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88 °F Forecast | Road Cams Monday, August 2, 2004 Today's News | Classifieds | Autos | Homes | Jobs | Tempo | Health | Community | Home Delivery SECTIONS Home Page Local News Sports Business Obituaries Life Opinion - Politics Tempo AP News Weather Classified Archives Site Map SPECIAL SECTIONS Since We Asked Outdoor Journal Prime Times Wellness Connection Readers' Choice Real Estate Showcase Joy Magazine Homelife Magazine Wedding Guide Rogue Valley's Finest EXTRA Newspaper in Education Personals Movie Times TV Times E The People MARKETPLACE Find a Car Find a Home Find a Job Classifieds Place an ad eSouthernOregon Automotive Communities Entertainment Publications Recreation Calendar CUSTOMER SERVICE Frequent Questions Advertising Information Home Delivery Employment Contact Us Media Kit Network Affiliate Oregon Road Conditions & Cams Email Story to a Friend August 1, 2004 Sebastian Daniel Masters, who was convicted of arson, lives in Jackson House in Ashland. The county facility houses mentally ill criminals and has raised concerns with neighbors in the area. Mail Tribune / Jim Craven Compassion for criminals? Ashland’s Jackson House boards mentally ill criminals, and some neighbors aren’t happy about its location By JONEL ALECCIA Mail Tribune When the rocks came flying over the fence at Ashland’s Jackson House two weeks ago, 35-year-old Sebastian Daniel Masters was sitting in the yard. The stones hurled by two teenage boys narrowly missed Masters, a thin, blue-eyed man who sports a three-day beard and a bandanna printed with the Confederate flag. But the taunts the kids shouted — "We don’t want you here!" — struck their mark: Masters and the five other center residents who’ve been classified by the state of Oregon as guilty of crimes, except for insanity. "We were like, whoa, this ain’t right," recalls Masters, who says he didn’t think of striking back. "We’re more responsible than that. We’re grown men and women here." Advertisement Concerned Jackson County officials say the rock-throwing incident highlights ongoing tensions between the clients who’ve lived at Jackson House since late June and local residents who object to the presence of mentally ill criminals in their midst. "These are neighborhood boys, so it felt like a symptom," says Andrew Axer, psychiatric director for the center. Nearby homeowners say they still haven’t made peace with the decision to site such clients in a residential area, especially because they believe the decision was made in secret. "The attitude is that we should bake them cookies and accept them with open arms," says Mary Ann Penrose, a woman in her late 60s who lives two blocks away. "I’m liberal, but I’m not that liberal. It is not right to have this facility in this neighborhood." The clients, who are supervised by the state Psychiatric Security Review Board, say they understand residents’ fears and concerns, but believe they deserve the benefit of the doubt. "I would have a big question I would ask (the neighbors)," says Masters, who was convicted of first- and second-degree arson after burning down at least a half dozen public buildings in Eugene in 1986. "If they were stricken, God forbid, with a mental illness and they would be in this house, how would they feel if they were being judged the way they are judging us?" That kind of compassion makes sense to Axer, who is upset — and a little angry — that neighbors are so wary of the clients he handpicked from the ranks at the state mental hospital in Salem. Six of the dozen residents who now live at Jackson House are guilty of felony crimes including sodomy, kidnapping, assault, arson and attempted murder. The other six are mentally ill men and women with medical problems. But Axer said he chose only people who were more than ready for the conditional release required to send them into secure community care. "I have chosen the slow learners, those who are at low risk for escape," Axer says. "Who I didn’t pick up were people with clear sexual fantasies as a primary indicator. I didn’t pick people who would con me." Once neighbors get to know the men, who range in age from mid-30s to late 50s, they’ll see that the clients’ past convictions aren’t really as scary as they seem, he says. "When people read about criminals and felons, they think about Anthony Hopkins eating people alive," Axer says. "When I see them, I see mentally ill people who were untreated and committed a crime." That’s how the PSRB clients think of themselves as well. Daniel Jess Cervantes, 46, says cuts in funding for his prescription drug benefits left him without psychiatric medications for bipolar disorder in 1999. Without his medication, he drank alcohol for a week and didn’t sleep. He was in that state when he stumbled outside a Eugene bar that wouldn’t serve him. "There was a car. The door was open and the keys were in the car and it was running," recalls Cervantes, a tall, heavy man with flat, dark eyes. "When the police stopped me, they said, ‘Who’s the lady in the back seat?’ I go, ‘What lady in the back seat?’" Cervantes was convicted of second-degree kidnapping as well as driving under the influence of intoxicants. He is set to remain under PSRB care until 2016. "If I would have got help in the beginning instead of the county cutting me off my meds, it never would have happened," he says. Masters says he was a "wild, crazy" 16-year-old who suffered sexual and physical abuse as a young child. His mother shot him with a .22-caliber gun, he says, ready to reveal the scar near his collarbone. In and out of foster homes as a kid, he tried to get help from social workers, teachers and others, but to no avail. "Things were starting to disturb me a lot," recalls Masters, who has been diagnosed with post-traumatic stress disorder and fetal alcohol syndrome. "One day, something just snapped." When the fire was out, he’d gutted $1.75 million worth of public and private property. Masters and Cervantes both say they worked hard to get to come to the Jackson House. They recall the state mental hospital as an overcrowded, hostile place where people were housed four and six to a room and fights were frequent. Here, Masters has his own room, where he can play Xbox war games and sleep soundly in his own bed. He hopes to spend six months in Jackson House before being released to a group home, where he would have more freedom. Cervantes shares the same dream. He’d like to be able to be alone for 15 minutes, maybe an hour, maybe more. He’d like to live with less supervision, be able to ride a bike, get a job. That dream worries neighbors like Deltra Ferguson, 45, who lives across the street from Jackson House. She and others have launched a safety committee, organized a phone tree and changed other daily habits because of the mentally ill criminals there. She believes county officials opened the center a year before a new, permanent facility in Medford was complete solely in order to receive $1.7 million in state funding. She says she believes strongly that mentally ill people require safe, dignified housing away from hospital mental wards. But she also believes that this particular location isn’t suitable. "This isn’t about stigmatizing the mentally ill," she said. "This is about bad decisions by decision makers." Cervantes and Masters both say their reluctance to return to the state hospital is a virtual guarantee that Ferguson and her children will be safe. "The thing is, there is just too much to lose here," says Masters. "Going back to a place we hate? We got way too much to lose." Reach reporter JoNel Aleccia at 776-4465, or e-mail [email protected] Mail Tribune Home Local News | Sports | Business | Obituaries | Life Opinion - Politics | AP News | Archives | Site Map E Southern Oregon | Classified Copyright © 1997-2004 Mail Tribune. All rights reserved. Privacy Policy | Terms & Conditions Website Feedback ADVERTISERS A D V E R T I S E R S RESOURCES Oregon Road Conditions & Cams SPECIAL SECTIONS Auto Finder Job Finder Home Finder Joy Magazine Homelife Magazine Tempo Readers' Choice Real Estate Showcase Since We Asked Food for Thought Wellness Connection Outdoor Journal Moving to Southern Oregon? Volunteer Opportunities Prime Times