Noteworthy News Articles on Mental Health Topics, April 1-6, 2001

Study: Children Will Report False Information From Their Parents
Robin Eisner, ABC News- 4/1/2001

N E W Y O R K—Many children will report fiction as fact. The younger the child, the more likely the fabrication will be recounted as real. Such was the finding of a study of 114 children between the ages of 3 and 8 years old by two psychologists on how children can be manipulated by parents when reporting the "truth." The finding has implications for children who witness crimes or in custody cases, when parents might be providing inaccurate information to children, says Debra Anne Poole, professor of psychology at Central Michigan University in Mount Pleasant, and co-author of the study. "We knew that children can be influenced by false information when suggested by others than their parents," says Poole. "We wanted to see to what extent the children could be influenced by their parents."
    In the study, children interacted with a man called "Mr. Science" who showed them science demonstrations, such as pulley pulling, paper airplane construction and top spinning. The researchers interviewed the children to report what happened. Three months later the researchers gave parents a book to read about the demonstrations, which also had fictional information about Mr. Science touching the children. Researchers found that 35 percent of the children reported fictitious events. But older children, between 7 and 8 — who were prompted to remember the source of information, such as either from the original incident or from the book — were better able to distinguish fact from fiction than the younger children.
    The findings are in the current issue of the Journal of Experimental Psychology. "The results reinforce the concern of forensic experts about the difficulty children sometimes have in distinguishing real and suggested events, especially if they have been previously exposed to suggestions," the researchers report. To improve the reliability of older child witnesses in criminal cases, interviewers will have to be able to tease out whether a child has been exposed to several sources when reporting an event, including their own eyewitness experience, Poole says. Once outside sources can be distinguished for the child, he or she will be better able to provide an accurate rendition of what happened, Poole says. Younger children, however, may not be able to distinguish between sources as they cannot distinguish yet between knowing and remembering, Poole says.

As Ranks of Elderly Gamblers Grow, So Do Concerns
David Crary, Associated Press, 4/1/2001

ATLANTIC CITY, N.J. (AP) The chartered bus from Brooklyn was just one of hundreds that roll into the depots of Atlantic City's huge casinos each day. The passengers disembarked, some spry and feisty, a few inching down the steps with their canes. Past the Showboat Casino's reception desks and uniformed greeters awaited slot machines by the thousands; the playthings of choice for legions of elderly Americans. Group leader Lola Kendzierski was ready for action. For most of the 2 1/2-hour bus ride, she had been busy calling out numbers over a microphone as fellow members of her Brooklyn senior center played small-stakes bingo. Toward noon, as the bus came within sight of the high-rise casino hotels, she finally had breakfast. ''I bring two rolls with me, so I can go a whole day in Atlantic City and never eat,'' said Kendzierski, 77.
    Twenty years ago, Atlantic City and Las Vegas were America's two gambling meccas, but casinos have now spread across the nation. A federal study found that the percentage of 65-and-over Americans who recently gambled jumped from 20 percent in 1974 to 50 percent in 1998, a surge unmatched by any other age group. Experts on compulsive gambling are alarmed. They worry that senior gamblers, many of them on fixed incomes, are more vulnerable to financial devastation than younger gamblers, and less willing to seek timely help for addiction. ''A 30-year-old can make it back. If a 75-year-old loses everything, they're dead in the water,'' said Ron Karpin, a specialist in senior gambling with the Council on Compulsive Gambling of New Jersey. To Kendzierski and her friends, however, monthly outings to the casinos are a much-anticipated break in their routines. ''I don't smoke, I don't drink,'' Kendzierski said. ''My worst vice is ice cream.''
    Even critics of the gambling industry concede that casinos make seniors feel welcome. Surveys indicate that casino outings are the most popular type of day trip for retired Americans. ''The gaming industry has provided for older adults what we as a society have not done,'' said Pat Fowler, executive director of the Florida Council on Compulsive Gambling. ''For most of them, it's an exciting, safe, user-friendly outing,'' she said. ''The message is, 'We value you; come on in. We'll get the wheel chair, we'll bring the refreshments to you.' They can't find that kind of reception in many areas in our society.'' Kendzierski, negotiating the maze of slot machines and gaming tables at Showboat, marveled that the casino welcomes even gamblers who are blind or mentally disabled. ''This is the most democratic place I know,'' she said.
    Only in the past few years have academics and gambling-addiction experts begun to focus on the phenomenon of senior gambling. Though regional symposiums on the topic are now commonplace, there is a lack of definitive data showing whether the elderly are more or less prone to addiction that younger gamblers. Regardless of the addiction rate, experts like Karpin and Fowler believe senior gamblers merit special attention because the consequences of compulsive gambling can be so severe. ''I know the pain associated with this disorder in this age group,'' Fowler said. ''They are thinking, 'How could this happen to me? I did everything right. I worked, I saved, I took care of my family.''' ''The shame associated with what they see as failure of an entire life is so devastating for them,'' Fowler added. ''No one should have that legacy after a productive, well-spent life, simply because they fall prey to an addiction.''
    Kendzierski, who has led many casino trips from the Bay Ridge Center for Older Adults in Brooklyn, said she has noticed little financial distress within her groups. The trip itself, gambling losses aside, is a low-cost endeavor. The 35 participants on a recent weekday paid $20 for round-trip bus fare, and got $16 apiece in cash from the casino when they arrived for a six-hour stay. Like many of her friends, Kendzierski came with a predetermined stake. Occasionally she might lose more than intended, she said, but overall she considers gambling a controllable indulgence. ''I get to a certain point, and then I quit and go read in the depot,'' she said.
    Kendzierski's husband, who never gambled, died in 1976. ''I still miss him,'' she said, explaining that the Atlantic City excursions help her ward off loneliness. Her friend, Pam Olsen, also is a widow in her 70s. Olsen grew up in an orphanage on Long Island and was married for 40 years to a tugboat captain who loved gambling. He died in 1986, and since then she has continued to make regular visits to Atlantic City, perhaps 10 a year. On the recent outing, Olsen ended up a loser for the day despite winning $60 from a slot machine at one point. ''I'm happy, though'' she said before boarding the bus for the trip back home. ''Let somebody else win.''
    Loneliness, boredom, a craving for excitement those are factors often cited as fueling the surge in senior gambling.  ''Given our medical ability, someone retiring at 55 can easily live another 30, 40 years literally another lifetime after retirement,'' Fowler said. ''Some individuals have a difficult time filling the days, and gambling becomes very attractive for them... We must be able to offer an alternative.'' That may not be easy. Casinos with their bustle, lights, music and all-you-can-eat buffets have a very different lure from shuffleboard or bridge.
    ''Today's 70-year-olds, on average, are smarter, healthier, more affluent than in the past; they don't want to sit in a senior center until doomsday,'' Karpin said. ''Casinos can make them feel young again.'' Dennis McNeilly, a psychologist at the University of Nebraska Medical Center in Omaha, has discerned some broad patterns in his studies of senior gamblers. ''This is the generation that grew up in the Depression; they remember the ration books from World War II,'' he said. ''They've been pretty stoic and haven't taken a lot of risks. They put their family needs before their own. Now they have some disposable income, and more leisure time, they're looking for something new and exciting and fun.'' ''Socially, culturally, gambling has really changed,'' McNeilly said. ''This age group watched it change from a sin or a vice to mainstream entertainment.''
    The general manager of the Showboat, Tom O'Donnell, said his casino's prime marketing targets are 45-55 year-olds, but it cultivates senior citizens diligently. He cited the efforts to accommodate physically impaired gamblers and the ''nostalgia-oriented'' entertainment. The latest attraction was the Glenn Miller Orchestra, playing hits from the Swing Era of the 1930s and '40s. Showboat's owner, Harrah's Entertainment Inc., considers itself an industry leader in promoting ''responsible gaming.'' It publicizes the toll-free numbers of gambling helplines and has curtailed advertising in media outlets with large audiences of young people.
    However, compulsive gambling groups say the industry has done little to address specific problems of elderly gamblers. ''The industry is aware seniors are a big group that loves to play,'' said Keith Whyte, executive director of the National Council on Problem Gambling. ''But I don't see any evidence they're acknowledging that some of these people could really have a problem.'' ''If they're going to develop special marketing for these folks, then let's also design a problem-gambling program targeted especially for them,'' Whyte said.
    Some state groups are taking such initiatives. Minnesota's gambling council distributes posters showing an elderly woman at a slot machine, with the caption: ''Do you really want to spend your golden years hooked up to a machine?'' Fowler said awareness programs for senior gamblers must be tactful. ''They do not want to be told what to do,'' she said. ''It's insulting and demeaning to suggest you shouldn't be doing this because you're too old.''
    Kendzierski, shepherding her group back to Brooklyn, said she has occasionally tried to dissuade acquaintances from joining the casino trips because of worries they might lose too much. In general, though, she respects each group member's judgment. ''We're adults,'' she said. ''If you can't afford it, you shouldn't come.'' A few members of the group seemed downbeat as they filed back on the bus at 6 p.m., but Kendzierski had an antidote. There were TV screens on the bus, and she played a video of comedy highlights Laurel and Hardy, Jackie Gleason, Lucille Ball, among others. ''If you've lost, you need the laughter,'' she said, gently.
    On the Net: National Council on Problem Gambling: http://www.ncpgambling.org

