Crazy In America Summary

In the book Crazy in America by Mary Beth Pfeiffer, she illustrated examples of what people with mental illness endure every day in their encounters with the criminal justice system. Shayne Eggen, Peter Nadir, Alan Houseman and Joseph Maldonado are amongst those thousands or more people who are view as suspected when in reality they are psychotic who should be receiving medical assistance instead, of been thrown into prison. Their stories also show how our society has failed to provide some of its most vulnerable citizens and has allowed them to be treated as a criminals. All of these people shared a common similarity which is their experience they went through due to their illness.
The author first introduces the story of Shayne Eggen,

the “Indian princess” as she called herself. She was born into a big artist family, being the oldest of five, she was very care given, very captive and resembling her mother ways. While growing up Shayne’s behavior started to change, Pfeiffer mentions that it was due to her parents’ divorce. At that time the doctor told Shayne she has “a condition of psychotic proportions and an acute schizophrenic episode” (Pfeiffer, 9). At a very young age, Shayne was institutionalized. She lived in unchecked emotions. Shayne did get pregnant within the mental health facility. After being in and out of mental institution, Shayne ended up in the criminal system. Knowing Shayne “had been insane in every sense” (Pfeiffer, 17) and that “people with mental illnesses lack the basic tool for prison survival” (17), she was tried and convicted for stabbing a police officer. In jail she was sent to isolation, known as “ the box”, where she plucked her eyes out. Shayne completed her sentence and then was sent back into a mental ill facility. According to Pfeiffer Shayne’s long period of isolation and the refusal to be protected from her own self led Shayne to mental deterioration, blindness, and acts of self-mutilation, she continues , Shayne was sane enough to go to prison but not to be let out( 36).
Like shayne, Jessica and Joseph when they entered the criminal justice system they were thrown in and out of the solitary confinement. While incarcerated they were punished both for their crime and mental illness. Although, the ends of Jessica and Joseph were more extreme than Shayne, but still all of them demonstrates how being a mental illness or being label as mental illness can easily be considered as a reason for thrown people like them into solitary confinement for months or even years. In case Jessica’s case, her life become a serious of hospital stays since she was eleven until she turned fifteen. After her mother left, Jessica behavior deterioration .She became more angry and uncooperative. Sadly, after turning sixteen Jessica “bit her sister and kicked and officer in a fit of pique, she entered a new kind of arena-the criminal justice system ( Pfeiffer, 161). Jessica’s long period of isolation let her health to become worse, not mentioned the numerous times that she attempted to committed suicide inside the solitary confinement because she could not handle being isolated anymore . Both the mental health unit and prison executives failed to take adequate precautions in preventing Jessica’s suicide attempted.
Another story used in this books that shows how being kept in solitary confinement for a long period of time can deteriorate people’s health and often led the person to commit suicide is the story of Joseph. Similarity, to Shayne and Jessica, Joseph’s life changed as soon he entered the criminal system. Joseph was in a sense doomed from birth, he did not ask to be born within a dysfunctional family. Joseph was born into a drug addict family, his mother was a heroin addicted. The fact that his mother was addicted to drugs while she was pregnant it affected Joseph to be born with an addiction to methadone. He did not have a home, he was raised here and there by family, friends and somehow by his mother who was out and in of the criminal justice system. Not having both of his mother and father with Joseph, it did impacted how he chose to live his life. His story is very unique because while both Shayne, and Jessica entered the criminal justice because of their mental ill conditions, Joseph on the other hand it was more because of his lifestyles and the social conditions he lived in. While being incarcerated authorities described Joseph as “ had no intention of cooperating with the court’s efforts to help him turn his life around” (Pfeiffer 223). It was then that everything switched for Joseph, they ordered him to Chad, a “place that’s known for suicides to happened within the walls” (Pfeiffer, 232). Joseph had also a long history of staying in lockdown because his involvement in gangs fights within Chad. It was then, that he requested a psychiatric help and it was denied all four times. Pfeiffer says, “despite his prior requests for mental health care, Joseph was not offered counseling or assessed for his potential to commit suicide”(235). The solitary confinement became a stressful place for Joseph, and the fact that he did not receive any psychological help as he requested, it resulted on him to make the decision to hanged himself.
Moreover, Peter and Alan’s encountered with law enforcement raised the issues of how law enforcement needs more trained when they dealing with people with mental illness.

Unlike Shayne, Jessica, and Joseph, Peter and Alan’s story with the criminal system was different. Peter and Alan had little in common besides having mental illness and dying at the hands of untrained cops. Peter was born within a very abusive family, and he was diagnosed with bipolar disorder. Pfeiffer describes Peter as “slow and simple, and his childhood was as tumultuous”(131). Whereas Alan was bright enough to get into University of Tampa which was interrupted because of his mental deterioration. Overtime, Alan’s behavior changed to be intense and aggressive. After being hospitalized, his mother took care of him up until her death, it was then that things intensive for him. Alan was large sized and he hated cops. One day, due to assumption of a female officer, Alan was shot and killed. According to the officer “crazy people are unpredictable” (127). Likewise, with time Peter’s behavior also changed especially with his mother. Peter had taken violent actions towards his mother. The criminal system was them involved and from that point on he was no longer looked at as a mentally ill 205-pound individual, yet as a criminal, who refused arrest, and his action “determined how they treated him” (120). Just like Alan he was killed during an arrest, he was suffocated by the cops. Their encountered with the cops could’ve been different if those cops were trained to recognize the symptoms of psychosis and if they knew how to respond to

emergencies.

The lives of these young people, drastically changed when they made their first encountered with the criminal justice system. The similarities Pfeiffer shows between the story of Shayne, Alan, Peter, Jessica and Joseph it is how all these individuals were transinstitutionalized, moving between one day or two hospital staying to isolation in jails and correctional facilities. They were not properly institutionalized, or even given enough medical attention if they did they would probably had a different end. The crimes they committed were part of crimes which were socially constructed, crimes in which society and the citizens had to determine and agree it was an act against society orders.