an inmate with possible mental illness

The inmate was a Chinese male in his 50s charged with attempted murder. Although this person has been in jail for 10 months, he still has not gone to court yet. Therefore, he has not been sentenced. His lawyer suspected that the mate has mental illness, and requested a mental evaluation for him by a psychologist. He was of medium height and weight, and looked younger than his real age.  

He grew up in an abusive family. His father, a submissive person in the community, treated his family awfully. Many times, his father beat his mother, broke dishes and cooking ware, cut open his mother’s clothing, and even smashed furniture with an ax. After this kind of outburst, his father would move out and live by himself. However, after a while, his father always came back home, and the whole thing repeated again. 

His father also was very stringent with him. The inmate mentioned that he and his older sister, his only sibling, rarely talked in the presence of his father, because his father considered children expressing their opinion in front of parents as a disrespect toward the parents. When his father was disappointed with him, he would slap him or pull his ear hard until his ear became red and swollen. As a result, the inmate wished his father never came back to home after his moving out, and even secretly wanted to kill his father. However, he was worried about the punishment of murdering his father, so he never turned his wish to action. After he got his associate’s degree, he moved out of his parent’s home, and lived by himself as soon as possible, because he wanted to escape from the oppressive environment of his original family.

However, he met a lot of obstacles in his work. He worked in the Bureau of statistics of his hometown. Although he had friends in school, he found that it was very difficult for him to make friends after he entered the society. According to him, his colleagues looked down on him, and his supervisor castigated him. He gave an example. When he took a driving class in his own time with his own money, and got his driver’s license as the first person in his working place, his supervisor got angry, and criticized him in a conference of the whole bureau. 

He was so miserable in the authoritarian environment that he quit his job in the Bureau and became an entrepreneur. However, he failed dreadfully. In addition, his wife opposed his quitting his job. She did not understand how he could give up a stable job and income to pursue his unrealistic idea of being an entrepreneur, which made her lose the feeling of stability and certainty of her life. He impulsively replied if this was how she felt, they should get a divorce. Then, they divorced.

 At the age of 40, he got a chance to come to the USA. But his life was still tough. He had various jobs, such as waiter, delivery guy, temporary actor et al, and the longest jobs he had were sushi chef in different Chinese restaurants and card dealer in casinos. He moved more than 30 times and lived in more than half of the American States in the more than 10 years during which he was in the USA. The longest time he stayed in one apartment was about one year. The reason he moved so often is that he frequently changed his job, usually because the bosses complained that he was inefficient, but sometimes because he did not like the working place.

 He had a severe gambling problem. He told the psychologist that he lost a total of about 250K dollars in casinos over the 10 years. Whenever he had more than 20K savings in his bank account, he would go to casinos gambling. When he had less than 5K, he would stop gambling and go back to work, and then the cycle repeats.

He also drinks. But he claimed that he did not drink that much, only about 4 drinks a week. He acknowledged that he had one romantic relationship in the USA. His partner was one of his coworkers in a Chinese restaurant, and they lived together for about half a year. Once he assumed he would become disfigured because he needed a plastic surgery to repair his forehead after a car accident, so he ended the relationship.

This person also admitted that he has hallucination and delusion. He sometimes heard the voices of his father, supervisor or colleagues who blamed him, criticized him or called him a loser. Occasionally, he believed a stranger with a frightening and ferocious face based on his judgment carrying a weapon, usually a gun or a knife, although he had never seen these weapons.

 He claimed that his roommate, who was the victim of his attack, was an arrogant person with a frightening and ferocious face. This roommate profaned his mother, which was regarded as a more extreme offense to him than a profane to him because his mother is the person who cherished him the most in the world. Additionally, the inmate believed that his roommate had a weapon, so he shot him.

This inmate declared that he was lonely in the jail, because he is the only Chinese here and his English is not good enough to hold a conversation with other inmates or guards in the jail. But he is able to borrow Chinese fiction from the library in the jail, and he felt peace and calm when he read these books. Nevertheless, he was fine, and never thought about suicide or hurt other persons in jail because he felt that he still has responsibility of caring for his mother and son.

Having experienced so many setbacks in his life, he felt he had failed in all aspects of life and he concluded that there are three reasons for his failure: 1. Dismal original family, especially his abusive father. 2. No friends or relatives he could have a good conversation. 3. Nobody understood his singular character, even his ex-wife, which was greatly shaped by his miserable up-bring.  

 I thought even if this person has mild schizophrenia, he was not psychotic. He could have a logical conversation, although sometimes his answer was off target, especially why he was asked about the thoughts or reasons of his certain behaviors, like gambling and frequent moving. Also, sometimes his answer was not consistent. For example, when the psychologist asked him how long ago he began to hear voices, he first said it was after he came to the jail, then changed to about 1 and a half years ago, and then about 7 years.

 This person is also impulsive and has difficulty controlling himself. He himself admitted that he was too impulsive when he decided to divorce his ex-wife. In addition, when he was asked what he would do when he felt depressed, his answer was drinking and gambling, which clearly showed his lack of self-control.    

I thought his mental status should not completely exonerate him. Although he may benefit from a stay in a mental hospital, his condition may not reach the standard for a mandatory lock-down in a mental hospital, and it was difficult to imagine the prison will help with his mental illness. Besides, he definitely needed help with his addictive behavior.