Uncle of Heroin Overdose Victim Offers Powerful Testimony
Associated Press, 4/1/2001

MONTPELIER, Vt. Michael Gray is very familiar with the state system he says failed Shawn Farnsworth and with the ''demons'' that haunted the young Rutland native. For Gray, Farmsworth's uncle and a Burlington social worker, it was both a personal and professional tragedy when the youth died last month from an apparent heroin overdose.  ''He became addicted to substances in middle school,'' Gray told the Senate Judiciary Committee on Friday. ''He was into hard substances while he was interested in Legos and building models.''
    In powerful testimony before the committee, which is looking at revamping the juvenile justice system, Gray urged lawmakers to seek comprehensive solutions to the problems of drugs and teens who are too old for the juvenile system but too young for adult prisons. Gray said Farnsworth's struggles with substance abuse led him to petty crime, and he recalled how his nephew struggled in various treatment programs. He said his nephew was caught in a system that had little to offer him, with Vermont Department of Social Rehabilitation Services officials saying he was too old for their programs, and the Department of Corrections calling him too young.
    Gray said the response of SRS and Corrections to Farnsworth's death appeared ''to be an exercise in bureaucratic hot potato.'' He said young people aged 16 to 21 were faring poorly in the state systems, and a long-term study of how they turned out should be undertaken. ''They are the least prepared, least supported young people in Vermont, and the ones most likely to be fully independent long before they are ready,'' Gray said. '' We reject this age group, because they reject us, and instead of hanging in there and hanging on, we leave and make comforting statements to ourselves about the choices they are making.''
    He lamented how the institutions that had once helped keep youths from becoming caught up in drugs and crime - families, schools, and churches, especially the latter - were now failing to do so. ''It is appalling to me that religious institutions are capable of rallying their membership to be here and advocate on issues of sex, who is sleeping with who, but have no role in issues of homelessness, drug addiction, and teen violence.'' Committee Chairman Sen. Richard Sears, D-Bennington, who knew Farnsworth from his work running a residential program for troubled teens, thanked Gray for what he called, ''the best testimony we've had.''

School Mental Health Services Stressed Amid Tests, Violence Fears
Michael Gormley, Associated Press, 4/1/2001

ALBANY, N.Y. (AP) While schools are raising academic standards through mandated tests, another thing is rising: student anxiety. ''I've seen children in fourth grade panic-stricken because they're going to take this big test,'' said Thomas Kulaga, a school psychologist in the Marlboro Central School District in Ulster County. ''They know it's a high-stakes test parents are telling them and teachers are telling them.'' ''It's like the SATs, but in spades,'' he said. ''Children's mental health is taking a toll on learning.''
    While school psychologists and social workers said they support the Board of Regents' raising of student standards much of which has spawned improved performance there's a growing and often unaddressed downside. Kulaga said the message to schools and parents should be to ease up on students taking the new fourth- and eighth-grade tests many of which are designed to spot school and district trends, not to determine an individual students' future. Toning down the stress on students could nurture greater success, he said. But there are too few messengers to convey that message, mental health workers said.
    Anxiety over testing and graduating is compounding other concerns among students that have also escalated in the last five years. They include fear of school violence, disruption in family life, gang influence in schools and even worries about parents dying from AIDS, mental health experts say. Together, psychologists and social workers say the factors are taxing students and mental health professionals all at a time when there are fewer of them on the front lines.
    There are 3,500 school psychologists in New York state, including administrators, making for no better than a ratio of 1 psychologist for every 800 students, Kulaga said. But the reality can be even worse: Kulaga serves 1,200 students in three buildings and many psychologists spend much of their time evaluating testing, or in full-time administrative positions. ''Sometimes it's like doing triage,'' said Kulaga, president of the New York State Association of School Psychologists. The ranks of social workers declined sharply in the early 1990s through local budget cuts, said Susan Christman of the National Association of Social Workers in New York State. Retirements are taking a toll now.
    The state is also concerned. It is requiring schools to compile ''intervention plans'' to help students cope with the new standards, but school officials complained the requirement doesn't come with funding and mostly serves students most at risk of failing, not the general enrollment. Some hiring now compelled by anxiety over testing and violence is starting to catch up in some districts, but no district is required to have social workers outside of special education classes, Christman said. The latest state Education Department statistics shows 855 school social worker certificates were issued last year on top of 960 in 1998-99.
    Are students' needs being met? ''Not even close,'' said Joann Klein, a school social worker in the suburban Spackenkill school district in the town of Poughkeepsie. Spackenkill has added a second psychologist and two social workers in Klein's seven years there. ''The kids are under such stress with the raising of the standards that it hasn't been recognized that that's what's causing their problems in school,'' said freshman Assemblywoman Patricia Eddington, a Long Island Democrat and school social worker for 17 years. ''We have kids who can't learn because they are so stressed out.''
    Last year, the journal Pediatrics reported that emotional and behavioral problems among school children have nearly tripled in 20 years. The U.S. Surgeon General's office also reported last year what it called a crisis in mental health care for children that interferes with development and functioning. Klein said she's seen an array of students from those earning straight A's to those struggling to pass all stressed by the rising standards. Special education kids and those in danger of failing are getting extra, state-funded help. But she worries about the students getting C's and D's, where she said there's too little help available. ''I'm seeing kids drop out in droves,'' she said of children giving up trying to pass the increasing number of Regents tests required to graduate.
    By 2003, students will have to pass five Regents exams to earn a high school degree. ''High standards are excellent and we really should push for it, but you're not putting the supports in place,'' she said. ''Someone's got to be connecting with these kids and keeping them in school or they're not going to make it.'' Or worse. ''I worry that the stress is making more kids crack,'' Klein said. "Stress leads them to feeling so disenchanted, then they withdraw,'' she said, using some of the adjectives often used to describe suspects in recent school massacres. ''And now, it's the protocol to act up and lash out ... if you add that to a kid already depressed and withdrawn and now they feel like a failure and nobody cares, guess what? `I'll get some guns and shoot people.''' ''They can snap,'' agreed Eddington about students who feel left out, ''and that's the kid who can bring a gun to school.''

