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Successful Reintegration into the Community: One NGRI Acquittee's Story

NCJ Number
198867
Journal
Federal Probation Volume: 66 Issue: 3 Dated: December 2002 Pages: 59-63
Author(s)
Randy Starr
Editor(s)
Timothy P. Cadigan
Date Published
December 2002
Length
5 pages
Annotation
This author describes his own experience wherein he was found to be not guilty by reason of insanity (NGRI) and his successful reintegration into society.
Abstract
This author provides a focus on a microcosm, what happened to one person, himself, rather than on the large numbers of reentering offenders and the systems needed to handle them. A review of the reintegration into the community by conditional release, as was the case for the author, is a challenging procedure. A brief overview of this procedure is provided. The author relates in detail his personal history in which he murdered his mother in a demented rage in 1979 and was incarcerated after being found guilty by reason of insanity. He describes his incarceration and subsequent conditional release. He discusses the insight and coping skills he learned while in the hospital, and how they were reinforced by the outpatient treatment he received. This successful journey through mental health inpatient and outpatient treatment programs and his successful reintegration into society are described in personal detail. In summary, he states that he learned that he could do it, but he couldn't do it alone.