Fairfax Touts Its Jail Diversion Program: Video Features My Son

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(8-5-2106) I am so proud of the progress that Fairfax County, Virginia, where I live, is making in establishing a jail diversion program for individuals whose crimes were clearly prompted by their mental illnesses. I’m also thrilled that my son, Kevin (Mike in my book), is featured in a short, educational video about Diversion First which the country has released on Youtube.

As Kevin candidly discusses when he speaks to mental health groups, there was a six-year period when it appeared as if he were destined for a life spent homeless, in jail, in-and-out of hospitals or a quick death. Today, he is employed by Fairfax County on a jail diversion team as a peer specialist who helps persons with mental disorders manage their lives. Kevin recently enrolled in graduate school to obtain a Masters Degree in Social Work. He lives independently.

His recovery is a success story that shows what can be achieved when someone who has been arrested and, yes, even shot twice with a Taser by the police, receives the  community supports, including temporary supportive housing and job counseling, that he or she needs to manage their illness.

And that is what Diversion First is designed to do.

Since January 1st of this year, Fairfax County has made a determined effort to divert individuals with mental illnesses by having Crisis Intervention Team trained police officers take them to a crisis center (drop off center) rather than to emergency rooms or jail. At the Merrifield crisis center, they are greeted by peers and evaluated by mental health professionals whose goal is to help them rather than sending them to jail. Hopefully, the next phase of Diversion First will focus on greater use of a mental health docket to divert defendants charged with minor crimes into treatment.

I am grateful to Fairfax County Supervisor Chair Sharon Bulova, Supervisor John C. Cook, Sheriff Stacey Kincaid, Police Chief Edwin C. Roessler Jr., CSB Executive Director Tisha Deeghan, and Diversion First leaders, Laura Yager and Gary Ambrose for launching Diversion First.

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Jail Officials Find Missing Footage: Continued Questions About Their Conduct In Inmate’s Death

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mitchell(8-3-16) The death of Jamycheal Mitchell, a 24 year-old African American diagnosed with schizophrenia, has taken yet another troubling turn. Officials at the Hampton Roads Regional Jail have acknowledged that security footage recorded outside his cell exists after first announcing it had been taped over because it didn’t show any “criminality or negligence” and there was no reason to keep it.

Mitchell’s body was found August 19 in his cell. A state medical examiner ruled that he had suffered a heart attack caused by starvation during the 101 days that he was detained inside the jail waiting for an open bed in a Virginia state hospital. Mitchell had been arrested for allegedly taking $5 worth of snacks from a convenience store without paying. Mitchell was 6 foot, 1 inch tall and weighted 190 pounds when he was arrested. While in jail, his weight dropped to 144 pounds.

Sarah Kleiner and Katherine B. Evans, two reporters at the Richmond Times –Dispatch were the first to learn that a camera in the jail had recorded footage that showed the front of Mitchell’s cell. On April 1, they filed a Freedom of Information Act request asking the jail to make that footage public. The recordings would show if Mitchell was fed, whether his food tray was returned empty, and how many times guards and the jail’s nurse checked on him and entered his cell.

On April 6th, Jail Superintendent David L. Simons wrote this response to the reporters:

“There is no security footage taken outside of Mr. Mitchell’s cell during his incarceration at Hampton Roads Regional Jail.” 

Lt. Col. Eugene Taylor III, the jail’s assistant superintendent, was quoted by the newspaper in a follow-up interview saying that he and one of the jail’s internal investigators were the only people who saw the video before it was taped over.

“If there’s nothing on the video that’s going to show any type of criminality or negligence, we’re not going to maintain it,” Taylor said.

That appeared to be the end of the security camera story, until last week when reporter Kleiner discovered that the jail had found the missing footage.

Now this is where things become troubling. How did Kleiner learn about the footage?

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Murphy’s Mental Health Bill Stymied Again, This Time Because Of Dust Up About Guns

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Rep. Tim Murphy's Mental Health Bill is stymied again, this time because of guns. Photographer: Andrew Harrer/Bloomberg via Getty Images

Another obstacle bottlenecks Rep. Tim Murphy’s mental health reforms.
Photographer: Andrew Harrer/Bloomberg via Getty Images

(7-28-16) Rep. Tim Murphy’s Helping Families in Mental Health Crisis Act was passed by a 422-2 vote in the House earlier this year, but it’s now treading water and the prospect of it being signed into law this session is fleeting.

The trouble has nothing to do with the contents of Murphy’s much altered bill. As first reported by Peter Sullivan in The Hill, this time around the fight is in the Senate and it is about guns.

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Virginia Inspector General Accused By Whistleblowers Of Misleading Me And Rubber Stamping Reports About Inmate Deaths

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osig_color_logo_es(7-21-16) Did a Virginia official, whose job is to protect the public from dishonest government officials, lie to me?

