King County Council to vote on $50-million mental health and drug treatment plan

October 3, 2008 | By More

The King County Council will vote next Monday on a plan that will use $50 million a year of sales tax revenues to fund programs that will direct people with mental illness and drug dependency to treatment programs and social services instead of jails and hospitals.

Among the goals of the County’s Mental Illness and Drug Dependency Action Plan are:

  • A reduction in the number of mentally ill and chemically dependent people using costly interventions like jail, emergency rooms, and hospitals
  • A reduction in the number of people who recycle through the jail, returning repeatedly as a result of their mental illness or chemical dependency
  • A reduction of the incidence and severity of chemical dependency and mental and emotional disorders in youth and adults
  • Diversion of mentally ill and chemically dependent youth and adults from initial or further justice system involvement

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Category: Mental Health, Social & Family Issues, Substance Abuse, Uncategorized

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  1. miss miller says:
    October 3, 2008 at 5:20 pm

    This comment is from Miss Miller who is a cousin of Lynn Dale Iszley who died died from a perforated ulcer July 19, 2007 while in King County jail.

    Mr. Iszley, 48, had been booked into jail on a minor drug-possession charge a few days before. An investigation by the King County Ombudsman Office found that soon after he was booked into jail, Iszley began having symptoms similar to those seen with alcohol and heroin withdrawal. However, on the morning of July 18, his conditioned worsened.

    “In the early morning of July 18,” the King County Ombudsman Officer report says, “Mr. Iszley pressed the emergency call button in his housing unit. A corrections officer responded, and found Mr. Iszley curled on his bunk. Mr. Iszley said, “I think my liver exploded….”

    Jail Health Service (JHS) staff member was called to assess Mr. Iszley, the report continues. “After examining Mr. Iszley, the responding JHS staff member cleared him to remain in his housing unit.”

    Mr. Iszley died the the next day. An autopsy found he had died of acute peritonitis (an infection of the abdominal cavity) do to a perforated ulcer.

    The Ombudsman Office’s report concludes:

    “Based on his symptoms, JHS should have, but failed to, recognize that Mr. Iszley was suffering from an acute illness other than withdrawal. Mr. Iszley should have received intravenous fluids and been transported to a hospital emergency room on July 18, 2007. Mr. Iszley might have survived had JHS taken these actions.”

    In response to the report that King County will dedicate $50 million a year so that drug addicts can be put into treatment programs instead of jail, Ms Miller writes:

    Everyone, but especially the medical personnel at the King County jailhouse, should be held accountable for Lynn’s death. The medical staff and correction officers treated him as if he was a parasite, a harden criminal. They would have helped a dying dog more than they help Lynn. If he was having withdrawal then they should have provided him with some form of aid for the detox.

    But jail is not for people with drug addition: drug treatment facilities are, and these facilities should be open and available for drug addicts. Jails are for criminals who are a threat to society and our possessions. Now, if the drug addict is a thief or some other type of criminal then definitely lock them up. But Lynn was certainly not a thief or a criminal. He did not steal to support his habit; Lynn received monthly checks from his fathers’ estate.

    Lynn was not criminal; he was an addict.

    Lynn was a polite, decent, humane person. He was raised properly to grow up and be a good, moral person, which he was. He loved his family and all God’s creatures. Lynn even said “thank you” to the officer for food as he was dying, food he would not be able to eat. That is the type of person Lynn was–kind and polite. He was not a threat to anyone but himself.

    Lynn was not a criminal, or a menace to society; he simply had a drug problem.

    Lynn being an addict would know if he was just undergoing withdrawal. He lived through withdrawal before, and he knew what they felt like. It’s not that he had never tried quitting his vice or disease before. I helped him go through withdrawal before, and if he had said to me, as he said to the King County jailers, “my liver feels like it exploded”, I would have gotten him to the hospital as rapidly as I could.

    Lynn was clean and sober for a month at my house in Portland, but he required more help than I could provide him. Lynn didn’t want to be a junkie drug addict; he just was one. He said there was something deep down inside him that was lonely and sad. It was a pain that only drugs could and would numb. The pain could have been from his sisters’ homicide or his dad’s unexpected passing. I don’t know, and now we will never know.

    Everyone at that jail who had contact with Lynn should be ashamed of yourself. You are all truly evil. You have no clue on how to treat people. Lynn was not a demanding person all that time he was in tremendous pain, and you people could have cared less. You let him die. How can any of you live with yourselves?

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