Please go to The Ellsworth American to read the full article. 

By: Jennifer Osborn

~~Excerpt 

ELLSWORTH — The mother of a homeless Ellsworth man is frustrated by the revolving door of Maine’s judicial system for people like her son who have substance abuse and mental health struggles.

“He needs an involuntary commitment,” Leanne Lilly of North Conway, N.H., said of her son, Nicholas O. Stanley, 33.

Lilly said her son is an alcoholic and has a traumatic brain injury he sustained in an all-terrain-vehicle accident as a teenager.

Stanley has been arrested several times, usually on charges of violating bail conditions by drinking, according to court records.

“This has been going on for years,” Lilly said. “Cycle, cycle, cycle and he’s out and back on the street.”

Lilly would like her son kept in the jail until a bed at a rehabilitation facility is open. From rehab, she said she would get her son into an institute that specializes in recovery from traumatic brain injuries.