Rebuilding Lives. Strengthening Communities.

Marvin A.
Marvin A. is a 64-year-old African-American man.
Real Life
For the past 35 years, Marvin
has been suffering from a chronic
mental illness—paranoid schizophrenia—and
because of this
illness, he has been repeatedly
involved in the criminal justice
system. His arrest record goes
back to 1969. He has been
arrested 151 times for crimes
including retail theft, criminal
trespassing, battery, armed
robbery, and public indecency.
He has been hospitalized 33
times in state psychiatric
facilities, plus multiple additional
times in private psychiatric
hospitals.
While not on medication,
Marvin gets excessively nervous
and paranoid, and cannot function
in society. Fearing contamination,
he has stolen clothing
rather than let a clerk handle
the merchandise. Fearing people
will hurt him, Marvin has
been unpredictable, on at least
one occasion attempting armed
robbery.
Before his illness, Marvin served
in the Air Force, had his own
apartment, and held a job as a
stock clerk in a department
store. However, during the
onset of his illness, he began
becoming suspicious and was
afraid to go places, thinking
strangers would harm him. As
Marvin says,“I was confused, and
couldn’t adjust myself too well.”
He simply couldn’t bring himself
to allow others to help him with
his medication or therapy.
Marvin cycled in and out of
nursing homes, state hospitals,
YMCAs, group homes, shelters,
and spent much of his time
homeless. He also cycled in and
out of jail, with one prison term
for theft. Over the last 30 years,
Marvin spent more than onethird
of his life either in hospitals
or jail.
Marvin did receive social security
benefits to help pay for his
mental health treatment.
However, each time he was sent
to jail, his disability checks
stopped and he had to reapply
for eligibility after his release.
During this time, he was often
without medication, money, or
stable housing.
Throughout the years Marvin
has received medication and
treatment, it was never quite
intensive enough. Even involvement
in a program five days a
week did not keep him stabilized.
Marvin needed someone
to help him take medication
even on weekends and holidays.
While Marvin acknowledges
that medication helps him,
symptoms still make it very difficult
to take the medication
each day.
In 2000, the last time Marvin
was in jail, he became involved
with an “assertive community
treatment team” designed to
work with mentally ill individuals
in Cook County Jail. This
agency arranged in court to
have Marvin released to its care.
They helped him to obtain
housing immediately in a large
North Side rooming house that
offered communal meals. Once
out of jail, case managers visited
him once a day to ensure that
he was taking his medication as
well as helped him build a
support network in the
community.
He has now moved and is living
independently in a small apartment.
Case managers still visit
him daily. He is following his
treatment regime, compliant
with supervision and, in his
words, “trying to keep straight,
get a job, get a puppy, and stay
on my medication.” He can now
function in the community
without any institutional care.
Since beginning this therapy five
years ago, Marvin has not been
arrested, he has not been back
to jail, and he has not returned
to any state hospitals.
“[I am] trying to keep straight,
get a job, get a puppy, and
stay on my medication.”
MAYORAL POLICY CAUCUS ON PRISONER REENTRY
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