Tuesday, March 09, 2010
FASD and the Law article
From the Rapid City Journal-
FASD and the law
Lynn Taylor Rick Journal staff
Posted: Thursday, January 28, 2010 4:25 pm
Rapid City attorney Robert Van Norman knows a lot about how the law intersects with fetal alcohol spectrum disorders.
As a former public defender, Van Norman said a many of his public defense clients suffer from the fetal alcohol disorders. His recollection isn't surprising, considering that an estimated 35 percent of people with the disorders have been in jail or prison at some point, according to the U.S. Department of Health and Human Services.
People with fetal alcohol syndrome disorders can suffer from a range of symptoms that may put them at odds with the law, including poor impulse control and difficulty understanding cause and affect. Lawyers also argue that they can be highly suggestible and unable to give reliable testimony.
Even though Van Norman said he often realized his clients had the underlying brain damage from fetal alcohol exposure, he could do little to help them using that defense. Currently, FASD isn't officially listed in the Diagnostic and Statistical Manual, a guideline written by the American Psychiatric Association that covers all accepted mental health disorders. Without it, lawyers and judges can do little to ensure that justice is served to FASD people, Van Norman said.
"These young people will never fit into the system as it is," he said. "This is ... one of the only times we punish people for a congenital condition."
Van Norman said those within the mental health field are the ones who can lobby the American Psychiatric Association to add the condition to the Diagnostic and Statistical Manual, often called simply the DSM.
FASD has already been studied more than many of the conditions already listed, he said. For the criminal justice system to fairly treat those with FASD, it needs to finally become official.
"You folks are the ones who have to succeed here," he said.
FASD and the law
Lynn Taylor Rick Journal staff
Posted: Thursday, January 28, 2010 4:25 pm
Rapid City attorney Robert Van Norman knows a lot about how the law intersects with fetal alcohol spectrum disorders.
As a former public defender, Van Norman said a many of his public defense clients suffer from the fetal alcohol disorders. His recollection isn't surprising, considering that an estimated 35 percent of people with the disorders have been in jail or prison at some point, according to the U.S. Department of Health and Human Services.
People with fetal alcohol syndrome disorders can suffer from a range of symptoms that may put them at odds with the law, including poor impulse control and difficulty understanding cause and affect. Lawyers also argue that they can be highly suggestible and unable to give reliable testimony.
Even though Van Norman said he often realized his clients had the underlying brain damage from fetal alcohol exposure, he could do little to help them using that defense. Currently, FASD isn't officially listed in the Diagnostic and Statistical Manual, a guideline written by the American Psychiatric Association that covers all accepted mental health disorders. Without it, lawyers and judges can do little to ensure that justice is served to FASD people, Van Norman said.
"These young people will never fit into the system as it is," he said. "This is ... one of the only times we punish people for a congenital condition."
Van Norman said those within the mental health field are the ones who can lobby the American Psychiatric Association to add the condition to the Diagnostic and Statistical Manual, often called simply the DSM.
FASD has already been studied more than many of the conditions already listed, he said. For the criminal justice system to fairly treat those with FASD, it needs to finally become official.
"You folks are the ones who have to succeed here," he said.
