Tuesday, May 31, 2016

Daniel Jack Matthews - 2003

Daniel Jack Matthews was 17 years of age when his mother called the cops on him. For a number of months he had become violent due to personal issues.

His mother hoped that the arrest would enable her to get help for her child. In a system where the proper placement for him would be evaluation and properly detoxing a treatment center, the system only could offer her a placement in the local detention center where he would enter a youth population consisting of a mix of criminal youth and youth suffering from either addiction or mental issues.

This lead to his tragic death when a fight broke lose between him and another inmate at the understaffed and overbooked facility.

It is a terrible loss for a mother to receive when all she did was to reach out for the only service the society could offer her regarding her sons struggle.

Addiction - in his case according to media reports cold pills and content from spray cans - is an illness. Illness should be treated - not punished.

But that was what the society could offer her. He lost his life. His mother lost her son.

May he find peace where he is now.

Sources:

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