CAMDEN POLLS BOW TO NAMI NJ PRESSURE Under pressure from NAMI NEW JERSEY the Camden County Democratic Committee has pulled the highly offensive ads which likened a Republican opponent to someone whose "medication(is)not working" and who needed to be "sent away before they take him away". The ad pictured a man restrained in a strait jacket. The office of prominent Camden County Democrat Louis Greenwald contacted NAMI NEW JERSEY late yesterday afternoon to offer an apology. "The ad is horrible, it should have never happened". The Assemblyman's pledge to have the ad taken down was confirmed this morning when the offensive ad was removed from the web site PoliticNJ.com at which it had been posted. PoliticsNJ.com responded to the controversy today by quoting the NAMI NEW JERSEY alert on its opening home page and linking to the entire text of the Alert. Go to PoliticsNJ.com http://www.politicsnj.com/default_102203.htm PoliticsNJ link to the NAMI Alert
http://www.politicsnj.comnaminj102103.htm/
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NAMI NEW JERSEY FIGHTS STIGMA The Trentonian, a Mercer County newspaper has once again published a outstanding series of stories about mental illness during Mental Illness Awareness Week in October. NAMI NJ has been instrumental in reaching out to the media in New Jersey to create awareness through its Anti-Stigma Media Education Campaign. Read the latest stories of NAMI NJ families and consumers in the Trentonian articles.
http://www.naminj.org/programs/antistigma/anti-stigma.html "POLITICAL STRAITJACKET AD ANGERS MENTAL-HEALTH ADVOCATES"
Read the coverage in the Press of Atlantic City
http://www.pressofatlanticcity.com/news/njpolitics/102203CRAZYOCT21.html
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COUNTY HOSPITAL AWAITS INSPECTORS' RETURN When federal investigators sprang a surprise visit on the Essex County Hospital Center in June, they found patients whose chief activities were coloring, listening to music, painting fingernails, playing cards and sleeping. They also found some illegible records and others that provided no real plan for helping patients get better and leave what is supposed to be a temporary treatment facility. The county says it has responded with a voluminous "corrective action plan" that addresses everything from poor staffing to insensitive workers. The hospital could lose $7 million in funding on Nov. 8 if the agency finds that the county's plan is not being implemented. Read the Star Ledger report:
http://www.nj.com/news/ledger/essex/index.ssf?/base/news-4/1066543912325720.xml
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SEX OFFENDER UNIT NEARS CAPACITY The number of sex offenders being confined in New Jersey each year easily outpaces the number being released. Now, more than four years after New Jersey adopted its commitment law for sex offenders, it's starting to run out of room for the convicts officials don't dare set free. And the state is grappling with legal challenges to the way the law is implemented. Read the story in the Times of Trenton:
http://www.nj.com/news/times/index.ssf?/base/news-1/1066554459282180.xml
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NEW JERSEY ELECTION SCORECARD The November election is quickly approaching. This year all 120 seats in the New Jersey Legislature are before the voters. A gain of one seat for either party will result in winning (or losing) control of the state senate. Read the updated PoliticsNJ scorecard to see who leads in the upcoming election.
http://www.politicsnj.com/prall2003_1008.htm
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STUDY FINDS HUNDREDS OF THOUSANDS OF INMATES MENTALLY ILL
As many as one in five of the 2.1 million Americans in jail and prison are seriously mentally ill, far outnumbering the number of mentally ill who are in mental hospitals, according to a comprehensive study released Tuesday. The study, by Human Rights Watch, concludes that jails and prisons have become the nation's default mental health system, as more state hospitals have closed and as the country's prison system has quadrupled over the past 30 years. There are now fewer than 80,000 people in mental hospitals, and the number is continuing to fall.
Read the New York Times story (free to register): http://www.nytimes.com/2003/10/22/national/22MENT.html?ex=1067831021&ei=1&en=71d0b330082a4145