Poll Says Violence Is Common in Schools
Reuters News Service, 4/2/2001

LOS ANGELES - A majority of US teenagers say they used violence in the past year and one in five boys took a weapon to high school, according to a survey conducted by the California-based Institute of Ethics. ''The seeds of violence can be found in schools all over America,'' said Institute of Ethics president Michael Josephson, who also heads the institute's ''Character Counts'' initiative dedicated to teaching character-building skills to young people.  ''Today's teens, especially boys, have a high propensity to use violence when they are angry, they have easy access to guns, drugs, and alcohol, and a disturbing number take weapons to school,'' Josephson said.
    The random survey, conducted last year among more than 15,000 teenagers at schools nationwide, showed that 75 percent of boys and 60 percent of girls said they had hit someone out of anger in the past year. Moreover, the survey showed that 43 percent of high school boys, 37 percent of middle school boys, and 19 percent of high school and middle school girls believed it was OK to hit or threaten a person who made them angry. More than one in five, or 21 percent, of high school boys and 15 percent of middle school boys took a weapon to school at least once in the past year. At the same time, 60 percent of high school boys and 31 percent of middle school boys said they could get a gun if they had wanted. The category of weapons was broad, including guns and knives, said a spokesman for the institute, a private group that helps companies and government agencies set up ethics programs.
    ''Kids are as much the victims as the perpetrators of the societal trends and pressures demonstrated in the survey,'' Josephson said. ''Metal detectors and gun regulation can't solve this problem alone. We have to work on the character of youngsters, changing their attitudes about violence and fortifying their ability to deal with anger and feelings of alienation.'' Results from the survey, which has been taken every two years, did not change significantly from one taken in 1998, Josephson said. But in 2000, for the first time, the survey asked questions about student alcohol use and produced some disturbing results.
    Alcohol use seemed to coincide with the increased likelihood that teens would exhibit violent behavior, the survey showed. For example, 16 percent of high schoolers and 7 percent of middle schoolers admitted to being drunk at school. Among those, 83 percent said they had hit someone in the past year. In addition, of the students who admitted to being drunk in school, 48 percent of high schoolers and 57 percent of middle schoolers said they had brought weapons to school, the survey showed.
    Josephson said teachers, coaches, and parents needed to pay more attention to warning signs to avoid the types of school violence the country has seen. ''You hit someone when you're angry, but if somebody is bigger than you are, if somebody is bullying you, you're not going to hit that person, you're going to do something worse,'' Josephson said. ''We're not talking about just schoolyard fighting anymore.'' Kids ''are trying to find a way to vent their anger in a violent way.''

Lawyers Succeed in Limiting Expert Testimony in Rape Cases
Tom Jackman, Washington Post- 4/2/2001

Prosecutors in many rape trials face a quandary: The defendant admits he had sex with the woman but claims it was consensual. The woman claims she didn't consent. Faced with a literal he-said, she-said, the prosecutors often turn to nurses specially trained in treating sexual assault, who testify on whether the woman's injuries could have come only from forced sex. But that analysis is no longer allowed in Fairfax County. Judges in three cases have ruled that science doesn't support such testimony, and now, defense lawyers across the country are using the Fairfax rulings to mount a new offensive on those nurses' testimony.
    The Fairfax SANE (Sexual Assault Nurse Examiner) program began in 1991 to provide consistent, sensitive treatment for rape victims. Those nurses, and their counterparts nationwide, also have become frequent prosecution witnesses. But James G. Connell III, then a public defender in Fairfax, began collecting transcripts last year of SANE nurse testimony. He then examined the scientific research that the nurses cited on the witness stand. "It turns out our SANE nurses here have taken their conclusions far beyond what the research says," Connell said. "It doesn't say anything like you can look at genital injury and tell whether a woman has been raped."
    In a case late last year in which Inova Fairfax Hospital nurse Suzanne Brown was scheduled to testify, Connell presented a stack of research papers to Circuit Court Judge Jane Marum Roush. Brown planned to testify, as she had many times before, that the female body responds differently during consensual sex and during forced sex. If the sex is consensual, the body protects itself from injury. No such response occurs during forced sex. Therefore, Brown says, certain injuries show that sexual activity took place without consent. The testimony has been crucial to several sexual assault prosecutions. Connell attacked that logic, not only with studies cited by Brown, but with others that contradicted those. Roush read them and concluded that "nothing in the extensive medical literature submitted to the court . . . supports Ms. Brown's theory that she can distinguish nonconsensual from consensual sexual intercourse."
    Roush ruled that Brown could testify about the injuries she observed but could not offer her conclusions about whether a rape occurred. In December, Circuit Court Judge David T. Stitt adopted Roush's ruling in another case, and in February, Circuit Court Judge Arthur B. Vieregg wrote another opinion prohibiting such testimony. None of the rulings resulted in an acquittal, so Fairfax prosecutors have not appealed them. But that hasn't stopped defense attorneys from across the state -- and the country -- from calling Connell and getting copies of both the scientific research and the judges' rulings.
    While the significance of the rulings remains a subject of debate, there's little doubt that they have given defense attorneys a whole new avenue in sexual assault cases. "I think the rulings are excellent and have probably done some good already," said William B. Moffitt, past president of the National Association of Criminal Defense Lawyers. "This kind of fuzzy science is frightening in a courtroom. If the courts give it the imprimatur of validity, jurors assume it's valid. Suddenly, there's some expertise on the subject of guilt: 'The defendant is guilty because I say so.'" But Andrew J. Kersey, an assistant commonwealth's attorney in Fairfax who handles sex crimes, said, "I don't think it changes much in terms of how we present evidence from SANE nurses." Kersey said nurses can still testify about the injuries they see. "And it's up to the jury to determine whether a crime has been committed."
    SANE nurses and victims' advocates are incensed at the rulings. "It's an outrage," said Carroll Ann Ellis, head of the Fairfax police victim-witness unit, which helps victims through the legal system. She said SANE nurses are trained extensively in human sexuality, and not allowing them to give their opinions about whether rape occurred "is certainly cause for alarm for rape victims, who in many instances are reluctant to come forward and withstand the rigors of a trial." Brown is adamant that the opinions she and other SANE nurses offer are accurate. She's not backing down. "The mind is what controls the human sexual response," Brown said in an interview from the island of St. Thomas, where she testified against a defendant whose attorney consulted Connell. "If the mind says it wants to have sex, the body can't say, 'No, I don't think so.' It is automatic." Brown said she wasn't fully prepared for the November hearing before Roush, and she would have cited more supporting articles. She said that research shows "there are patterned injuries that are consistent with consensual or nonconsensual intercourse" and that the articles provided by Connell were "pulled out of context."
    The SANE team of nurses at Inova Fairfax receives rape victims from nearly every jurisdiction in Northern Virginia and is trained to calmly interview the women and carefully gather physical evidence for the criminal investigation. Brown estimated there are 500 such teams now across the country and said that "you don't need to be a physician to be an expert in the field of sexual assault." Indeed, a Virginia appeals court ruled last week that SANE nurses are qualified to give expert testimony, even though they aren't doctors, because of their extensive training. But the ruling specifically noted that it wasn't addressing whether their testimony is scientifically sound.
    And there are some authorities who contend SANE nurses shouldn't even be given expert status. James E. Storrs, a law professor specializing in forensic science at George Washington University, called the SANE nurses' testimony "junk science." He said Roush's ruling was "very carefully documented and a very devastating opinion to Suzanne Brown and her ilk." Storrs, who publishes a forensic science newsletter, said Brown is "really a prosecutor's darling. She can do things doctors and medical examiners would not dare to do." He added: "There's no question that the defense bar is very much alert to what's going on. The counterattack is spreading." In Pennsylvania, an appeals court overturned a rape conviction in December and, contrary to Virginia, ruled that such nurses may not testify as experts.
    Connell, now in private practice, said, "SANE nurses have done a lot to help the victims of sexual assault and provide an important service." But in cases where consent was the key issue, "there were a lot of times where the case against the defendant had been tipped by the SANE nurse." Owen Basham, the deputy commonwealth's attorney in Loudoun County, said that when consent is the ultimate issue, experts shouldn't be allowed to testify either way. "It's for the jury to decide," Basham said. He said he has refrained from asking SANE nurses for such opinions, in case an appeals court decides it's a reversible issue. Brown said the nurses "aren't making a medical diagnosis. We're making an opinion based on the evidence." She also said she has testified many times for the defense. "Whatever side can use it, can use it," she said.

