| Street Crazy highlights nine years in the life of a | | | | observations related to the staggering percentage of |
| psychiatrist, Dr. Seager, while working in a Los | | | | mentally ill people in jails and prisons, many of whom |
| Angeles public mental hospital. He writes from his | | | | upon release became homeless and in some instances |
| personal experiences to give people an understanding | | | | ended up in jails and prisons multiple periods of time. |
| of the plight of more than one million Americans who | | | | The legal system and its mandates have been |
| are mentally ill, homeless and living on the streets. His | | | | hindrances to successfully treat many severely |
| hope is that understanding will lead people to become | | | | mentally ill persons. Legal decisions have been made |
| actively involved in working to improve the lives of | | | | based upon protecting the freedom of choice and |
| homeless mentally ill individuals. | | | | not on the severe mental illness of the individual. |
| Dr. Seager is one of those rare psychiatrists who | | | | Through personal experiences and documentation |
| became personally involved with a few of the | | | | over the years, Dr. Seager proved to himself and |
| mentally ill people he came into contact with during | | | | others who worked with him that when a mentally ill |
| his years working in a public mental hospital. His belief | | | | person was given correct medication the vast |
| is that he was knowledgeable about mental illness | | | | majority of people significantly improved. The |
| diseases but knew very little about the everyday | | | | problem lay in the judicial policies that could not keep |
| lives of people suffering with mental illness. He | | | | severely mentally ill people involuntarily committed |
| records one story of a grandmother and her | | | | based upon the mentally ill person's individual needs. |
| grandson, Jamal. Even though Jamal's grandmother | | | | Another judicial policy stated that once a person left |
| had a bad heart, she wanted to gain legal custody of | | | | the hospital those persons were not required to take |
| Jamal after Jamal's mother, addicted to drugs, | | | | their medications. As a result, the hospital often |
| returned home after abandoning Jamal for years. Dr. | | | | became a revolving door. One patient had been |
| Seager personally became involved in the court case | | | | re-admitted 84 times within a four-year period. |
| related to the placement of Jamal. | | | | The author makes a strong case for looking at |
| In another case Dr. Seager fearfully took a bus into | | | | homelessness and mental illness, not just as a |
| the ghetto and skid row areas of Los Angeles in an | | | | psychiatric medical problem, not as a civil rights issue |
| effort to find the family of a man who had died. | | | | but looking at mental illness as a moral issue. He |
| Because of unforeseen circumstances he was forced | | | | emphatically states, "That the brain-diseased must |
| to spend the night in a homeless shelter. The entire | | | | exist on our streets and eat garbage is a sin. Period." |
| disturbing experience was a defining moment in his | | | | In the final chapter of the book, Dr. Seager outlines |
| life. | | | | eight suggestions he and others believe must be |
| Dr. Seager quotes what one policeman said when | | | | taken to insure chronically mentally ill persons are |
| bringing into the hospital a man who had previously | | | | compassionately cared for. His plea is a call to action, |
| been brought in on multiple occasions. The policeman | | | | a plea for people to become involved in advocating |
| was overheard as saying, "They should just declare | | | | and working together to rethink and take action to |
| mental illness illegal." The policeman was making his | | | | improve the mental health system and the lives of |
| comment based on his own experiences and | | | | people within the system. |