A Vision of Policy Change and Improved Lives

It Starts With Vision...

Fair & Effective Treatment

Reform starts with a clear vision. I understand exactly how to plow through policy barriers and effect the type of policy changes that will change our current system of transient crisis care, moving in and out of ERs and hospitals, shelters, jails, and often unlicensed group homes.  

I commit to making measurable progress and reform on changing the current status quo of incarceration, homelessness, and death for our loved ones and community members with untreated and under-treated serious mental illnesses. 

Janet's Platform

Platform Item 1 - Accountability | Threefold 

1. Hold systems actors accountable. Follow the lines from the inmates to the Courts and Judges, the police, the Behavioral Health System. Bring those systems actors to the table to COLLABORATE on short and long term goals for sectors of the jail populations to form a coalition. If system actors don’t come, they will be rooted out.

2. The Sheriff: The Sheriff must be accountable to the community to ensure good stewardship of tax dollars and to root out any malfeasance and corruption that toxifies systems, not to political parties or agendas.

3. Individuals with justice system involvement: When someone who comes in contact with the criminal justice system is held accountable for their actions, that leads to the opportunity to assist them with support, services and programs to help them make their lives whole and become better citizens. 

Platform Item 2 - Communication and Collaboration 

Communication and Collaboration is the backbone for successful and effective outcomes-based systems.
The sheriff is the second most powerful position in the city and the title comes with plenty of real estate to fight for change. Change begins with collaboration. The Sheriff must be someone independent who people trust and who can bring entities and individuals together to collaborate on common goal despite past differences. The bottom line is that we are all to blame for societal neglect, discrimination and deterioration that channels people into the criminal justice system. We need to accept blame and agree to move forward to repair broken systems and create news systems that need to come into being. 

Platform Item 3 - Transparency is Trust.  

Leadership means letting vulnerabilities show. Transparency breeds trust.
We need to reimagine the sheriff's office. Incarceration is a community problem that requires community solutions. The people of New Orleans should be able to trust that the sheriff is not trying to cover up mismanagement with clever PR or denials that problems exist. When leadership is corrupted the whole system breaks down and people are harmed. 

Platform Item 4 - Plan for Phase III 

The FEMA money that has been allocated to the city is to accommodate people who have been forced into the criminal justice system by our mental health laws that have required them to be dangerous before we can initiate treatment and care. Everyday I deal with families with heart wrenching tragedies because they were unable to get their loved ones help UNTIL they became dangerous. The FEMA money must stay with that population. Our goal should be not to discriminate against people living with untreated and under-treated serious mental illnesses on the basis of behavior, the goal should be to treat the illness.

That said:
I do not believe that we need a big mental health jail nor a small mental health jail. My plan is to use those FEMA dollars to build a phase 3 “special needs” hospital - in Parish - overseen by the state East Louisiana Mental Health System (ELMHS) run by the Tulane Dept. of Forensic Psychiatry. (See Title 28, RS 28:25.1 http://legis.la.gov/legis/Law.aspx?d=85164)

It would be a satellite of the forensic/civil hospital in Jackson only closer to home so that Doctors, Lawyers and families are closer to their patients, clients and loved ones -- saving a three hour trip up and down the highway. This would also free up beds at the hospital in Jackson to provide for other inmates across the state who require competency services.

The Orleans Parish Sheriff's Office can contract for laundry, meals and security thereby making money to increase deputy pay for what would then be a right size jail because people with serious mental illnesses would not be in it. That would also allow us to cancel the approximately 16 million dollar contract with Wellpath, (formerly Correct Care Solutions).

In putting the burden of serious crimes associated with untreated serious mental illnesses under ELMHS, we can then put the focus on individuals with justice system involvement who also have unmet needs. 

Platform Item 5 - Transitions

My plan is to build infrastructure to provide returning citizens/residents with smooth transitions back into the community. Many people become involved in the criminal justice system due to health, education and employment inequities, and discrimination. My plan to reduce crime and make the city safer is to work on both sides of the criminal justice system to build infrastructure that allows people time to step back into the community at a rate that meets their individualized needs. This requires funding. My plan to move people with illnesses into a phase III hospital will free up parish dollars that can be reinvested in re-entry centers and professionally run residential treatment homes. (For example). Additionally, the sheriff can bring money into the jail by contracting with the FEMA funded hospital to provide meals, laundry and security. This will also increase funding for deputy pay, programs and services.

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