Joe Palczynski: One Failure of the Mental Health System
In March 2000, the Dundalk neighborhood of Baltimore, MD was terrorized by a string of spree murders and subsequently, a fugitive manhunt, hostage situation, and one of the country’s longest one-man standoffs. I lived in Dundalk and was seven years old in March 2000. My memory of those few weeks has remained vivid for twenty years. Something that was once a personal source of confusion and trepidation has become a paradigm for the broken mental health system in this country. Joe Palczynski, Dundalk’s spree killer, is just one of the endless individuals who was failed by the mental health system and went on to live a life plagued by the correctional system.
Despite growing up in a loving household free from abuse, Joe Palczynski’s tendencies suddenly turned violent and unpredictable in his teenage years, just days after a severe head injury. Palczynski’s family immediately took action to have him hospitalized and evaluated. Nevertheless, he was not given sufficient treatment, experiencing years of constant medication changes aimed at treating bipolar disorder, which were never quite successful. Over the next decade, Joe attacked seven teenage girls and found himself in his first standoff situation in Idaho after a string of assault and battery incidents. Despite all of these run-ins with the correctional system, Joe Palczynski’s mental health was never the focus, even though his behavior had a clear origin. Palczynski never received any significant inpatient treatment, counseling, or a consistent medication regimen. His bipolar disorder was never properly treated and, thus, his violent tendencies continued. This culminated in 2000 when Palczynski kidnapped his ex-girlfriend, Tracy, and murdered the three individuals who were attempting to provide her a safe-haven from his violence. Over the next few weeks, his behavior became more unpredictable and dangerous. He held Tracy captive before deciding to run from the police, murdering a pregnant woman and injuring her toddler during a carjacking. He went on to kidnap another individual, forcing them to drive him back to Dundalk, where he ultimately arrived at the home of Tracy’s family. Twenty days after he kidnapped Tracy, Joe took her family hostage in their own home. After four days of this standoff, in which Joe’s only demand was for the police to hand over Tracy, the family escaped by placing sedatives in his food. The Baltimore police ultimately ended this month of terror by shooting Palczynski twenty-seven times. Officers involved described Palczynski as “unpredictable and prone to severe mood swings” saying “he could be docile at times…then his rage would go off the charts” (Apperson, 2000). Joe was repeatedly characterized as having “previous run-ins with the law- many of them driven by mental illness” (Apperson, 2000).
Palczynski, often referred to simply as “a former convict with a history of mental illness,” is tragically not a unique case (Clines, 2000). “At any given time, 3.9 million [Americans with severe mental illness] go untreated…As a result, incarceration has become the norm for those with severe mental illness. Forty percent of them are incarcerated at some point in their lives” (Snook, n.d.). Joe Palczynski suffered from untreated bipolar disorder, believed to have been the result of severe head trauma experienced during an automobile accident as a teenager. Since this onset, Joe spent brief periods in mental health facilities and years in and out of prison, usually due to domestic abuse incidents and other violent behavior. With proper support and treatment, those with serious mental illness are no more violent or dangerous than any other individual; however, untreated “mental illness is associated with increased risk of violent behavior, with most of the evidence [pertaining] to bipolar disorder” (Volavka, 2000). This fact does not excuse violent or criminal behavior, but does provide a clear explanation and solution. Joe Palczynski’s history of undesirable behavior had a clear link to his bipolar disorder. The root cause of his criminal and violent actions- his mental health- was not properly addressed or treated for over a decade, despite a diagnosis and acknowledgment by both law enforcement and mental health professionals. “Individuals with psychiatric diseases…like bipolar disorder are ten times more likely to be in a jail or prison than a hospital” which, in cases like Palczynski’s, leads to spiraling mental illness and escalating criminal behavior (Snook, n.d.). The tragedies and violence that took place in Dundalk in March 2000 seemingly were preventable, if only the mental health system did not fail to provide the treatment Joe Palczynski required.
Apperson, J. (2000). Police reveal tale of terror. The Baltimore Sun. https://www.baltimoresun.com/news/crime/bal-pal14-story.html
Clines, F.X. (2000). Suspect’s death ends siege; hostages are safe. The New York Times. https://www.nytimes.com/2000/03/22/us/suspect-s-death-ends-siege-hostages-are-safe.html
Snook, J. (n.d.). America’s crime problems being fed by a broken mental health system. Treatment Advocacy Center. https://www.treatmentadvocacycenter.org/fixing-the-system/features-and-news/4112-americas-crime-problems-being-fed-by-a-broken-mental-health-system
Volavka, J. (2013). Violence in schizophrenia and bipolar disorder. NCBI. https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pubmed/23470603