High Court to Consider Proof Needed to Keep Sex Predators After Jail Terms Expire
Laurie Asseo, Associated Press- 4/2/2001

The Supreme Court agreed today to clarify what type of proof states need to justify locking criminals up as sexual predators after their prison term is over. The court said it will hear Kansas' argument that it need not prove that a man was unable to control his dangerous behavior. The state contends it is enough to show that someone is dangerous and has a serious mental health problem. In 1997, the justices ruled in an earlier Kansas case that states can keep sexually violent predators locked up after they finish serving their prison terms. The justices said the Kansas law, intended to protect society, required a finding of a "personality disorder that makes it difficult, if not impossible, for the person to control his dangerous behavior." The Kansas Supreme Court ruled last July that a lower court strayed from that standard in the case of Michael T. Crane. Crane had been convicted of exposing himself to a tanning-salon attendant in 1993 and also pleaded guilty to aggravated sexual battery in an attack on a video store clerk. The state sought to have Crane locked up as a sexually violent predator after he completed his prison sentence.
    A state judge decided the state did not need to prove that Crane could not control his dangerous behavior. Instead, the judge told jurors to decide whether he suffered from a personality disorder that made him likely to engage in future acts of sexual violence. The jury ruled against Crane, and the court ordered him confined in a state facility.  The Kansas Supreme Court ordered a new trial. Under the Supreme Court's 1997 ruling, people can be confined as sexual predators only upon proof that they cannot control their dangerous behavior, the state court said.  In the appeal acted on today, the state's lawyers said the ruling would improperly limit the number of sexual offenders who can be committed for treatment. The Supreme Court's 1997 ruling did not make lack of control a federal constitutional requirement, the appeal said. Crane's lawyer said the Kansas court's ruling was correct. The case is Kansas vs. Crane, 00-957.

Federal Officials Say 826,000 Children Were Mistreated in 1999
ABC News, 4/2/2001

Reports of child abuse in the United States fell for the sixth year in a row, according to federal statistics released today An estimated 826,000 children were victims of maltreatment nationwide in 1999, compared to more than 900,000 in 1998, and a record of 1,018,692 in 1993, said Tommy Thompson, secretary of the Department of Health and Human Services. The rate of children victimized fell to 11.8 per 1,000 children, compared to 12.6 per 1,000 children in 1998. The number of child abuse fatalities remained unchanged at about 1,100.
    The statistics are based on child abuse reports filed with the federal government by states in "Child Maltreatment 1999: Reports from the States to the National Child Abuse and Neglect Data System." "We are encouraged by the continuing decline in the number of children who are maltreated, but it is nevertheless unacceptable that so many children are suffering," Thompson said. "We will continue to encourage states to do everything they can to prevent child abuse and neglect. We must remain committed to ensuring that all children live in safe, permanent and loving homes."

Familiar Patterns
The report said the patterns of abuse are basically unchanged. Almost three-fifths of all victims suffered some sort of neglect, while more than one-fifth suffered physical abuse, and more than one in 10 were sexually abused. The most common abusers reported were parents, accounting for almost nine-tenths of all the reports, with mothers acting alone being the most common abusers at nearly 45 percent of the incidents reported. Fathers were identified as the perpetrators of sexual abuse for the highest percentage of victims.

$94 Billion in Costs
The report comes as children's advocates mark Child Abuse and Neglect Prevention Month, and as one group released a report estimating the costs of child abuse. The Group, Prevent Child Abuse America, estimates that abuse costs the nation about $24 billion annually in direct costs from medical treatment, law enforcement, child welfare services and court actions. It estimates another $70 billion a year in indirect costs. Children's advocates also suspect that the federal statistics released today miss many instances of abuse. The federal estimate is based on nearly 3 million reports that were referred to local child welfare authorities, just over 60 percent of which were investigated, yielding the 826,000 confirmed cases.

Doctors Could Face Charges for Not Informing Police of Domestic Crimes
Kim Kozlowski, The Detroit News- 4/2/2001

During Anna Webster's abusive marriage of eight years, she went to see her doctor on numerous occasions: when her husband dislocated her shoulder, crushed her ribs, broke her nose and both of her legs. Not once did her doctor refer her to a domestic violence agency, but Webster wishes he had. "Everybody blames the victim and asks why we don't leave," said Webster, who recently testified before a state task force investigating domestic violence. "Well, we don't leave because nobody helps us."
    Michigan law requires physicians, hospitals and pharmacists caring for people suffering from a "violent injury" to report it to police -- and that includes domestic violence. Yet not all doctors and other health-care workers do so.
But on Sunday, a new law went into effect that supporters hope will encourage more reporting by physicians so they play a stronger role in the network of social workers, law enforcement officers and clergy trying to intervene in this pervasive and complex crime. The new law allows health-care providers to also report the name of the perpetrator to police. It also shields doctors from liability for disclosing information, and it slaps a misdemeanor on those who don't report incidents to police.
    But whether the new law will change doctors' reporting practices remains to be seen. Often patients don't want their doctors to report it, and doctors believe caring for their patients and maintaining their trust comes first. Activists, however, say that reporting domestic violence is part of the prescription for keeping victims healthy. "We need to keep people safe and intervene wherever we can," said Nancy Diehl, assistant Wayne County prosecutor, who heads the Child and Family Abuse Bureau. "It may be the first opportunity to help a victim of domestic violence."

Supporters defend law
Supporters believe the new law will cut down on the amount of police investigation time and make doctors feel more comfortable about reporting suspected abuse. "It's one more tool in the toolbox," said Rep. Judith Scranton, R-Brighton, who sponsored the legislation. "The more effective tools we have, the better. We've got to stop the batterers." But Dr. James Weber, an emergency room physician for University of Michigan Hospitals in Ann Arbor and Flint, said very often domestic violence victims don't want him to report the crime because their partners promise it won't happen again. "Physicians are very torn about which direction to go with this," Weber said.
    A few decades ago, domestic violence was thought of as a private problem or "something that doesn't happen here." But that has changed as domestic violence has grown to epidemic proportions. The statistics are sobering: One out of five women in Michigan experienced some type of violence in their relationship, according to one study. State domestic violence programs receive an average of 148 calls per day. Last year, 100 Michigan women died at the hands of their abusive partner, prompting Gov. John Engler to appoint a task force aimed at eliminating all domestic homicides.
    Study after study has shown that the majority of women who suffer from violence are victimized by their former or current partner, and millions of them seek some type of medical treatment. This is why the medical community, including the American Medical Association, sees health-care providers as key players in intervention efforts. Some health-care providers have made strides on this front by attending training on how to screen women for domestic violence, recognize signs, ask sensitive questions and give information on agencies that can help. "It's important to recognize because it is like a malignancy," said Dr. Henry Maicki, a gynecologist at Providence Hospital in Southfield, who speaks to physician groups about domestic violence. "It is incendiary in its development, and it can lead to death."

Holes in laws
But when it comes to reporting violence to police, some doctors see that as gray area. Michigan's law is vaguely worded, so some doctors only report to police when a knife or gun is involved, and then only when they are treating the patient. Maicki admits Michigan's laws have holes. But he feels a moral obligation to give referrals to domestic violence patients who confide in him. He also asks questions of those with wounds consistent with a violent relationship. But sometimes, women lie because they're ashamed, fear retribution or can't leave the relationship because of economics or other reasons. They make up stories about how they were injured and shrug it off. But Maicki still offers information on where to get help. "If we are treating only the symptoms, that's never good," Maicki said. "You always treat the disease."
    Some doctors don't even know Michigan has a law requiring them to report domestic violence. The Wayne County Prosecutor's Office sent out a letter to all the hospitals and doctors in the county in 1992, reminding them. Many agencies are also working to change this. The Oakland County Coordination Council Against Domestic Violence recently held 15 seminars for nearly 800 doctors, training them on the law, how to approach victims and where to send them for help. Since then, the majority of hospitals have adopted a protocol to screen every patient for domestic violence. "We've come a long way," said Coleen Sootsman-Eicher, director of the coordinating council, "but there is still work that needs to be done."

Fight Depression on Your Treadmill
John O'Neil, New York Times- 4/3/2001

Two new studies on exercise and mood looked at questions of timing: one found that walking could begin reducing symptoms of depression faster than many drugs could; the other found that the mental benefits of exercise could end when the workouts did. In the first study, published last week in The British Journal of Sports Medicine, 12 people suffering moderate or severe depression were encouraged to exercise by walking on treadmills for 30 minutes a day. The researchers, from Benjamin Franklin Medical Center in Berlin, reported that symptoms of depression dropped by about a third after only 10 days of exercise. Five of the patients saw their scores fall by 50 percent. While acknowledging the limits of such a small study, the researchers noted that aerobic exercise appeared to work faster than most antidepressive drugs, which generally take two to four weeks to take effect, and could be an alternative for patients not helped by medications.
    Another study, published last month in The American Journal of Epidemiology, drew on data collected over the course of two decades on a group of nearly 2,000 residents of Rancho Bernardo, which is near San Diego. When the group members were first examined, between 1984 and 1987, those who exercised at least three times a week had low levels of depression, a finding consistent with other research that has found that exercise can bring on a more positive outlook. In the mid-90's, almost half of the original study group was surveyed again. Those who were still exercising regularly continued to feel more cheerful, the researchers, from the University of California at San Diego, reported. But those who had given up their workouts reported depressive symptoms at rates similar to residents who had never exercised. "Exercising now will not protect against a future depressed mood if you stop the exercise," the study's lead author, Dr. Donna Kritz-Silverstein, concluded.

