WOULD YOU BUY A USED COURT FROM THIS JUDGE?

You've been locked up in a psychiatric hospital against your will. Maybe your family got a warrant or called the cops on you, maybe you went into the emergency room and they kept you. The hospital wants to give you powerful drugs. You don't want to be drugged, and you want to get out.

This is your day in court. You know you're not suicidal or about to attack anyone. You know you have a right to refuse the drugs. You think the judges will listen to your side of the story, and maybe you wIll get out.

THINK AGAIN.

1. Anything your boyfriend, mother, landlord, or caseworker told the psychiatrist or hospital staff is going to be used against you. Even though it's hearsay.
2. The psychiatrist whom you may have trusted is going to tell your secrets and make you look bad. If you didn't talk to him/her, you have, probably been labeled "paranoid."
3. On the subject of paranoia, you might think that is a very serious and frightening word to describe somebody. You have said it jokingly though. Guess what? If you complain about being mistreated, if you are afraid of being harmed in the hospital, or if you use words like "poison" to describe their drugs, this word "paranoia" will be used quite seriously about you.
4. You know that when you testify, you sit in the witness stand. That shows your testimony is serious. But nobody really cares what you say, and you don't get to take the stand. (Maybe the~Judge is afraid of catching something from you .)
5. After you speak,the judge might ask you questions that he won't let you explaIn your answers to. This is good cross-examination, and you might have expected it from the hospital's attorney, but isn't the judge supposed to be neutral and listen for the whole truth? Or again, if you speak well, the judge might refuse to consider your testimony for herself, but turn to the psychiatrist and ask if anything you said changed his/her opinion. (Of course not, he/she came there to keep you locked up and/or have you drugged.)
6. No matter what you say, the overwhelming likelihood (98% aocording to the New York Times) in the Brooklyn Mental Hygiene Court is that you will have to do what the psychiatrists want. Judge Duberstein brags that she attended a seminar where psychiatrists instructed her about Iistening to their testimony. Rivera acts as if he has done the same. Neither of them upholds the law, which says you have to be dangerous to be held against your will; and only if you are unable to decide for yourself, can the court consider the "risks and benefits" of the drugs to decide whether to force it on you.
7. For your information, the drug of choice for involuntary administration is Haldol, because it comes in a long-acting form and they only have to be bothered once a month to inject you. Haldol is one of the most feared and complained of drugs, with side effects ranging from unbearable need to keep moving, to muscular spasms, to low blood pressure, sudden death, Neuroleptic Malignant Syndrome (toxicity that can be fatal) and tardive dyskinesia, which is irreversible and gives people the uncontrollable movements that stigmatize you and can cause you to choke.

Judge Maxine Duberstein has held onto the Mental Hygiene court in Brooklyn as her private territory for 12 years. Her alternate, Judge Reinaldo Rivera, has apparentIy been sworn to uphold the traditions as she estabIished them.

You might have seen leaflets about Duberstein earlier this year, when we were trying to stop her from being recertified. Althouggh she has decided to resign at the end of this year, Rivera in the driver's seat is nothing to look forward to.

Several times in the past, people had attempted to put in a rotation system, where judges would serve in this part for a month at a time. There is a 1ist of five judges, including Rivera, who are supposed to participate in this rotation. (This is how it is done in other boroughs.)

If you wish to participate in the campaign to bring fairness and justice to the Mental Hygiene Court, please contact us at the address below.

You may also write to Judge Jonathan Lippman, Chief Administrative Judge, 270 Broadway, New York, NY 10007, expressing your concerns.

Bet Your Ass We're Paranoid * P O Box 471173 * Brooklyn NY 11247 * (212) 591-0195