Attacking the spirit when a mind needs repair

MELONE E-mail: Click here Archive

© St. Petersburg Times
published September 10, 2002

Citrus County Circuit Judge Ric Howard operates by his own moral compass. Mercy is nowhere on it.

Last month, an Inverness teenager appeared before him. Adam Bollenback was a beer thief, with a record of felony-level juvenile offenses.

For this latest act, stealing a six-pack out of somebody's garage and then slipping away from the cop who nabbed him, Howard ordered Adam Bollenback to spend the next 10 years of his life in state prison.

State sentencing guidelines said Bollenback should get less than four years. Juvenile officials recommended he go to a secure juvenile facility.

The judge ignored them. He told Bollenback that he wanted a sentence that would "break your spirit."

When members of the Judicial Qualifications Commission, which monitors judges, takes up this case, as they surely will, they'll have to talk to Judge Howard. Hopefully, they'll ask him why he used the kind of language on Bollenback normally reserved for dogs who won't stop piddling on the rug.

But punishing Howard will do nothing to correct the punishment of Adam Bollenback.

The prosecutors said Howard laid down such a stiff punishment because he was concerned that Bollenback's arrest record was worsening. On Monday, days after the sentence, they said they had no idea there might be a reason for the trouble Bollenback keeps getting into.

If only they'd asked his mother, Cheryl, she'd tell them. He suffers from bipolar disorder -- the great mood swings between euphoria and depression. His mother said he has been ill since childhood. As a teenager, he hasn't always taken his drugs, medicines like lithium or Depakote. Like a lot of people with this illness, he tried to manage it on his own, by drinking.

It is hard to find treatment for bipolar disorder in prisons. What you will find is a population where about 15 to 20 percent of the inmates are as sick or sicker than Adam Bollenback. They are deeply depressed. Bipolar, schizophrenic or delusional.

I got those numbers from Bob Dillinger, Pinellas-Pasco public defender. Citrus County is not within his responsibility, but his experience makes him an expert regarding the mentally ill in prison. Dillinger may be one of the few public defenders in the state with a special office of a dozen lawyers who do nothing but manage the cases of defendants who are mentally ill.

When he talks about the needs of the mentally ill in prison, Dillinger gets called soft on crime. Never mind what the facts are: As more and more mental hospitals close, jails become hospitals of last resort.

The only time people's views shift, Dillinger said, is when mental illness or addiction hits somebody they know or love. Then the criminal who steals to keep his habit alive is not a freak. He's a damaged human being with a drug addiction, an illness that is always part mental.

But we still don't face this problem squarely. Last week, Dillinger said, there wasn't a bed in a Tampa Bay hospital available for a mentally ill person brought in by the cops. That kind of shortage is not unusual. When it happens, the person lands in jail.

There is some treatment for kids in juvenile programs. Because Adam Bollenback is now in adult jail, he can never go back. There is no mental health treatment in the adult prisons.

But his cause only looks lost. His lawyer has filed appeals. His case is being taken up by the Citrus County chapter of the National Alliance for the Mentally Ill. His mother won't feel so alone in her fight.

Still, Cheryl Bollenback said, "I'm scared to death for him."

Dillinger, the public defender, confirmed her fears. "To put a 17-year-old in state prison is to make him history," he said.

In other words, to put a 17-year-old into adult jail is to destroy him -- just as Judge Howard wanted.

-- You can reach Mary Jo Melone at mjmelone@sptimes.com or (813) 226-3402.

© 2006 • All Rights Reserved • St. Petersburg Times
490 First Avenue South • St. Petersburg, FL 33701 • 727-893-8111

Contact the Times | Privacy Policy
Standard of Accuracy | Terms, Conditions & Copyright