Colorado Fined in Mental Health Case
Howard Pankrats, Denver Post- 4/3/2001

A judge fined Colorado $1.4 million Monday in a 20-year-old lawsuit, finding the state in contempt of court for failing to provide adequate housing and services for Denver's chronically mentally ill. Denver District Judge Morris Hoffman gave the state 45 days to pay and said he would impose additional fines for each day the services aren't provided. The state will appeal what one official called the "outrageous" financial penalties.
    Hoffman's order was the latest in a series of rulings against Colorado in a decades-old class-action lawsuit brought on behalf of Denver's chronically mentally ill. Hoffman found Monday that the state failed to comply with an Oct. 20, 1999, court order in which he directed it to:
- Provide full staffing at housing facilities for the mentally ill.
- Immediately fill group homes, apartments and other types of housing with the mentally ill.
- Develop a detailed plan to identify and track those needing services.
"The evidence is overwhelming, and indeed in most instances uncontroverted, that the state ... failed to substantially comply" with the order, the judge said. The state's failures "were in deliberate and willful disregard" of the order and "and not the result of mere bureaucratic incompetence," he said.
    Marva Hammons, executive director of the Colorado Department of Human Services, said the state will appeal the financial penalties and may challenge other parts of the 47-page order. "The state will certainly appeal the outrageous monetary sanctions ordered by the court," Hammons said. Attorney Kathleen Mullen, representing the mentally ill, said the ruling pleased her. "I'm grateful that the court took the time and heard out the evidence and made the independent rulings that he made here," Mullen said. "But I'm enormously frustrated that in 20 years we've not been able to achieve the system that we sought (to put the services in place). And it still isn't in place."  "I think it really requires the involvement of the governor and the legislature to put together a plan to reasonably comply with these things they promised ... and have yet to deliver," Mullen said.
    Mullen also asked Judge Hoffman in September to force Human Services Director, Marva Hammons, to spend every night in a shelter until the state came into compliance. But Monday, Hoffman rejected the request. "The twin purposes of contempt sanctions are to vindicate the integrity of the judicial branch and to increase the likelihood of future compliance, and I am not satisfied these kinds of personal sanctions aimed at Ms. Hammons will further ... those purposes," Hoffman said. But he will consider "substantial personal sanctions against Ms. Hammons, including fines and jail" if the state continues to violate his order.
    Hammons said the state has spent $90 million since 1994 helping Denver's chronically mentally ill. "The $90 million represents a level of services that far exceeds those provided other Colorado citizens suffering from mental illness," Hammons said. She said she believes the state is in substantial compliance and is making every effort to provide adequate services to the mentally ill. Denver's chronically mentally ill first sued the state and Denver in 1981, claiming their needs were being ignored by government agencies. Four years later, Denver Probate Judge Field Benton found that lack of state funding, as well as misdirected priorities by the city of Denver, had left thousands of Denver's mentally ill without adequate treatment and virtually abandoned. Denver has since complied with various court orders.
    Monday's ruling, which condemned the state for years of foot-dragging, was the first time Colorado had been found in contempt in the lawsuit. Hoffman said state officials often displayed "half-hearted and insolent" efforts to comply with court orders during the litigation. For instance, Hoffman said that his October 1999 order directed the state to immediately fill the group homes and apartments with the chronically mentally ill. That didn't happen, he said, until March 2000. Between Dec. 15, 1999, and March 2000, vacancies remained in eight group homes and 10 congregate apartments amounting "to a total of more than 700 days of lost housing." Hoffman said that initially the state failed to outline a comprehensive plan for effectively identifying, tracking and waitlisting people for homeless housing priorities. When it finally did act, said the judge, the state "failed to implement the plan, or any plan."

Toilet Training, Without Any Guilt
New York Times- 4/3/2001

A study by researchers from the Medical College of Wisconsin has found no relationship between the age of toilet training, a child's enrolment in day care and the working status of the child's mother. African-American children, children with two or more siblings, the children of single parents and girls in general tended to be the earliest to be toilet trained, the researchers said. On average, toilet training took 8 to 10 months, according to a survey of 496 children published last month in the journal, Ambulatory Pediatrics.
    The researchers also found no significant link between personality type and ease of training, despite the widely held belief that children with "easy" temperaments are trained the soonest. But the authors described the findings about children in day care and those with two working parents as the most significant. "Our findings should provide reassurance to working parents," said Dr. Timothy R. Schum, a pediatrician and the article's lead author. "It's important that parents realize potty training is not an overnight process and usually includes some stops and starts. Parents should be patient and offer children as much positive support as possible."

Study: Forgiveness Reduces Stress
ABC News, 4/3/2001

Thirty-four-year-old Maria Cornwall is raising four kids on her own while holding down a full-time job in customer service. And like millions of mothers across the country, her days begin with a jolt of stress. "My morning is chaos, pure chaos," Cornwall said on a recent morning as one of her children cried in the background. "I would say I get angry from stress a lot. Misbehaving sets off my anger." And not surprisingly, the family's hectic morning is punctuated with yelling from mom. "That's the only way I can get through my morning is to yell," she says. ABCNEWS' Dr. Nancy Snyderman, who appeared on Good Morning America as part of its Healthy Woman series, says that anger is a particular problem for women and their health.

Women Hotter Under Collars
Sociologist John Mirowsky of Ohio State University says that while anger may be a stereotypical male emotion, his research shows that in fact women feel it, and express it more. "We're talking about stress levels in these groups that approach those you'd see in combat," Mirowsky said. "It was a surprise to us to find that nevertheless, women were reporting far more frequent anger than men. On average, about 30 percent more often." In interviews with more than 2,000 men and women, Mirowsky discovered the reason women's tempers are more easily tripped boils down to the stress around raising children. "If you look at the child-care responsibilities you know this is the new millennium and it's still 70 percent women and 30 percent men," he said.

Blood-Boiling Rage
Dr. Redford Williams of Duke University and author of the book, Anger Kills, says mounting research shows that the stress hormone cortisol that fuels your anger can literally tear your blood vessels. "It's actually causing little nicks and tears in the inner lining of the arteries that feed our heart," Williams said. "If the anger continues day in and day out, the repair doesn't take place." And once the arteries are damaged, a bout of rage could trigger a heart attack.  Snyderman arranged for Dr. Williams to meet with Cornwall to see whether her anger is affecting her health.  Williams had her recall an incident that made her angry, while measuring both her heart and blood pressure levels. When Maria recalls her angry episode, her blood pressure starts in the normal range. Then as her anger escalates, so does her blood pressure — sky high. "And these frequent chronic anger induced arousals can over time reduce your resistance to infections, can make you more prone to develop cancer," Williams said.

