Sometimes writing about something that has gone wrong in one of the systems in our society can be a way to both deal one's pain and effect change. That's what Paul Brakke tried to do when he and his wife Carol experienced a nightmare in the mental health and criminal justice systems in Arkansas when she was unfairly prosecuted, after some neighborhood kids and their parents lied about her because they didn't like her. The kids felt she was interfering with their play since she complained about them playing in a dangerous intersection. Then, a prosecutor with kids in the neighborhood took up the case against her.
Brakke began writing to tell their side of the story and started looking at problems in the mental health and criminal justice systems to help understand how this had happened to them. He felt the book he wrote would have a special appeal to seniors and retired individuals because his wife was 71 at the time. Then, too, he felt older Americans might be less familiar with what goes on in the system, partly because there have been so many changes in the past few decades, due to new technologies and laws. He also felt they might not be aware of some of the major injustices in the system, because they are used to having good relationships with helpful cops, especially when cops defer to them and treat them respectfully because of their age. Thus, while seniors and retirees may read about some of the recent confrontations between blacks and cops in cities around America, they may think of these events as aberrations of the system. They may not realize the problems that occur throughout the system, and one of Brakke's reasons for writing the book was to start a dialog to promote change.
His wife's case was unusual, since normally the cops defer to an older white middle-class woman living in a desirable neighborhood. But they took the words of the kids and didn't investigate the facts to get his wife's side of the story, because of the influence of a prosecutor with kids in the neighborhood. As a result, he and his wife saw a side of the criminal justice system that seniors, retired individuals, and their families don't normally see.
Among other things, his wife was forced to endure two involuntary commitments to a psych ward, along with exile from her home, unjustified delays in setting a trial date, and the threat of a 16-year jail term. Eventually, given the pressures of the case, Brakke and his wife reluctantly agreed to move out of their home, at a great cost, to another community as part of a plea bargain in which all charges relating to an aggravated assault were dropped. But the case continued to haunt them,and his wife continued to suffer from post-traumatic mental health issues, including bouts of depression, many years after the case against her was settled. These pressures added on to the ordinary pressures that come with aging for anyone today. Brakke found it healing for him to channel the pain they experienced into examining the criminal justice system and thinking about how it might be improved.
Brakke thought this approach might be especially of interest to other older adults and their families, as a snapshot of what the system is like and what might be changed. In fact, he believed that seniors and retirees might be in a specially good position to join together to take some action, because they generally have more free time, since they have retired from their work and may be seeking other ways to contribute to their families and community. As he observed about his approach: "Consider this a call for seniors and retirees to step forward to look at what they might do in their own communities to help resolve some problems in the local mental health or criminal justice system. For example, they might call their police department or sheriff's office and ask how they can volunteer. They might call a local mental health facility and see if they might participate in various outreach programs. They might contact their local government offices and see what they recommend."
The book American Justice? might also give readers other ideas about how they can get involved to help fix the system. The chapters in Part II deal with the contributions of children's lies, abuses of the mental health system, prosecutorial misconduct, poor judicial behavior, the role of the media, police issues, collateral damage to families, and the criminal justice system as a whole. Each chapter includes several well-publicized examples and concludes with constructive suggestions for improvement. A final chapter calls for a national dialog and bipartisan political action to reform the system. So there are plenty of ideas to stimulate readers to want to get involved to do something. It's an approach that's much needed today.
As Brakke concludes the book, he urges everyone to "Think about what you might do to participate locally to help to make positive changes in the system." And if there is enough interest in a reader's community, he might be able to arrange a special event with his publisher, such as a local book signing.
The book is available on Amazon at https://www.amazon.com/American-Justice-Paul-Brakke/dp/069271068X or directly from his publisher Touchpoint Press at http://www.touchpointpress.com.
He has also set up a website for the book at http://americanjusticethebook.com and a Facebook page for it at https://www.facebook.com/bookamericanjustice. The website includes some blogs he has been writing about criminal justice stories in the news, which you may find of interest.
Brakke invites readers to contact him if they have any questions about the book or about how they might participate in their own community in becoming part of the solution.
Contact:
Paul Brakke
Author, American Justice?
Little Rock, Arkansas
brakkep@gmail.com
phone (501) 707-8352
http://www.americanjusticethebook.com
Nancy Parker
The Professional Connection
Lafayette, California
professionconnection@att.net
925) 385-0608