I just got back from visiting Cermak Hospital.  It’s a mental health hospital inside of Cook County Jail.  As it turns out, Cook County has the largest mental health system in the country.  In the jail, there are two places where a mentally ill person might wait for their trial.  One is Division 8-RTU (Residential Treatment Unit), and the other is Cermak Hospital.  Cermak is for the more severely disturbed individuals.

I have been visiting the jail since 1986, and had been visiting 8-RTU for a couple years when I ran across Eric Spruth at St. Paul. If you’d like to read about visiting 8-RTU, you can see other articles on the St. Paul website.   Eric had come to our parish coffee shop and was taking a picture of a rose in front of the rectory one day.  “Hey, why are you taking a picture of my rose?” I asked him.  “Your rose,” he answered me, “Isn’t it God’s rose?”  “Well, maybe it’s God’s rose, but it’s my parish.  I’m the pastor… So I guess it’s my rose.”  “You’re a priest?”  “Yes.”  “Well father, my name is Eric, and I work in Cermak Hospital.  Nobody ever comes to the hospital.  I’ve been there for 38 years, and there’s been no regular pastoral care for the people in Cermak.  Not ever.”  “What?”  “That’s right, nobody ever visits the people in Cermak.”  “I guess I’m your man,” I answered, and I started visiting Cermak.

It was a big change from Division 8… In Cermak Hospital, the people are either in a 12 x 12 cement block room with a concrete bunk in the middle of the room, or there are 4 people sharing a room.  There are narrow vertical windows looking out, and on the inside wall of the cell there is a 2-inch-thick metal door with a large bullet proof window in it.  The cells are arranged around an open area in the center with a desk for the officers in charge.  Visiting here means going from cell to cell and talking to the people through the closed door (they’re too unpredictable to open the doors for a visit). The first time I walked through with Eric we were approaching one of the units on the 2^nd floor.  He turned to me  and said, “We’re not going in there today.  Too dangerous.”  Oh my, I thought.  If it’s too dangerous for him, and he has 38 years of experience, I’m not sure I want to be here at all.  Over the course of a few months, I got used to it.  Now, I feel ok walking around unaccompanied.  One of the great lines from last week came from someone I asked, “So, how’s your day?”  She answered me, “I’m clothed and in my right mind, so I guess my day is ok.”  Not everyone in Cermak can say the same thing… So, back to today.

Eric and I walked around with the mobile garden.  Last week, he arranged for a little cart with dirt and some seeds.  It’s in the picture for this article.  This week, we walked around and showed the officers and the incarcerated people the plants.  They’d sprouted in a week, and the tiny plants were fascinating for the inmates and the officers (they all had a chance to plant something last week).  Who knew lettuce looks like little grass plants when if first comes out?  The officers in charge were open to us wheeling the little cart around, and on one of the dorms the inmates were walking around and they came up one by one and had a look at their work.

There are real heroes working in this part of the jail, and everywhere else, I guess.  A little story… One of the nurses working at Cermak helped a woman who came in a few weeks ago with her hair all tangled up in knots.  She spent the whole morning getting the tangles out… imagine, this woman might have been living under a bridge or somewhere.  She’s mentally ill, and already traumatized by whatever encounter she had with the police and by leaving her usual environment. She might have been violent.  Who knows?  The easiest thing would have been to shave her head.  But that would have been another trauma on top of everything else.  So, the nurse chose to sit with her and untangle her hair.  That seems to me to be both courage and compassion in one.  Wow!  All the staff people know each person by name, and they treat them as human beings with great hope for the future.

Eric has been doing art therapy here in Cermak for 38 years.  Playing music, helping people make paintings and drawings.  Planting seeds.  The thing to remember about these people is that they will all be leaving this hospital sooner or later.  And they are our brothers and sisters.  Nobody ever goes to see them, not their families, not their lawyers.  The officers and the medical staff see them each week.  And their compassion and courage leaves a mark.  God Bless them all!