A whistleblower complaint alleges that Virginia Inspector General June Jennings   provided me with false and misleading information. It also accuses Jennings and her assistant, Priscilla Smith, who is responsible for monitoring behavioral health agencies, of misleading state Sen. Creigh Deeds and other elected officials during testimony, and of violating HIPAA regulations when handling confidential medical information inside the Office of State Inspector General (OSIG).

Even more damning, the complaint claims the OSIG has failed to thoroughly investigate the deaths of prisoners with mental illnesses in Virginia’s jails and prisons, choosing instead to rubber stamp reports submitted to them by jailers and mental health officials.

The accusations are being levied by Cathy Hill, an OSIG employee who is seeking whistleblower protection, and two OSIG consultants, William Thomas and Ann White. In their complaint, which was filed yesterday, they asked Virginia Attorney General Mark Herring to launch a criminal investigation of the OSIG office to determine if Jennings and Smith have violated state and federal laws, writing:

It is our belief that their actions violate both Virginia and federal law, and undermine public trust and the mission of the OSIG. Our concerns have grown to the degree that we feel we can no longer in good faith remain silent. 

An email request for a reaction and comment by Jennings and Smith – that I sent yesterday – has gone unanswered.

Was I told a lie?

The complaint alleges that Jennings and an unnamed OSIG public relations officer hid information from me when I filed a Freedom of Information Act request.

But before I get to that accusation, let’s examine a much more troubling charge.

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From My Mail Bag: Readers Tell Their Stories in Books, Magazines, and Newspapers

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(7-18-16) Four items from my mailbox.  A loyal reader of my blog, Rosemary Ross, describes her life-long struggles with mental illness in a book called Rescued from the Pit: Healing from Schizophrenia.  Another reader tells me about her son’s efforts to call attention to those with mental illness in Chicago’s Cook County jail. Jennifer Marshall writes that This Is My Brave is featured this month in Oprah Magazine and I plug a new non-fiction book called Show Me All Your Scars, which is a collection of 20 first person accounts written by individuals with mental illnesses.

Dear Pete. My name is Rosemary Ross. I have a story to tell about my mental illness. My first seven years were full of happiness, fortunately. The problem, however, was that my father had deserted my mother and me before I was born, and we lived with his father, my grandoo. I hated my father for not wanting me to be born, as my mother had told me.

When I was eight, Mother and I left Grandoo and moved across the country. There she met a man, and they married. I liked him at first, but his real personality came out when he attempted to sexually molest me.

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Juveniles Sent To Jail Ten Times More Likely To Be Trapped In System: Diversion Works Yet Some Virginia Legislators Still Skeptical

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"Voices from Juvenile Detention: Kids Behind Bars" It sounds harmless: “pre-trial detention.” But the reality is far different. In a squat block building in Laredo, Texas—and in similar places around the nation—children await trial or placement in concrete cells while the underlying issues that led to their behavior fester. Some are addicts who need treatment; others are kids battling mental illnesses. Many are angry and have been virtually abandoned by absentee or irresponsible parents. Some spend a few days, others months, but despite the efforts of a small corps of dedicated professionals, few actually receive treatment for the issues that brought them to Juvenile. /// Inmates, ages 10-16, wait in line to march back to their cells in the exercise yard at the Webb County Juvenile Detention facility. This is the world of young felons, of kids gone astray, of children who cry for their mothers from behind bars. Some have skipped class too much, some have murdered in cold blood. At least half of the kids have been incarcerated before. And, if society's attempts at rehabilitation ultimately fail--or if the parent can't or simply won't do anything to turn around years of neglect and abuse--just a few more visits to juvenile detention will harden some of these kids into full-fledged adult criminals.

“Voices from Juvenile Detention: Kids Behind Bars”(see note at end of blog about this photo.)

(7-12-16) Authorities used to claim that a good way to straighten out a troubled youth was to put him in jail for a few days to scare him straight. But last night at a meeting about jail diversion, a Fairfax County, Virginia court services director said that putting a troubled juvenile in jail makes it ten times more likely that he will continue being caught up in the criminal justice system.

By contrast, Bob Bermingham Jr. said Fairfax County recently diverted 20 kids, who were considered low risk offenders, from being locked up into treatment services. Only one re-offended. Bermingham added that up to 60% of juveniles being held in detention centers have a mental illness.

Bermingham told an audience of about seventy attendees at a meeting of my local county’s Diversion First program that the juvenile court system by statute looks for ways to keep juveniles out of the criminal justice system because criminalizing them does more harm than good. Unfortunately, during the generally upbeat meeting it soon became clear that some Virginia elected officials simply don’t understand that this same principle applies when an offender is an adult with a mental illness or addiction problem.

More on that later, but first the good news.

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