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

Written by Pete Earley

Narrated by Michael Prichard

Pete Earley had no idea. He'd been a journalist for over thirty years, and the author of several award-winning-even bestselling-nonfiction books about crime and punishment and society. Yet he'd always been on the outside looking in. He had no idea what it was like to be on the inside looking out until his son, Mike, was declared mentally ill, and Earley was thrown headlong into the maze of contradictions, disparities, and catch-22s that is America's mental health system.

The more Earley dug, the more he uncovered the bigger picture: Our nation's prisons have become our new mental hospitals. Crazy tells two stories. The first is his son's. The second describes what Earley learned during a yearlong investigation inside the Miami-Dade County jail, where he was given complete, unrestricted access. There, and in the surrounding community, he shadowed inmates and patients; interviewed correctional officers, public defenders, prosecutors, judges, mental-health professionals, and the police; talked with parents, siblings, and spouses; consulted historians, civil rights lawyers, and legislators.

The result is both a remarkable piece of investigative journalism, and a wake-up call-a portrait that could serve as a snapshot of any community in America.

• Language: English
• Publisher: Tantor Media, Inc
• Release date: Jul 4, 2006
• ISBN: 9781400172566

Pete Earley

Pete Earley is a former Washington Post reporter, a Pulitzer Prize finalist, and the New York Times bestselling author of sixteen books. He lives in northern Virginia.   

Reviews for Crazy

[the_hibernator · Rating: 5 out of 5 stars]

When Pete Earley's son was diagnosed with schizophrenia Earley was devestated. His son's potential career was on the line, he wasn't willing to accept treatment, and he was generally unpredictable and very unsafe. When Earley tried to get his son into the hospital, his son was turned away because he didn't want to be treated - and laws say that unless someone is an immediate threat to himself or others, he can not be treated involuntarily. Earley had to pretend his son was a threat to Earley's well-being to get his son hospitalized. Then Earley went to a commitment hearing to make sure his son stayed in the hospital until he was better. Early was appalled by his son's defense lawyer who did her best to defend Earley's son despite his son's clear mental illness. In her own defense, the lawyer said it was her job to defend the rights of someone who did not want to be committed. Earley's son won the case and was released. After this incident, Earley's son broke into a house, peed on the carpet, turned over the all the photographs, and took a bubble bath. He was arrested and charges were filed against him by the family. Despite Earley's pleading with the family that his son was not targeting them specifically, that he was sick, the mother felt threatened and continued to press felony charges. Earley knew that the charges would be an irremovable bar from his son's career choice. Because of the horrors of being unable to treat his son, and the unfairness of the charges, Earley decided to research the state of the mentally ill in the Miami jail system. There are, according to the staff psychiatrist, "a lot of people who think mentally ill people are going to get help if they are in jail. But the truth is, we don't help many people here with their psychosis. We can't. The first priority is making sure no one kills himself." The psychiatrist said that the point of the prison was to dehumanize and humiliate a person. Such treatment is counter to improving anyone's health. Early did a fantastic job of reporting the horrors of how mentally ill are treated in prison, and about the money wasted due to unnecessarily lengthy time in jail without trial, and high recidivism rate.

[mahallett · Rating: 5 out of 5 stars]

very sad scary story. mental illness has to be the worst affliction. no one understands you or likes you, so you're very alone.

[oddbooks · Rating: 5 out of 5 stars]

Right now I do not think I can say anything about this book that will do it justice. However, I can say it was an amazing, sobering, upsetting book and when the sting of it is not so fresh, I will discuss it.

[2chances · Rating: 1 out of 5 stars]

When I heard that my city was going to read this book (One Book, One Community), gosh, I got all excited. People with chronic mental illness suffer so much, and are so poorly understood, and their options are so pitifully few: I thought Earley's book would be a great way for people to learn more about the problems they face. Unfortunately, I was less than a chapter in before I wanted to take Pete Earley and shake him until his teeth rattled. Basically, Earley's problem is this: he is too close to the problem to have the slightest objectivity about the legal or medical issues involved. To Pete Earley, every person with mental illness is his son Mike (who suffers from schizo-affective disorder, and won't take his meds.) Mike breaks into a family's home, pees on the carpet, bathes in the daughter's bathtub, and is arrested. Earley goes to "apologize" to the family - and by "apologize," I mean "talk them into dropping charges." He drips contempt for the mother of the family, who was terrified by the home invasion and is extremely frightened that Mike may repeat the offense, perhaps with violence, a fear that Earley mocks as trivial - "Mike had no history of violence." (Yes, and no history of home invasions, either, until this happened.) Hello, Mr. Earley? This family has now been victimized twice by your family: once by a guy who has the excuse of suffering from a major mental illness, and once, IN PRINT, by his father, who has no excuse whatsoever for treating a crime victim with so little compassion. Earley's solution to Mike's problems is simple: Mike should be remanded to his custody, and Pete should be allowed to force Mike to take his meds. There are so many problems with this book, I don't even know where to begin. Earley wants law enforcement to be able to compel the mentally ill to take medications, and doesn't seem even slightly interested in the enormous civil rights issues this policy would raise. By Pete's admission, Mike has already been diagnosed (by different doctors) with three separate major mental illnesses (a situation that is extremely common) - should he be treated for diagnosis A, diagnosis B, or all three? Are we really going to say that the mentally ill don't get any say over their treatment? Wait, let me offer an example. A small one. A tiny example of WHAT CAN GO WRONG with relying on a system that has barely scratched the surface of adequate treatment for diseases of the brain.I personally know a young woman who was hospitalized for depression due to a reaction to her medication. The reaction passed fairly rapidly, but the staff didn't believe her. One day, while eating breakfast, she picked up a packet marked "butter," and checked the ingredients, none of which had any relationship to dairy animals. She laughed and said aloud, "This butter has never even met milk!" and holding her "butter" to her milk glass, said, "Butter, meet milk." A nurse overheard her, and basing her diagnosis on a joke she didn't get, told the psychiatrist that the patient was psychotic - she talks to food! Without any further information, the doctor was immediately ready to prescribe her a heavy-duty anti-psychotic, one that frequently causes permanent neurological damage. The patient was 15.So, really, Pete Earley? We should trust families and psychiatrists enough to strip people of their civil rights? I cannot agree.Earley does bring to light some of the devastating effects of mental illnesses on families and on society. So that's good. He rightly points out the tragic lack of public resources available to treat victims of these much-misunderstood illnesses, and some of the obstacles they face in trying to live lives of worth and dignity. It would have been a whole lot better if he could have grappled honestly with the legal dilemmas posed by mental illness - or if he had retained a thread of objectivity.

[carterchristian1 · Rating: 5 out of 5 stars]

Many people in the United States experience much of what this author and his son did. The system is not logical. The parts do not work together and the ability to deal with ambiguity is the first characteristic a parent should have if he orshe is to be successful in helping a child. This book shows that ambiguity that a textbook couldl not. Excellent.

[lbmillar_1 · Rating: 5 out of 5 stars]

Very well written account of the mental health and prison system as it has evolved since the closure of the state run asylums. Although it's scope is a few states, I think it is representative of the system not only in the US but in Canada (and perhaps other countries). It is food for thought and should be required reading for anyone creating or enacting laws relating to the mentally ill. At a meta level, it shows how well intentioned actions get destroyed by not dealing with the spirit of the law and just the letter of the law.