Forgiveness vs. Non-forgiveness
In a recent study at Hope College in Holland, Mich., researchers asked 71 college students to recall a hurtful situation that involved another person. In the study, which appears in Psychological Science, the students were asked to assess how their bodies reacted as they spent two hours alternately imagining themselves forgiving and not forgiving the other person. Each session lasted about 16 seconds followed by a relaxation period. During the unforgiveness sessions, they replayed the events in their minds, remembering how unfair it was of the person to hurt them, how they would like them to feel about it and how they would feel if they harbored a grudge. The students' heart rates jumped from a baseline of 1.75 beats every four seconds to nearly three beats during the rehearsal sessions, the study says. The beats rose to 2.6 when they harbored grudges. Similarly, blood pressure rose 2.5 mm/Hg in a four-second period when the students either rehearsed the hurtful experience or harbored grudges.  But when the students chose to empathize with the person who hurt them, and focus on their human qualities, their heart rated fell an average of a half-beat every four seconds.  Echoing that study is some key advice from Williams: slow down, take a deep breath and pick your battles. "You need to be able to evaluate the situations so you can decide each time: 'Is this anger that requires me to take some action?'" Williams said

Rebirthing Therapy Was 'Last Chance'
Kieran Nicholson, Denver Post- 4/4/2001

Jeane Newmaker, whose 10-year-old daughter, Candace, died after a "rebirthing" session, said Tuesday that the provocative therapy was a desperate attempt to keep her small family together. Newmaker testified at the trial of Connell Watkins and Julie Ponder, two Evergreen therapists who treated the girl. Both are charged with reckless child abuse resulting in death. Newmaker is also a defendant in the case, but faces a lesser charge of negligent child abuse resulting in death. "It was the last chance to save my family," said Newmaker, wiping away tears. She told the court that her daughter would go through "meltdowns," fits of rage where she would destroy things and scream at the top of her lungs for 45 minutes at a time. In one instance, Candace toppled a floor-to-ceiling bookshelf in her room and cut up all her books, screaming all the while, Newmaker said. The little girl broke a pair of glass horses that she had adored.
    Newmaker said she began medicating Candace six weeks after adopting her. She said Candace was diagnosed as having attention deficit disorder and was prescribed Ritalin and, later on, Dexedrine. As problems continued and she saw more doctors, Candace was diagnosed with post traumatic stress disorder and oppositional defiant disorder, Newmaker said. She was prescribed Effexor and Risperdal, and continued to take Dexedrine. At one point, Candace was having trouble sleeping. She told her mother that "monsters" were coming to get her in her dreams. Newmaker had an alarm installed on the girl's bedroom door, believing it would ease her daughter's mind that monsters were not coming into her room at night. Candace lied and told fabricated stories, Newmaker said. The fourth-grader was often uncooperative and refused to do what her mother told her.
    In the spring of 1999, Newmaker said she awoke in the middle of the night, smelling smoke in her home. She jumped out of bed and called to Candace that their house was on fire. Rushing to the girl's room, Newmaker found that her daughter was not there. "She was in the guest room," Newmaker said. "She was sitting on the bed in the guest room with spent matches all around her." Jeane Newmaker said there were burn holes in the floor where the matches had been thrown. "I was so frightened for her," she said. "She could have burned herself. She could have killed herself." Candace also "forced sexual acts" on two other young girls, her adoptive mother said. She forced them to take their clothes off and she threatened to hurt them if they told anyone. Candace smacked one of the girls twice in the face to drive home her point, Newmaker said.
    It was these kinds of actions that had Jeane Newmaker constantly seeking help for her daughter, she said, and eventually lead her to Watkins & Associates in Evergreen. "I was not prepared for the level of dysfunction I saw in Candace," she said. In the four years that Candace and Newmaker spent together, her adoptive mother said she sought the advice, and remedies, of a host of doctors, therapists and social workers back home in North Carolina. She read books on troubled children, researched the Internet and attended conferences. "I was seeking the best therapy for her and the best people to give her that therapy," Newmaker said. She said she saw negative behavior on a daily basis. Newmaker said there had been many diagnoses, and many labels, for Candace's condition.
    Prosecutor Laura Dunbar, asked Newmaker if any of the doctors or therapists they had seen, more than a half-dozen in four years, had suggested that Newmaker should undergo therapy herself. At Dunbar's request, Newmaker read an opinion from Dr. Mai Mai Ginsburg that stated in part, "Candace's mother is likely to benefit from counseling." "I don't read that as a suggestion for my own psychotherapy," Newmaker said.
    Newmaker appeared Tuesday as a witness for the prosecution. She was guaranteed immunity, meaning nothing that she says in court can be used against her in her trial later this year. Candace has two biological siblings, a younger sister and younger brother, who were also adopted, Newmaker said. She said she located the foster family and she and Candace would keep track of how the brother and sister were getting along. She said the girl, who is a year younger than Candace and year older than the boy, threatened to kill her brother. That news seemed to have a troubling effect on Candace and made her act out even more, Newmaker said. Newmaker said Candace's biological mother had been molested as a child and that she, too, had an uncontrollable temper. Newmaker said the biological mother had been "rebellious" as a teenager and had to be placed in a supervised program. She said that Candace's problems were "multi-generational." Newmaker's testimony continues today.

Kennedy, Satcher Address Children's Mental Health Issues
Brian Carovillano, Associated Press, 4/4/2001

PROVIDENCE, R.I. (AP) Decades of excluding parents from their children's treatment is a key reason why the nation now faces a children's mental health crisis, U.S. Surgeon General David Satcher said Wednesday. Research is poorly funded, treatments are outdated, and a stigma remains that prevents families from getting help, said Satcher, who spoke at a Statehouse hearing organized by U.S. Rep. Patrick Kennedy. ''An individual cannot be healthy without good mental health,'' Satcher said.
    In January, Satcher released the first-ever Surgeon General's report on children's mental health, part of an effort to bring mental illness to the top of the nation's health care agenda. More than 44 million Americans suffer from some form of mental illness, Satcher said, but less than half seek treatment. About two-thirds of the children in the nation's juvenile justice system suffer from mental illness. Kennedy attributed the rising rate of teen suicide, eating disorders to families spending less time together. Parents, teachers, police, counselors and caseworkers need to identify mental disorders in children before youngsters become violent or self-destructive, the panelists agreed.
    Two of Cathy Ciano's sons suffer from bi-polar disorder, a common mental illness among children. Both have had bouts with substance abuse and one was in and out of the state juvenile detention center throughout his teen years.  In 16 years of meeting with educators, psychologists and police, the South Kingstown mother of five says she was never asked to participate in her sons' diagnosis or treatment. ''We knew our son better than anyone, but the system refused to recognize that,'' Ciano told the panel.
    Kennedy said federal funding for children's mental health research and treatment should come jointly from the Justice, Health and Human Services and Education departments. Though expensive, the investment in intervention is considerably less than the alternative: For each child in the juvenile detention center the state spends $100,000 annually.

Judges Press for Expanded Funding for New Jersey Drug Courts
Ralph Siegel, Associated Press, 4/4/2001

TRENTON, N.J. (AP) The state's prisons are crowded with black and Hispanic drug offenders who may not belong behind bars since they are not violent and did not traffic in large volumes of drugs. And pressure is building to include money in the state's $23.2 billion proposed budget to do something about it. The next fiscal year begins July 1.
    This pressure at a hearing of the Senate Budget and Appropriations Committee on Wednesday did not come from defense lawyers, ex-convicts or prisoner rights advocates. It came from judges. Appeals Judge Richard J. Williams, who is on leave from the bench to serve as chief administrator of the Judiciary department, told lawmakers the so-called ''drug court'' program now in place in five counties steers nonviolent offenders away from prison time. Offenders with no history of violence or gun violations can be eligible for drug court, where judges usually sentence convicts to drug treatment rather than prison, and where specially trained probation officers are assigned to track their progress.  Williams said drug courts may alleviate the disproportionate number of minorities in the state's prison system since 80 percent of the minor offenders are black or Hispanic. He said it is also cheaper for taxpayers since treating offenders is about half as expensive as imprisoning them. Joining Williams in his testimony were three other judges who serve as budget advisers.
    Senators offered encouragement during the hearing Wednesday on providing $28 million that Judiciary officials said they need to set up drug courts in all 21 counties over the next two years. Some of the money is needed to replace federal grants that helped create the state's first drug courts in Essex and Camden counties in 1997. Those grants are now running out. Other drug courts have been set up in Passaic, Mercer and Union counties. These five counties include major urban centers and they handle about half of all criminal cases in New Jersey.
    But the Judiciary department has a deeper and potentially urgent funding problem that could draw money away from other programs like the drug court. Judiciary has requested $453 million for the next fiscal year. That is the same amount they are getting this year. Officials plan to fund the drug-court program in part by shifting $4.3 million from other accounts where money was appropriated but not being spent.

