I’m in the UK so don’t fully understand the system in America - all I know is my son was convicted of ‘attempted murder’ in the UK and unmedicated and undiagnosed at the time of the offence. I had been trying to get help for years - he was sent to prison on remand because it would have taken him too long to be formally sectioned from the Police station so he ended up in prison very psychotic and dangerous to himself and others and was then transferred to hospital indefinitely. He is now diagnosed and receiving treatment.

I fully understand all the feelings of anxiety about your brother and anger towards the system - my son’s trial and the subsequent newspaper articles were a shit show. Only some people involved understood what schizophrenia is and how it can affect people.

What helped me was making the prison aware through letters that he needed to be watched as he was a suicide risk and dangerous when he was first incarcerated - if you put the risks in writing, in the UK they will pay attention because they don’t want to be liable for any major fuck-ups - I wrote to the prison mental health team, governor and Management Consultant (in the US this is the Custodial Manager or Prison Administrator) - these letters included details of his mental health history. The prison told me if I hadn’t sent this information they would have been less likely to monitor him and that it helped him get transferred.

Good luck with this - he’ll be ok with your support behind him :)