NAMI Tennessee has a project worth sharing. Code- the Movie, is a fantastic short form documentary with Pete Early and the writers of the Academy Award winning film, The Soloist. Here's what the producers have to say;
Despite being the default in-charge individuals at any given time in our society, law enforcement officials are not above improvement when it comes to their involvement with the public -- especially as it relates to the treatment of mentally ill suspects or prisoners.
This is the goal of CODE, a short film produced by the National Alliance on Mental Illness (NAMI) of Knoxville, Tennessee as both "a training film for corrections officers and an educational tool for those concerned about institutions that house millions of mentally ill people in the U.S."
Millions of mentally ill prisoners? Yes, that's right. The majority of local and state prisoners (64 per cent and 56 per cent, respectively) exhibit symptoms of mental illness, as well as 45 per cent of all federal inmates. Ensuring that the corrections officers who interact with these inmates on a daily basis are fully prepared for the types of behavior they might encounter (and the best ways to deal with the situation) is a tall order, but an incredibly important one. As the film's site states, the very few films addressing training on this particular topic are outdated at best, and none include face-to-face interviews with actual prisoners struggling with mental illness. CODE takes a first bite out of the problem, thanks to the efforts of the Tennessee Department of Correction and the Tennessee Department of Mental Health and Substance Abuse Services -- as well as filmmaker Dixie Gamble and the liberal access she was granted to the state prison system and its inmates.
CODE, which refers to the acronym "Correctional Officers De-escalation Education," has already been screened at various venues in an around Tennessee, but is available for purchase (or for a screening request) on its site.
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