Painkiller Feeds New "Epidemic" of Addiction
Theresa D. Mcclellan, The Grand Rapids Press- 4/4/2001

Prison guard Lori Ann Smith, already under investigation for insurance fraud, was desperate for the painkiller that had sent her life on a downward spiral. The prescription drug Oxycontin -- which some say can be more addictive than crack cocaine -- was fueling the spiral. It led her and a friend to a pharmacy in the Montcalm County community of Sheridan, where they told a clerk: "Give me all your Oxy or some people will be shot," said Detective Sgt. Sally Wolter of the state police post in Lakeview. The August robbery, and Smith's subsequent arrest and conviction, offered investigators a glimpse into the powerful addiction of Oxycontin and its legion of users. "It's safe to say we have an epidemic up here. It's our leading cause of concern as a result of our crime increase," Wolter said. Investigators say thefts linked to the drug have occurred in Montcalm, Ionia, Kent and Newaygo counties.
    Smith's accomplice in the Sheridan robbery fled to Texas. The accomplice's husband was charged in Kent County with use of Oxycontin. Police say he stole prescription pads, then filled prescriptions at up to 20 West Michigan pharmacies. He sold the pills and kept some for personal use, police said. He was to appear in Grand Rapids Township District Court this week but the hearing was adjourned. He remains in the Kent County Jail. Smith, 29, who worked as a corrections officer at the Michigan Reformatory in Ionia, pleaded guilty to unarmed robbery in the Sheridan case. She is in the Ionia County jail, awaiting an April 27 sentencing.
    A six-month investigation has led to arrest warrants for more than 30 Kent County residents linked to the sale and theft of the opiate drug known as Oxycontin. The warrants vary from delivery of a prescription, a 20-year felony, to possession of Oxycontin, a four-year felony. Some suspects are already in jail or prison for other offenses.
    It's been a year since police in rural Montcalm and Ionia counties first noticed the spreading addiction to Oxycontin. The drug has fueled a crime spree in four counties as addicts seek out the drug or the means to buy or barter for it. It is not linked to any one group: Baby Boomers to Gen X'ers have been caught up in it. "Some of these people have lost everything they have, from a job to a home to children to family," said Detective Sgt. Kate Trietch of the state police post in Ionia.
    Oxycontin, a synthetic morphine, is a painkiller usually prescribed to cancer patients, the terminally ill and those with chronic pain. Abusers like the slow-release drug because it produces a fuzzy high that can last for more than a day. They crush it and snort it; some melt it and shoot it in their veins. Overdoses can be fatal, causing respiratory depression. Addicts and criminal entrepreneurs get the drug by "doctor shopping" -- visiting different physicians and getting prescriptions from all of them. One pill can be sold for $30. Often, bogus prescriptions were written on a stolen prescription pad. Police recently warned area doctors to lock up their prescription pads to help deter the thefts and the proliferation of Oxycontin. "It's supposed to be hard to obtain and it's supposed to be watched, but they use different names and go to different cities," Trietch said.
    Addicts can spend hundreds of dollars each week feeding their addiction. Some break into homes, stealing jewelry and electronics to fund their habits. Wolter said authorities have been too busy responding to crimes to collect statistics, but in a month's time, Lakeview, a village of 1,100 about 35 miles northeast of Grand Rapids, has gone from minimal robberies five in a day in the village and neighboring townships.
    At the Longford CareUnit of Kent Community Hospital, one of two regional detoxification facilities within the four-county area, 15 percent of its 100 new patients each month are being treated for opiate addiction; half of those for Oxycontin, an administrator said. "Opiate dependency is on the rise in general," said Jon Weeldreyer, clinical administrator. "It's becoming a larger and larger portion of detox admissions here. Oxycontin is on the particular rise because many doctors have turned to that over some other opiate medicines for pain relief." Oxycontin withdrawal leaves the user feeling "miserable" for a long period of time, Weeldreyer said. "If we don't give them comfort, they are likely to leave early to avoid the horrible discomfort."
    Smith, the Ionia corrections officer, is believed to have turned to insurance fraud to fuel her addiction, Trietch said. "Because I shut off her insurance money, (Smith and her accomplice) were charged with armed robbery" stemming from the Sheridan case, she said.
    The criminal influence of Oxycontin is being seen in rural areas and big cities across the country. Nationwide, police say addicts have gone to great lengths to get the drug, from faking injuries to stealing shipments from parcel carriers like UPS and Federal Express. Authorities in Cincinnati say the popularity of opiates may have propelled their city to the top spot in the nation for their use, abuse and diversion. "It's hit us, not just in Montcalm but in every state," Wolter said. "One thing they all share, outside of their addiction, is that they need help. "This drug is so consuming and so powerful that doctors need to know that. They need to know who their abusers are and the signs of it."

Rebirth Witness Saw No Struggle
Kieran Nicholson, Denver Post- 4/5/2001

Candace Newmaker repeatedly cried to be freed from an artificial womb during a "rebirthing" session, but she never physically struggled to break away, one of the people charged in her death said Wednesday. "I never felt her push that hard," said Brita St. Clair, who said she sat at the feet of 10-year-old Candace with her back to the girl to act as a springboard. "In the beginning, there was a couple of times, but it was not long at all, only seconds." St. Clair is one of five people charged in the death of Newmaker last April. She testified in the trial of therapists Connell Watkins and Julie Ponder, who are charged with reckless child abuse resulting in death, in Jefferson County District Court.
    Candace and her adoptive mother, Jeane Newmaker, who is also charged, stayed with St. Clair, who acted as a "host mother," when they came to Colorado for attachment-disorder treatment last year. The rebirthing session was supposed to help Candace bond with Newmaker. St. Clair described Candace as a "very bright" girl who was "noncompliant in a passive way." St. Clair said she interpeted Candace's repeated cries for help as a ploy to manipulate Watkins and Ponder into letting her out.
    As part of the two-week treatment, Watkins ordered Newmaker and Candace not to see each other at St. Clair's Lakewood home, where they were staying. They were to interact only during the morning therapy sessions at Watkins' Evergreen office and home. As host mother, St. Clair said, she was in charge of "compliant sessions" with Candace. The girl was supposed to do what she was told and to complete small chores, like sweeping the kitchen floor. "She was slow to respond," said St. Clair. "She was going to do it in her own way and on her own time."
    Earlier Wednesday, Jeane Newmaker completed testimony that started the day before. She said the last time she saw Candace alive was on April 17 in St. Clair's living room. It was the evening before the rebirthing session, when the girl cheerily said, "Hi, Mom!" Newmaker testified about another session performed in Evergreen called "compression therapy." Candace was wrapped in a sheet, from toes to shoulders, with pillows against her sides.  Newmaker, who weighed about 195 pounds at the time, said she was instructed to lie on top of her 75-pound daughter and put her face up against the girl's.
    Watkins thought Candace would become enraged and combative, Newmaker said. The anger was supposed to lead to regression, which would allow Candace to talk about previous troubles. But that didn't happen. Instead, Candace was very quiet for long periods of time. "I felt she had gone someplace else," Newmaker said. "She was not in the room with me. There was no life in her." Though the session didn't go as planned, Newmaker said she and Watkins were encouraged. The trial continues today.

Colorado Slayings Highlight Trend of Increasing Murder-Suicides
Associated Press- 4/5/2001

HIGHLANDS RANCH, Colo. (AP) Despite his image as the father of a close-knit and caring family, John Bishop had problems that researchers say are part of the profile for murder-suicides. Bishop, a 41-year-old telecommunications executive, was overwhelmed by financial problems and depression when he shot and killed his wife and three children before turning the gun on himself, investigators believe.
    Donna Cohen, a University of South Florida-Tampa researcher who has been studying murder-suicide for 10 years, said depression combined with other difficulties, such as financial, health or relationship problems, often underlies murder-suicide. She said murder-suicide cases are on the rise nationwide even as murder rates have fallen. Cohen estimates that murder-suicide accounts for about 1,500 deaths a year. In about 10 percent of family murder-suicide cases, the husband or father fears he cannot provide for his family and doesn't want to trust their care to anyone else, she said. In murder-suicide cases where the relationships soured, the killers often believe no one else should be with their loved ones, she said. "It's love and control seen through the dark glasses of depression," Cohen said.
    While there are no official nationwide statistics for the category, Cohen said numbers of suicides and murder-suicides are increasing in the West, Southwest and Southeast, places that are generally less densely populated and where guns are more readily available. In Colorado, 17 people were killed in murder-suicides last year, compared with 11 in 1999, said Corinne LeBaron, director of client services for Project Safeguard, which tracks domestic violence deaths statewide. In all but one of the cases, the killings were committed by men.  Investigators believe Bishop committed the murder-suicide on Sunday, two days before all five family members were found dead in their beds. The victims included his 38-year-old wife and their 9-year-old son and twin 6-year-old daughters. Autopsies were to be completed Friday.
    Neighbors described the Bishops as the perfect family, saying they often played together in the yard and had taken ski trips during the winter. If there were problems within the family, they said, it didn't show. "If it was (financial) it was hidden pretty well, along with a lot of other things," said Christina Hart, who taught Sunday school with the children's mother, Sherrill, a part-time teacher. John Bishop's company had recently gone through a merger and he had been promoted. Relatives said he was being treated for depression. Doug Legg, Sherrill Bishop's brother, said John Bishop loved his family: "Believe me when I say that this was a family that was in every way shape and form a wonderful, warm, caring family."
    On the Net: Project Safeguard: http://www.projectsafeguard.org/

