Friday, January 29 – 7:30PM at the #SkidRowMusuem: Film Screening: CODE & excerpts from SAFE: Correction Officer De-escalation Education.
Filmmaker Dixie Gamble IN PERSON, will show and discuss her films The CODE and excerpts from SAFE, which are training films for correctional officers and police and educational tools for those concerned about the institutions which house millions of mentally ill persons in the US.
CODE educates corrections officers on how to deal empathetically with the mentally ill. Dixie Gamble’s film was commissioned by the Tennessee chapter of the National Alliance for the Mentally Ill and has been shown to corrections officers throughout the state. Gamble’s son is living with mental illness and has had first hand experiences with empathetic officers as well frightening and abusive encounters with police and corrections officers. Gamble says, “The crossroads where criminal justice and mental health intersect can be a dangerous place for people with mental illnesses. Nothing highlights this fact like living it.” After her son’s experience Gamble promised him to make a training film that could educate and create change. Gamble recognized that “Officers needed to be empathic and well trained for crisis encounters with people with mental illnesses.”
