting gun relief
hearings to determine whether persons with mental health determinations who are
barred from possessing a firearm should have their firearm privileges restored. The
2013 Legislative session expanded the Board's role in granting relief by designating
it as the authority to hold hearings for those persons who have successfully
asserted the “guilty except for insanity” defense and wish relief from reporting as a
sex offender or reclassification of their risk designation.
leveled against her predecessor, but she
the reality is that whenever the hospital
says someone is ready to be placed on
did say that she wants clients, victims and
conditional release, the board almost
mental health advocacy organizations,
always approves it.” .■ ■
which, she refers to as “partners,” to be
Of the 559 people under the PSRB’s
heard throughout the process.
jurisdiction, 385 are on conditional
“They often have competing interests
release.
and views,” she says, noting that
In 2011, lawmakers passed legislation
stakeholders’ interests won’t always align.
that reformed the PSRB, system and
“That’s challenging, and one of the ways
created a separate board run by the
we want to work collaboratively is to build
Oregon State Hospital to determine when
relationships where all of our stakeholders
patients, who haven’t committed violent
crimes, can he released. Follansbee, who
feel like they’re getting a fair shake.”
says there are about 90 people under the
Although Follansbee says she doesn’t
separate board, describes this reform as
want to keep someone in the hospital
positive, saying that it offers patients one
unnecessarily, she says a cautious
more avenue to obtain conditional release.
approach is still needed.
At the State Hospital, patients afe
Oregon law directs the board to have
subject to widely Varying degrees of
“as its primary concern the protection of
supervision, ranging from closely
society” When making decisions regarding
monitored settings to living semi-
the conditional release or discharge of
independently in group homes on the
p atien ts. A nd to get o u t of the hospital, .j
facility’s grounds. In late March, a patient
patients still have Lo go through foiir , ;
at the State Hospital who had pleaded
guilty except for insanity to an'attempted
separate layers of approval,; all of-which . g
murder charge walked away.
Follansbee says are needed.
Rebeka Gipson-King, spokesperson for
“The data Suggests that slow
the Oregon Health Authority, says that
incremental moves will give our clients the
people are often surprised that some
tools, so when they are no longer under S
patients live semi-independently at the
our board, they can continue their
State Hospital.
stability,’’.says Follansbee. “It’s clear by
“The State Hospital is not a .
our recidivism rate that when you’re under
punishment,” she says. “They are sent -g
our board you’re going to remain stable.” ;
there to get better.”
' One thing that everyone agrees on is
However, some mental health advocates,
have seen things differently.
that the PSRB has-been effective in
“You have the use of the State Hospital
carrying out its public safety mandate. The
as a punishment, a very expensive
recidivism rate for the PSRB for the last.
- punishment,” says Chris Bouneff, the
15 years is 2.66 percent. Of the 1,655
executive director of the National Alliance
people who’ve obtained conditional release
on Mental Illness Oregon, Bouneff says
over the last 15 years, only 17 have
that under the PSRB’s previous executive
committed new felonies.
director, Mary Claire Buckley, clients
“When you look at Mary Clare Buckley’s
would he sent back to the State Hospital
record and lack of recidivism, it s clear that
for relatively minor infractions, such as
she didn’t take a lot of chances on people,”
failing a drug test, which could be
addressed in a less costly way. “It certainly says Jason Renaud, spokesperson for the
wasn’t helping with the smooth operating
Mental Health Association of Portland.
of our mental health operation,” he says.
t “It seems like what happens when you
Patrick, who doesn’t want his real name
have a strong personality in charge of an
used in this article because he’s still under
organization, the process just sort of
the jurisdiction of the PSRB, says that his -
fades,” says Bob Joondeph, the executive
defense lawyer talked him into pleading
director of Disability Rights Oregon.
guilty except for insanity to what he says
Although the PSRB is designed to move
was a bogus burglary charge. His lawyer
carefully, he says, Follansbee has so far
told him he would spend a few months in
the State Hospital. Instead he got 10 years
“brought a less hierarchical and more
of being under the PSRB’s jurisdiction.
collaborative approach to making the
After spending three years in the State
process work the way it’s supposed to.”
Hospital, he was released to a group home
Joondeph says that movies and TV have
in Portland, where he says the threat of
long
fueled the notion that mentally ill
being sent back was used as a threat to ; 1
people are dangerous and need to be
keep residents in line.
locked up. He says that the PSRB should
“The overall structure is, if you bring an
focus more on recovery and individuals
. issue to your case monitor that could
under it should receive treatment in the
result in very negative things happening to
least segregated settings possible, which •
you,” he says.
An investigation ipta allegations that
he says the board doesn’t have the best
Buckley was verbally abusive was dropped
track record on.
following her resignation this past
“It’s a difficult position to be in because
summer. She was hired by the Portland
public safety is our mandate,” says
Police Bureau as a policy analyst in
Follansbee. “It’s difficult to have everyone
November.
in our system happy with the results.”
Follansbee wouldn’t speak to criticisms