User:Certainstars/Draft:Joel Fort

Joel Fort (1929-2015) was an American psychiatrist known for his social and political advocacy, including support for cannabis legalization. Fort spent his professional career in the San Francisco Bay Area, where he founded the nonprofit mental health center Fort Help. He testified as an expert witness in more than 300 criminal trials, including Patty Hearst's bank robbery trial.

Early life and education
Fort was born in Steubenville, Ohio on September 30, 1929 to parents of Russian Jewish descent. His father worked odd jobs during the Great Depression before becoming a podiatrist, and his mother was a pianist, homemaker, and speech therapist. Fort attended public schools in Steubenville, and began college at Ohio State University at age 15, completing pre-medical coursework and graduating with a bachelor's degree in English and philosophy at 18. He studied clinical psychology at the University of Chicago before returning to Ohio State University for medical school.

Upon graduating from medical school in 1954, Fort joined the United States Public Health Service. He served two years of his residency at the Public Health Service Hospital in Lexington, Kentucky, a federal prison hospital, formerly known as the U.S. Narcotic Farm, which focused on drug rehabilitation. While living in Lexington, he helped found a chapter of the American Civil Liberties Union. He moved to the San Francisco Bay Area to complete the last year of his psychiatric residency at Herrick Hospital in Berkeley.

Career and advocacy
From 1960-1964, Fort directed Alameda County's state-funded Center on Alcoholism. In 1962, he was dismissed from this position by the county Board of Supervisors because of his off-hours political activity, serving on a committee for the reelection of Governer Pat Brown. At the time, the county charter prohibited civil service employees such as Fort from any participation in political affairs. He contested the dismissal in court, and in 1964 won the Supreme Court of California case Fort v. Civil Service Commission of County of Alameda, a unanimous decision affirming the right of California civil servants to participate in political activity on their own time. next: Center for Special Problems