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After sister with mental illness jailed, brother teams with others to help detainees

Chicago Tribune (IL) - 7/6/2016

July 06--Melissa Clark hit rock bottom.

She was paranoid, hearing voices and fighting with other detainees in Cook County Jail, where she would spend 18 months behind bars. She had been arrested after a scuffle with a security guard who caught her trying to shoplift at a Whole Foods store in Chicago.

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The Peoria native, who has been diagnosed with schizoaffective disorder, turned to drugs during her teen years and into her 20s to cope with her confusion, anger, delusions and despair.

Today Melissa, now 27, is out of jail, undergoing treatment and trying to pull her life together. But her family has not forgotten the challenges they faced trying to get psychiatric and substance abuse services for her during and after her incarceration. The Tribune reported on Melissa's plight in 2011 and 2012.

"I was in pretty bad shape in so many ways," she said during a visit with her mother over the Memorial Day holiday. "I think I did what I did because I felt there was no choice and I had to."

Brandon Clark, who visited his younger sister at the jail and in the jail's medical facility, said he got a close-up look at how the criminal justice system often fails people who are mentally ill. He felt an obligation to help other families, he said.

He recently teamed up with brothers Mark and Matt Wilke to form the nonprofit Pariah Foundation to raise money to aid people living with mental illness.

"The experience with my sister," he said, "was motivator No. 1."

A recent fundraiser brought in about $16,000 for its first project: purchasing a transport van to donate to the Cook County Sheriff's Department. The idea for the van came during a meeting with Cook County Sheriff Tom Dart, who told Clark and Matt Wilke that former detainees often need transportation to court hearings, probation meetings and treatment sessions. Missing those appointments can greatly complicate their legal and psychiatric problems.

Some detainees don't have a ride home or to a shelter or treatment facility after they are released, Dart said. Funding for transportation for detainees after they leave custody is not allocated in his budget.

"It's amazing that something so small," Brandon Clark said, "can be so impactful."

The dark blue van was delivered in June. The purchase of additional vans could follow.

"Their generosity is amazing," Dart said. "The compassion is incredible. Very few people become engaged in criminal justice as a result of (the incarceration of) a family member. Usually families want to hide from it."

Clark met the Wilkes through volunteer work they did with a charity created by former Chicago Bears wide receiver Brandon Marshall, who was diagnosed with borderline personality disorder in 2011. A Wilke family member also has struggled with mental illness.

Mark Wilke said the Pariah Foundation will focus on small projects that can ha

ve a big impact.

"The van is going to be used almost immediately and will be helping people -- helping them stay out of jail, get the therapy they need and hopefully get their lives to a place where they feel they can contribute to society and to their loved ones," he said.

Before her illness took over, Melissa was a high school cheerleader, a fan of '60s rock and a ravenous reader of fiction and biographies, who enjoyed drawing.

She completed an 18-month probation following her conviction and now lives in a Chicago intermediate care facility that provides psychiatric and other services. She was floored when her brother said he planned to form a foundation to help other people living with mental illness -- and that she was the inspiration for it.

"I was so taken aback," she said in May, after grilling a meal of fish, burgers and vegetables with her mother. "It's a good idea that they'll have a van because I saw a lot of people in jail for missing court dates."

A beaming Melissa attended the foundation's first fundraiser in May. It was there that she met Dart for the first time, a moment that brought her life-changing experience full circle. Three members of Dart's staff also attended the event, including Elli Petacque Montgomery, a jail official and licensed social worker who had advocated for her in court.

"Part of what we're trying to do is not be ashamed or hide, and a lot of the details (of Melissa's downward spiral) are not very pretty," said Carla Clark, Melissa's mother. "The foundation gives her situation purpose. As a family that has seen the problem from the inside, we are uniquely equipped to help in this battle against criminalization of the mentally ill."

Melissa has been diagnosed with schizoaffective disorder, which shares symptoms with a number of mental illnesses, including schizophrenia and bipolar disorder.

"There are constant reminders that mental illness lingers throughout a person's lifetime," her brother said. "It has its ups and downs and never goes away. Medication treats the symptoms but does not completely eliminate them."

During Melissa's incarceration, the family reached out to Dart's staff and the National Alliance on Mental Illness Chicago, which offered guidance and support. The Clarks see their efforts as a way to give back.

After the van is put to use, the sheriff's department plans to collect data to keep track of how many people were helped, as determined by a decrease in missed appointments, for example. Having measurable results, Brandon Clark said, is a core value of the foundation.

The Clarks and Wilkes also want to encourage others to get involved in efforts to improve the lives of those living with mental illness. The foundation's first project, Clark noted, was not difficult or expensive.

Alexa James, executive director of the National Alliance on Mental Illness Chicago, applauded the two families for their commitment but said the need for a foundation to provide funding to fill service gaps highlights a major failing of the mental health system.

"What makes me sad is that there is an infrastructure in place to help people," she said. "Assertive community treatment makes sure people get their medication and rides to appointments -- Thresholds and other agencies do it. If those agencies had appropriate funding, more people would not miss appointments and fall through the cracks and end up in jail."

She said the foundation is helping to address a serious logistical issue, exacerbated by misplaced funding priorities and the state's budget quagmire.

"A lot of people are getting treatment for the first time while they are incarcerated because we have an underfunded mental health system," James said. "The sheriff's office is doing a great job, but people should not have to re-engage with the jail to get services."

Deborah Shelton is a freelancer.

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