Vol. 74, No. 8, August 2001

Book Reviews

• Model Law for Assisted Treatment
• Atlas of Crime: Mapping the Criminal Landscape
• Dear Sisters, Dear Daughters: Words of Wisdom from Multicultural Women Attorneys Who've Been There and Done That
• What Two Can Do: Sam & Mandy Spellman's Crusade for Social Justice

• To review a book

"People with treated mental illness can now reclaim their lives. But first there must be treatment. ... Treatment voluntarily embraced is always preferable."

The primary purpose of the Model Law, however, is to be: "the legal framework for the provisions of care to individuals who, due to the symptoms of severe mental illness, become either too dangerous or incapable of making informed medical decisions concerning their treatment."

Treatment includes medication and, ideally, psychiatric counseling, and individual or group therapy. If treatment is involuntary, to ensure compliance, medication often initially is ad-ministered during brief hospitalization. In a compelling "Introduction," the Center states that "assisted treatment" essentially fosters treatment compliance in the community through a court-ordered treatment plan. The courts commit the patient to the treatment system and the system to the patient. In the most recent comprehensive published study to date, long-term assisted outpatient treatment reduced hospital admissions by 57 percent, in general, and by 72 percent for people with psychotic disorders. And, when such treatment was combined with outpatient services, the probability of violence was reduced by 50 percent.

The Model Law proposes an efficient system of assisted treatment petitions, hearings, and appeals that relies upon a judicially empowered Psychiatric Treatment Board, which consists of a physician (preferably a psychiatrist), a lawyer, and a recipient of treatment or a close relative of such a person. Voluntary and emergency treatments are provided for and law enforcement is involved. This Model Law is "cautiously considered," combining "the most effective provisions of existing state laws," by placing "each of the best available components into a statutory model better than any currently in effect." Its provisions for protecting "the rights and well-being of those placed in assisted treatment" also are "more extensive and vigilant than those now in place anywhere in the nation."

Given medical advances, the Model Law is "needed to prevent repeated hospitalizations" and "consequences of nontreatment," including homelessness, incarceration, suicide, victimization, violent tendencies, and needless suffering. Mental illnesses are biologically-based diseases that attack the brain and now can be treated effectively, like many other diseases, with daily medication and, when necessary, therapy. It is certainly in the best interest of society for states to seriously consider adopting this Model Law.

The book has a crisp, well-written format, with useful clarifying comments throughout.

Donna M. Jones, U.W. 1978, is a member of the Participation of Women in the Law Committee and a past member of the State Bar Board of Governors.

The editors compiled papers contributed by several sociologists and criminalists that concern the geographical distribution of crimes and related statistical evidence. The five major categories of criminal activity include crimes of personal violence, crimes against property, family violence, organized/entrepreneurial crimes, and sensational crimes. Those categories are subdivided and include "new" crimes such as computer crimes, piracy on the high seas, terrorism, and hate crimes.

Maps show distribution of income, population, environmental factors, and other parameters in addition to the incidence of a particular category of crime. The diagrams and maps are in black and white, which makes it difficult to distinguish among the various symbols used in the cartography.

Other chapters cover the geographic history of crime, map use by criminals, crime story authors, and police departments. Each article contains exhaustive references for the author's data and conclusions. The book itself has a detailed index.

I recommend that every criminal justice practitioner, urbanologist, and sociologist have this book.

Martin A. Blumenthal, IIT-Chicago Kent 1981, is an attorney and CPA in Northfield, Ill.

The book has three parts. "Inspiration" contains letters from women who explain what inspired them to become lawyers. Many were driven by naysayers, others by supportive families. Still others cited good career mentors. The majority, however, sounded one theme - truth to one's own vision of success. They warned readers not to allow others to define their ideas of success, and not to let bitterness direct their courses.

"Path" contains letters discussing the routes the writers took to reach their particular career stage. Several indicated that they had stumbled into being lawyers. Others started down one path, only to find themselves in a different place years later. Many were pleased with where their sometimes wandering paths had taken them. Some articulated the isolation they felt because of race.

"Big Picture" focuses on the struggle the writers have faced trying to achieve balance in their lives. The section is anticlimactic after the first letter, in which "Anonymous" describes the day she and her husband, who had put off family for careers, learned they would not be parents.

The book could benefit from editing the grammar in some letters. The focus also is fuzzy; some women write only to law students, and one writer assumes her readers share her ethnic background. Overall, however, Dear Sisters contains solid, encouraging, and inspiring advice, not just for multicultural women, but for any lawyer who searches for joy, fulfillment, and balance in the law.

Pamela Pepper, Cornell 1989, is a Milwaukee solo practitioner emphasizing criminal defense and appeals. She formerly clerked for Hon. Frank M. Johnson Jr. on the 11th Circuit Court of Appeals, and was an assistant U.S. attorney in Chicago and Milwaukee.

Leah Mandolson (L. Mandy) was born in Canada to a family that viewed helping others as a responsibility, not an option. An American citizen by birth, Salom (Sam) Spellman, also was born into a Toronto family that had strong beliefs about community responsibility.

Sam and Mandy Spellman moved to Columbus, Ohio, where Sam became the director of the Columbus Jewish Community Center. This center became a model for other community centers with its strong programs, advocating both equal time for women's physical education and a no-bench-warmer/every-kid-plays policy.

As a student at Ohio State University studying social work, Mandy was active in the civil rights movement and learned that attending to the root cause of a problem and taking action that can affect an infinite number of people is of a far greater good than providing services to a limited number of people.

The Spellmans moved to Wisconsin, where Sam became the head of the U.W. - Extension Center for Social Services, and Mandy studied law at Marquette University, graduating in 1970.

Mandy's social activism was an integral part of her legal practice. Deliberately taking cases that would assist those most in need and suffering from social injustice, those cases were meant to send a message that toleration of injustice should end. She worked hard to enforce the Equal Credit Opportunity Act of 1974. She also recognized that if divorce was going to happen, the best needed to be made of the circumstances, particularly for those who had traditionally suffered in divorce: women and children. Mandy lobbied for the Marital Property Act of 1986, which created a 50-50 split of property/assets acquired during a marriage.

Sam, in his position with the U.W. Center System, worked with the Division of Corrections in attempting to establish strong, results-proven programs to treat first-time criminal offenders. Both Sam and Mandy were active in attempts at creative criminal justice.

Some of the Spellmans' most effective social activism was through letter writing. When not treated appropriately, or in the face of injustice, they wrote letters to the managers of stores, newspapers, legislators, and national organizations. Creating public awareness of problems and publicly shaming those perpetrating offensive or illegal behaviors had a pronounced effect on many occasions.

Neither Roerden's book nor this review can come close to encapsulating the Spellmans' social work. The book is written in historical snippets, factoids, and anecdotes pieced together into chapters, which is fast-paced, but somewhat disjointed.

The Spellmans embody social activism as a lifestyle commitment to doing the next right thing. Are you willing to go the extra mile for a disadvantaged client or group? Are you outraged? If so, be creative, not angry. And do something about it.

Timothy J. McAllister is an offender classification specialist with the Wisconsin Department of Corrections. He holds a masters of public administration from U.W.-Oshkosh.