Free Ashley Peacock from his 5 years of Isolation

krystle (69)in #autism • 8 years ago

Providing original content for steemit - Follow/Subscribe here.

As a mum of two severely autistic children, I often find myself fearing their futures. If something was to happen to me or my partner @ausbitbank who would look after them, our family is scattered and no one has the abilities, time or money to take them on.

I fear that one day, I may not be here to prevent one or both of my children ending up in a facility. Because of this, I feel it is my responsibility to assist the community wherever possible.

Ashley Peacock is a 38 year old Autistic man with other mild mental health issues, for the past 5 years he has been imprisoned in a mental health facility in New Zealand. He has been living in a 10 meter square room with just a mattress and a urine bottle, when ordered staff can have it locked for extended periods of time. For the past two years he has been allowed only 90 minutes outside daily.

Ashley Peacock and two other intellectually disabled men are suing the government of upwards of $100,000 each alleging ill treatment. The case will be heard later this week with 5 defendants including the attorney general and two district health boards. All three men were committed as special patients after coming before the courts on violence charges around 15 years ago when they were found unfit to plea.

This is blatant case of abuse and I beg all steemit users to help set Ashley Free by signing the petition and drawing as much attention to this issue as possible. They haven't even had a trial how can they still be imprisoned, let alone in such inhumane conditions? We have to try to stop this from happening to anyone else in the future.