'Rebirthing' Video Chills Courtroom
Kieran Nicholson, Denver Post- 4/6/2001

Therapists Connell Watkins and Julie Ponder lay on a heap of pillows, engaged in light conversation - talking about lavish homes in the Evergreen area - as Candace Newmaker suffocated underneath the pair in a botched therapy session. A Jefferson County jury on Thursday watched the chilling tape of Candace's fatal "rebirthing" therapy, carried out by Watkins, Ponder and three others, including the dead girl's adoptive mother, Jeane Newmaker.
    Candace's face was buried in the sheet for just under 70 minutes, according to Diane Obbema, the lead detective on the case for the Jefferson County Sheriff's Office, who testified that she has watched the rebirthing tape 20 times. After that 70 minutes, when Watkins and Ponder decide to finally let the girl out, Watkins remarks: "Oh, there she is, sleeping in her own vomit."  The Jefferson County courtroom was riveted as the tape was shown. Some jurors cried. Spectators wept as well.
    The tape, made by the therapists, shows Candace screaming, crying and pleading to be let out of the sheet in which she was wrapped head to toe. Ponder and others applied more pressure. The tape shows Ponder wringing the top of the sheet to tighten its grip on Candace. Several times, Candace tells the group that she has wet and soiled her pants and that she has vomited. Watkins and Ponder both tell the girl to "lay in your poop and vomit." Toward the end of the tape, after protests and cries from Candace had long stopped, the group tells several jokes, followed by laughter, as they lie on the pillows. Classical music plays in the background, followed by "Twinkle, Twinkle, Little Star."  Watkins tells Brita St. Clair and Jack McDaniel, assistants in the rebirthing episode, to take a break. Even when Ponder and Watkins move Candace's lifeless body - Watkins feeling the girl's leg, which had punched a hole through the bottom of the sheet - they joke about Candace being a breech baby. "It's interesting she was coming out that way," said Watkins.
    A dog wanders up, Ponder pets it, and it licks her face. All the while, Watkins and Ponder lie on their sides atop the pillows that surround the fourth-grader. With a smile on her face, Ponder talks about her boyfriend, a construction worker, and a home they're renting in Evergreen. Watkins comments on the "beautiful" mountain area; Ponder describes her house in detail; Watkins talks of a home that was remodeled and ruined. Buried below them, Candace lies motionless and silent.  "Let's talk to this twerp," Watkins finally says. Ponder unwraps the girl's face, and they discover she's unconscious and not breathing. Her lips are blue. "Candace, Candace, Candace," Ponder keeps repeating in desperation. No response. Newmaker, who had left the therapy room to watch on a closed-circuit television upstairs, comes rushing in. "Oh my God, she's dead," Newmaker screams. "Candace, stay with us," Ponder begs. "Call 911, someone. She is dead," Newmaker screams.
    Earlier, the tape shows Ponder asking Candace, "Have you ever wanted to be born to this mom we have here?"  "Yes," replies the girl, dressed in blue jeans and a white shirt. "You could have the life that you always wanted to have. You can start again like a newborn baby," Ponder says. She warns Candace that being reborn will be hard work. But she also reassures the girl, "We're going to make sure you have plenty of air to breathe." Ponder asks Candace how she slept the night before. Candace says she had nightmares about "murder," about "a guy named Freddie. He is murdering me," Candace says. She is told to lie in a fetal position on a blue flannel sheet.
    Ponder folds the sheet over Candace and twists the loose ends above the girl's head. Ponder tells Candace to imagine she's a baby in the womb, then asks her how it feels. "Sticky," Candace replies. Ponder asks Candace what she is thinking about in the womb. "I thought I was going to die in there," Candace says. Large pillows are placed around the sheet. The adults in the room lean into the pillows. Newmaker starts trying to coax Candace from the cocoon beneath the pillows.
    "I think this is so exciting, I can't wait," Newmaker says. "Is she going to be safe?" Ponder asks. "She will always be safe in my home and with me," Newmaker says. "And there will always be a bond with me because I love her so." "So, little baby, are you ready to born?" Newmaker asks. "Um-hum," Candace says. "You have to push really hard with your feet," Ponder tells the girl. "If you stay in there, you're going to die and your mommy is going to die." "I can't do it. I can't do it," Candace protests, crying. Watkins tells Candace it sometimes takes 18 hours to be born. "Whoever is pushing on my head, you're not helping," Candace implores. "I can't do it. I can't breathe," she screams in a crying voice. "Is my baby ready?" asks Newmaker. "I can't do it, someone is on top of me," she screams. The trial continues today.

Man Killed by Deputies Was Mentally Ill
Jose Cardenas & Kurt Streeter, Los Angeles Times- 4/6/2001

A 29-year-old Bellflower man fatally shot this week by deputies was a mentally ill patient whom officers had taken to the hospital for treatment several times, family members said. It's the third confrontation between officers of various law enforcement agencies and allegedly knife-wielding suspects since last Friday. All followed domestic disturbance calls and resulted in officer-involved shootings.
    In Tuesday's case, Ricardo Esparza was shot multiple times by Los Angeles County sheriff's deputies at his home in the 9800 block of Walnut Street. Authorities said Esparza was threatening the officers with a butcher knife. Esparza's mother, Margarita Palafox, said she had called police on at least three other occasions over two years when her son--who she said suffered from depression and heard voices--refused to take his medication and became aggressive.
    On those occasions, however, she said the officers had persuaded Esparza--who did not speak English--to go with them to a hospital. Palafox said she expected the same to occur this time. "I trusted them," she said. "How was I going to know that this was going to happen?" Though it is not clear whether any of the officers had been at the home before, they knew that the person with whom they would deal had mental problems, said Sheriff's Lt. Dan Rosenberg. He said a Spanish-speaking officer was sent to the Esparzas' home.
    Rosenberg said officers first used nonlethal beanbags and rubber bullets against an uncooperative Esparza and fired lethal ammunition only when Esparza threatened the officers. "This is a tragic situation," he said, "but when deputies are put in a situation like this . . . they tried to stop it but the guy came after them after they tried to negotiate and use less-than-lethal force. "If we go someplace and we assess that the patient has mental problems, we can take the person to a mental facility," said Rosenberg. "Unfortunately, in this case, the person became assaultive."
    Palafox said she went to a neighbor's house to call deputies after Esparza became verbally abusive. When the officers arrived, Palafox said she explained Esparza's mental condition and said she wanted them to take him to the hospital. She pointed the officers to the right apartment and remained at a distance. Neighbors peering through their windows said they could see Esparza holding a pan in one hand. Some said what Esparza had in the other hand a butter knife but no one interviewed by reporters got a clear look at the object and one could only describe it as "something shiny." Neighbors said they heard up to a dozen shots.
    Relatives said Esparza had moved from Mexico at age 15 and had worked at odd jobs since. Esparza was a friend to many in the complex who were aware of his mental problems, neighbors said. "He used to come and clean. He helped me paint my house," said Eddie Perez, the complex manager. "He was not violent at all." "I'm kind of stressed about this. I lost a friend [because] of their mistake."
    The other shootings included an incident last Friday in which Alhambra police shot and critically injured a teenager after he allegedly lunged at them with a knife. The 16-year-old boy's father had called police, saying his son was suicidal, authorities said. Sheriff officials contacted on Thursday said that they did not have an update on the teenager's condition.