Basic Downloads

Are you new to speech and debate? The following downloads are for you. They contain introductions to various events that the Monument Membership explores. These downloads are updated every summer to prepare for the new year of competition.

Your Basic Downloads Source Material for Season 22:

File Name	S22-Policy-NCFCA-07-AFF-MentalHealth.docx
File Size	364.53 KB
Date added	September 13, 2021
Category	Policy (NCFCA)
Author	Vance Trefethen

Resolved: The United States Federal Government should significantly reform its policies regarding convicted prisoners under federal jurisdiction

Case Summary: This plan reforms and increases mental health care treatment for federal prisoners. A federal Bureau of Prison (BOP) policy change in 2014 plus Trump budget cuts in 2016 led to a massive reduction in mental health care services for federal inmates. BOP responded to the changes by simply reclassifying most of the mental cases as not serious enough and cut them out of the treatment. That’s a bad idea because untreated mental illness is a really bad problem inside prison and leads to more problems after they get out.

This plan goes back to the pre-2014 standards and increases funding to get all necessary mental health care provided to federal prisoners. If Neg argues that there are more prisoners needing treatment than our plan accounts for, the funding will more than cover it, and such an argument will only increase the validity of the AFF harms. It costs about $71,000/year above normal costs to properly treat a prisoner for mental illness.

This plan also invokes the 8^th Amendment (prohibition against “cruel and unusual punishment”) for enforcement, as advocated by our evidence. The Supreme Court did something similar to our Plan in 2011 when the state of California’s prisons were massively overcrowded. The overcrowding led to denial of physical and mental health care, and state prisoners were suffering and dying. Federal courts ordered California to either increase the capacity of its prisons, transfer prisoners elsewhere, or release some early.

When California dragged their feet, the Court told them to start sending them home early because the 8^th Amendment violations were so awful. Details on this are in the Brown v. Plata decision quoted in this case. Our experts argue that the 8^th Amendment and its remedies should apply to lack of mental health care, not only lack of physical health care (although Brown v. Plata touched on both). In Brown v Plata, the Court left it up to the State of California as to which prisoners would be released early, and California was able to release the least violent, least dangerous, least time left on their sentence, etc. prisoners, without creating any public safety crisis. This is important because it’s a precedent where the plan has been tried before and in the extreme scenario where the enforcement really has to kick in, it will work.

Note: “DSM” is the Diagnostic and Statistical Manual of Mental Disorders. Considered the “bible” of the psychiatric profession, it’s an official definition of the diagnosis and symptoms of mental illness.

Download Your Preseason Documents, too:

You may still access Season 21 downloads here.

All Season 22 Basic Downloads will be updated by August 31, 2021. They will remain available through Season 22.

Easy Entry to the World of Speech and Debate

All Members have access to the digital copy of Easy Entry to the World of Speech and Debate by Chris Jeub. Download it below or order a hard copy.

Season 22 Release Schedule

Monument releases content all year long, from one national tournament to another, in what we call "seasons." We are entering Season 22 (2021-2022). For a list of all Member downloads for Season 21, click here. The following is the general release schedule for Season 22:

End of Season 21 - Officially archived on June 28, 2021. The new Season 22 releases begin July 5, 2021.
July-August - The first Monument Monday releases July 5, 2021. Basic informational material will continue through the summer (e.g. summaries, resolutional articles, etc.).
August 30, 2021 - End of the Pre-season, beginning of the official year of Monument Speech and Debate.
~~Christmas~~ Thanksgiving 2021 (we finished early!) - All foundational downloads are complete! Summaries of all releases are now available.
Through March 2022 - BONUS material released to members on a more as-needed basis using our Coaching Request Form.
April-June, 2022 - Qualifier and Nationals Preparation work is arranged...and Monument Members will be prepared to win!

Season 22 Debate Resolutions

Resolutions for Season 22 are posted here as they are announced by various speech and debate leagues.

Policy (all season):
- NCFCA: "Resolved: The United States Federal Government should significantly reform its policies regarding convicted prisoners under federal jurisdiction."
- NSDA: "Resolved: The United States federal government should substantially increase its protection of water resources in the United States."
- NSDA Vote for Season 23 (Due December 15, 2021):
  - OPTION 1 – GLOBAL CLIMATE CHANGE – Resolved: The United States federal government should substantially increase its support of multilateral greenhouse gas emission reduction regimes.
  - OPTION 2 – GLOBAL GEO-POLITICAL CRISIS: EMERGING TECHNOLOGIES – Resolved: The United States federal government should substantially increase its security cooperation with the North Atlantic Treaty Organization in one or more of the following areas: artificial intelligence, biotechnology, cybersecurity.
- Stoa: "Resolved: The United States Federal Government should substantially reform the use of Artificial Intelligence technology."
Lincoln-Douglas:
- NCFCA (all season): "Resolved: In the context of innovation, the proactionary principle ought to be valued above the precautionary principle."
- NSDA releases six resolutions through the year:
  - Sept/Oct Novice: "Resolved: Civil disobedience in a democracy is morally justified."
  - Sept/Oct Varsity: "Resolved: The member nations of the World Trade Organization ought to reduce intellectual property protections for medicines."
  - Nov/Dec: "Resolved: A just government ought to recognize an unconditional right of workers to strike."
  - Jan/Feb: "Resolved: The appropriation of outer space by private entities is unjust."
  - Next release is due February 1, 2022.
- Stoa (all season): "Resolved: In the field of biomedical engineering, restraint ought to be prioritized over scientific advancement."
Other Formats:
- Big Questions Debate (all season): "Resolved: On balance, societies benefit from religious belief and practice."
- Public Forum for Sept/Oct: "Resolved: The North Atlantic Treaty Organization should substantially increase its defense commitments to the Baltic states."
- Public Forum for Nov/Dec: "Resolved: Increased United States federal regulation of cryptocurrency transactions and/or assets will produce more benefits than harms."
- Public Forum for January: "Resolved: The United States federal government should legalize all illicit drugs."
- Public Forum's next release is due January 1, 2022.

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