Thoughts on the Banita Jacks case

I haven't posted on the Banita Jacks case yet, partially because I do strive to keep my "professional" identity separate from my personal, and from my blogger pseudonym. Before I get any further into this, let me stress the statement over there to your right and down a bit...the opinions posted here are my opinions and don't represent the opinion or position of any other person, agency, company, etc. This goes double, maybe even triple for my specific employer. My opinions here are no more valid than anybody else's; I simply have relevant experience that colors my opinion.

I've been a social worker for about eight years now. In that time, I've seen a lot of things, including tragedies that were picked up by the national media. I've seen the "inside" side of things like this....the reactions from within the social agencies that from the outside seem so monolithic. Let me tell you, in the case of Banita Jacks, heads will roll. Depend on it.

The thing is, the really sad thing is, that this needn't have happened. Kate has posted a couple of times on this, including an excellent roundup that got me to thinking, even before I got an email from her asking about my thoughts. She closes with the question, Who failed Banita Jacks?

Ultimately, I think nearly every jurisdiction in this country restricts forcible mental health treatment to those that are an imminent danger to themself or others. While Ms. Jacks fits this criteria for obvious reasons, the difference here is that it was somebody's duty to have noticed it, reported it to people that could do something about it, and taken appropriate action. On behalf of the children, that much, again, is obvious.

What's not so obvious, though, is that one person noticing something when nobody else wants to say anything doesn't accomplish much. Much like the horrifying story of Kitty Genovese in New York, there is a vast difference between "everybody knowing something" and everybody actually knowing that everybody knows it. If that doesn't make much sense, consider this. Kate counts five separate agencies with, individually, duty to see what was happening to those children and say or do something about it. I count far more than that...because the Jacks had neighbors. The children had friends, and those friends had parents. For god's sake, the place they lived was an apartment in southeastern DC.

It is impossible that none of the neighbors knew or suspected that something had happened to those children, or that Banita Jacks was a danger to those children or herself.

Impossible.

Whether or not they'll ever be willing to admit it to someone other than a psychiatrist, lawyer, or priest, all of whom have the luxury of an official pass on having to tell somebody about it, well, that's another story.

So who failed Banita Jacks? The answer is pretty simple. We all did. I'm no fan of Hillary Clinton, but the premise of her book is a pretty simple, and accurate one. Children and families do not exist in a vacuum, and we as a society have said that we feel it's important to protect the innocent from those who would harm them. The innocent in this case includes Banita Jacks, in part at least because help for her mental illness should have been available and wasn't. I don't know if this is because Medicaid's coverage for mental health services, and for adults in general, has been largely gutted by tax shortfalls the way it happened in Oregon about six years ago, or if those services were actually available to Banita Jacks and she was unable or unwilling to access them. I have no idea.

Honestly, though....help should have been available. Help should have been forthcoming. It wasn't, and it's a tragedy that will breed a lot of public embarassment for elected officials, which will translate into downhill-flowing wrath, all the way to the hapless and probably horrifyingly overworked CPS worker that failed to make contact with the family before the worst happened. People will get fired, rules will be changed, officials will vow in public that it will never happen again, and politicians will exploit and manipulate it in the media for personal gain. In the end, it may change things, a little. It may help another family, or inspire another CPS worker to go the extra mile just one more time. Who knows?

The only thing I know is that Banita Jacks was sick, and her children paid the ultimate price because nobody around her was willing or able to do something about it.