NY-2022-04-30

What the Record Shows

For two decades, Clarissa Crader sought treatment and support for her son, Justin Campbell, who had schizophrenia and repeated encounters with the mental-health and criminal-justice systems. She called 911 when she feared for her safety, sought court-ordered treatment under Kendra’s Law, pursued guardianship, contacted mental-health providers, and hired a private investigator to locate him. Yet sustained treatment remained out of reach. Supportive housing was difficult to access while Campbell lived with his mother, and after Crader sold her home, she spent thousands of dollars on hotel rooms to keep him housed. After multiple evictions, he became homeless.

Campbell’s illness was repeatedly addressed through the criminal-justice system rather than sustained psychiatric care. Following arrests for assaults, including a 2016 assault that left an elderly man unconscious, probation provided a mechanism for mandated treatment and antipsychotic injections. When probation ended in 2022, that mechanism disappeared. The record documents a long cycle of psychiatric deterioration, family attempts to obtain care, housing instability, criminal-justice involvement, and the loss of treatment leverage when legal supervision ended.

Sources:

MindSite News, Nov. 17, 2022: How to Keep Your Son From Killing Someone

NSSC, Jan. 20, 2025: A Dream for Justin: One Mother’s Hope for Her Sick Son

Each story is shared to highlight where systems failed to intervene or provide treatment. The intent is accountability and reform, not to portray people with Severe Mental Illness as dangerous or to reinforce stigma.