By Matt Hunter. Excerpted from Spectrum News.
Doug Van Zandt says his son, Benjamin, never displayed signs of mental illness until he was 17 years old and was arrested for starting a fire inside a home in Delmar.
“Our son was a happy 17-year-old kid, he was doing fantastic at school,” Van Zandt said. “He began hearing voices, having auditory hallucinations. He was so scared and he didn’t know what to do about that and it came on rather quickly.”
About four years into his prison sentence, Van Zandt was sent to solitary confinement after allegedly fighting with another inmate. Shortly after, he took his own life.
“When we got the phone call he was dead, it was just so absolutely devastating,” Van Zandt said. “I hope that never happens to another parent again.”
More than four years after the death of his son, Van Zandt is among the hundreds of advocates fighting for mental health and criminal justice reform at the state capitol this week.
Among their goals are passage of the HALT Bill to keep individuals with mental illness out of solitary confinement.
It was criminal what happened to his son and inhumane what continues to happen to others being held in Solitary Confinement. Our General UN Council said in 2015:”any one held in solitary beyond days 15 days it is torture”.
Thank you for such a bill
to stop solitary confinement for the mentally ill.
We need mental health reforms in our criminal justice system ..