Letters 4/27/06

April 26, 2006

Letter from prison
My name is Tracy Lautner.  A little over four years ago I developed schizophrenia.  I had no one to tell me it was schizophrenia; in fact, I thought it was an intense spiritual test from God.  Over the next year and three months, things went from bad to worse.
I lost my survey company, my truck, my dog, my savings, and my son’s mother was starting to question whether I should be allowed to take my son alone.
I felt that there was no way out. On March 15, 2003, I stole a truck in broad daylight from a dealership in an attempt to get the cops to shoot me.  Well, the officer hit me once out of 12 shots at nearly point-blank range, but didn’t kill me.  Those who know my case say it’s a miracle I’m alive.  As I sit here in this prison, I beg to differ.
During this incident I accidentally discharged the one shell of birdshot I had brought for myself: #8 birdshot. The officer was hit in his arm. At the hospital, he was treated and released.
A doctor from the forensic center deemed me criminally insane at the time of the tragedy. The prosecutor paid an independent doctor big money to say I wasn’t.  A third doctor agreed that I was insane. Unfortunately, the third doctor was not allowed to testify to this at my trial. The jury deliberated for nearly eight hours, but found me guilty. As the judge sentenced me to death (42-82 years), he said that he felt that the verdict could  have been, “not guilty by reason of insanity.”
I am on medication now and nearly where I was mentally before schizophrenia struck.  I hate prison more than I could convey to you using words. My 11-year-old son growing up without a father wrenches my heart. Until this tragedy, I never truly knew what regret was.
Visits from my son, his mother and my Aunt Shirley are the high points of my life. Receiving my weekly Northern Express is the highlight of my week. It brings me back to Traverse City for awhile. Yes, I was a resident all of my life until I was incarcerated three years and two days ago.  I am now 34.
I have many family and friends there and am still very concerned with the area.  I can’t think of a better place for my son to grow up.
In prison, as an inmate, there is so little you can do to contribute to family and society. If you were to print my letter, it would mean so much to me. If you can’t, thanks anyway.  It helped just to write it.

   Tracy Lautner • #501884  
   West Shoreline Correctional 
   Facility • Muskegon Hts.


Give the Whiting a break
Re: critics of the Whiting Hotel and the actions of its residents in recent letters:
To be honest, I’ve never seen that sort of behavior around the Whiting until after midnight or so, usually in the alley behind the hotel. And I work days now, not downtown, so I don’t spend anywhere near as much time downtown as I used to. 
From everything I read in both our local papers and see on the TV, it doesn’t look like there’s a whole lot of business being lost downtown due to these people. I suspect an awful lot of our visitors have probably seen a whole lot worse.
The people in residence at the Whiting Hotel are NOT a “display” of “our unfortunates.” They are real people, living real lives. Your attitude does nothing to help them, and as the saying goes, if you are not a part of the solution, you are part of the problem.

Frank Harden, Jr. • Sugar Loaf

Nursing home abuse
Sarah Comer, 50, died at the Metron nursing home of Big Rapids a day after being transferred there from Spectrum Health Butterworth Campus in Grand Rapids. She was dependent on oxygen, but the nursing home allowed her oxygen tank to run empty, authorities have said. 
Some of the eight people charged are accused of causing Comer’s death through negligence. Others are accused of covering up the cause of her death. They face a variety of counts, including involuntary manslaughter. 
This is an appropriate response to Sarah Comer’s death. Almost without exception, when there is a questionable death in a nursing home, that death is treated as a regulatory issue, not as a crime. A citation may be issued by state health officials, a written plan of correction may be required, and a fine may be issued. 
People who abuse, neglect and kill the elderly in their homes are faced with a pesky problem, going to prison. The nursing home industry could be used as a model for addressing that problem. 
Collecting a fine is an innovative approach to reforming the judicial system and enlarging the tax base. There are no court costs. Nursing home owners and healthcare workers are not embarrassed by having to stand in the dock. The negligent homicide rate is artificially lowered. The government’s coffers are enriched. No one has to bear the burden of guilt.
Putting satire aside, when a nursing home fails to take care of residents and state health officials allow this failure to continue, a state attorney general must intervene, as Michigan Attorney General Mike Cox did, and hold those responsible for failure of care. Until that happens nursing home residents will continue to be second-class citizens.

           Jane Marshall • via email

Corrections
The April 13 Random Thoughts column,  “Land of the Dead,” incorrectly surmised that George and Bernice Rice had only two children, both who died in infancy. In fact, they had five other children, two biological children and three who were adopted.

A Region Watch item regarding Traverse City Light and Power in the April 20 issue should have said that a grant will cover the expenses of one or two people going to Europe on a trip to investigate alternative energy, but not all four.