Stranded Inmates
"The greatest obstacle to discovery is not ignorance -
It is the illusion of knowledge." ~Daniel J BoorstinREPEATEDLY FAULTY DIAGNOSES
A number of Dallas County inmates who do not need hospitalization for mental illness are railroaded into Big Spring by unethical and venal "forensic experts" like Dr. Lisa Kay Clayton and Dr. Michael R. Pittman, who are still busy walking the halls of the jail and courthouse in Dallas, writing reports based on 10 minute meetings; falsifying reports to the courts, and committing perjury on the witness stand.
At the same time, many other inmates who really need hospitalization for their mental illnesses languish for months in single-man isolation cells uncared for at the beleaguered Dallas County jail.
Since 2005, I've seen inexcusable faulty diagnoses, mistreatment, maltreatment and plain old no treatment involving the mentally ill housed in the county jail, particularly those housed in the "Behavior Observation Unit" (B.O. unit).
One case in particular is that of Ronald "Ron" Crawford, who is discussed in the Dallas Morning News article below. I lived on the same cell block (W5P6) with Ron (Book-in No. 06017376) and attempted to get help for him by personally writing several inmate kites to the court coordinator, and the jail's medical and psych departments. I also had people on the outside from MTWT make calls to jail, court and MHMR officials on his behalf, but to no avail.
After serving a brief county jail sentence of about 30 days for a misdemeanor, Ron, who was homeless at the time, was thrown back out onto the streets with nowhere to go and no resources in place to help him deal with the issues he would ultimately face.
When Ron goes without his proper medications he gets agitated easily and becomes very boisterous, but he is not a violent person. All someone needs to do is sit down and calmly talk to him. I used to talk him down during these episodes just to keep the peace and prevent guards from abusing him. Ron would chill out. He's just like a little kid.
There was never a doubt in my mind that the poor fellow would end up back in jail, because the MHMR, jail and court system are not designed for people like Ronald Crawford, Michael Fields, James Mims, Rosa Alejo, and Rosa Sims. They don't receive the treatment and counseling they so desperately need to come out better than they went in. With no treatment for their mental problems, it's not impossible that they might not make it out of the jail alive.
This is an ongoing saga that has simply caught up with those leaders who thought that if they ignored the problem it would go away. Well it hasn't and it won't; that is not until county officials and state legislators get together and hammer out a viable and comprehensive plans to tackle these issues.
Otherwise, the lawsuits will continue to stack up while our jails and prisons continue to burst at the seams with the mentally ill who are merely warehoused for the most part and then released back to our streets. It's a no-win cycle for all of us as a result of the Dallas County justice 'accountability void'.
Lakeith Amir-Sharif, Dir.
Making The Walls Transparent
Texas-Chapter
mtwt-texas@hotmail.comMentally incompetent inmates stranded in jail
Shortage of mental-hospital beds leaves them no place else to go
http://www.dallasnews.com/sharedcontent/dws/dn/latestnews/stories/042307dnmetstuckinjail.3af33ea.html
12:30 AM CDT on Monday, April 23, 2007
By MICHAEL GRABELL / The Dallas Morning News
mgrabell@dallasnews.com
Hundreds of Texas inmates who have been ruled incompetent to stand trial are languishing in county jails because there aren't enough mental-hospital beds to get them treatment.The waiting list has families of inmates worried that their loved ones might end up like James Mims, the mentally ill inmate who nearly died in the Dallas County Jail in 2004 after he was transferred there from a state hospital for his annual competency hearing.
In response, Dallas County plans to hire three people in the next few months to oversee competency cases.
Now, an advocacy group for mentally disabled inmates is suing the Department of State Health Services to force it to add hospital beds or send inmates to community treatment programs.
"They're not getting the care and treatment that they need," said Beth Mitchell, an attorney for the group Advocacy Inc. "They're just basically being warehoused in the jail."
The state health department said it couldn't comment because of the pending lawsuit.
"They don't have the money to build more beds and hire more staff in
order to restore these people to competency," Ms. Mitchell said.The state has 738 beds for mentally disabled inmates, which includes
343 for those arrested for violent offenses. As of the beginning of
April, 217 inmates – including 175 considered violent – were on the
waiting list.For the 175, the average wait time is four months.
The nonprofit group, which filed the lawsuit last month in Austin
federal court, said the cases of Dallas inmates Michael Fields and
Ronald Crawford are typical of the troubled cycle that mentally ill
and mentally retarded inmates fall into:A months-long wait for a hearing. A psychiatric ruling of
incompetence. A months-long wait for a hospital bed. Treatment and a
return to jail. A months-long wait for a trial. Deteriorating condition and another psychiatric ruling of incompetence. Back to the end of the waiting list.
In and out of jail
Mr. Fields, 26, was arrested in October 2005 after an armed robbery at a Church's Chicken in southeast Dallas.
According to police, he and another man, Marquise Hopkins, rushed into the restaurant. Mr. Hopkins pointed an assault rifle at the cashier.
"Give me the money!" he screamed.
The cashier handed him the cash drawer with $150. Mr. Hopkins gave Mr. Fields the rifle, and the two took off running. But they didn't get very far.
An undercover officer had watched the whole thing. Mr. Fields was arrested three blocks away, still holding the gun. Mr. Hopkins was found hiding in a nearby Dumpster.
Mr. Hopkins, who had spent his teenage years in juvenile detention accused of being an accessory to a robbery, pleaded guilty and is serving a nine-year sentence.
Mr. Fields was found to have an IQ of 45 and was ruled incompetent to stand trial.
"In my opinion, Mr. Fields does not have a sufficient present ability to understand the process against him," the court psychiatrist wrote to the judge. "He is also not capable of cooperating with his attorney in formulating a defense with a reasonable degree of rational understanding."
Mr. Fields' grandmother, Julia Patterson, said she believes her grandson didn't understand what he was doing and was coerced by Mr. Hopkins.
"I said, 'Michael, have you ever held a gun before?' He said, 'No.' I said, 'Well, do you know if the gun was loaded?' He said, 'No.' I said, 'Would you have known how to pull the trigger, how to shoot the gun if you had to?' He said, 'No.' So, he was just following orders," Ms. Patterson said.
In a jailhouse interview, Mr. Hopkins denied that but agreed that Mr. Fields wasn't aware of his actions. He said they were talked into the robbery by others who had given them drugs.
"He didn't really know what was going on," Mr. Hopkins said. "They told him to just open the door like he was going to buy some food."
After the competency exam on Jan. 12, 2006, state District Judge Faith Johnson ordered Mr. Fields sent to North Texas State Hospital in Vernon.
He then waited at the Dallas County jail.
In a misspelling-riddled letter to the court, Mr. Fields pleaded for answers.
"I really need to tlake with my lawyer about my case," he wrote. "also why come day are hold me and jail to long for. Would your please call me out to court. Please check into this very serious."
He was admitted to the state hospital four days later. There, the staff taught him about court, explaining the criminal-justice process, how to behave in a courtroom and the difference between a prosecutor and a defense lawyer.
In June, the unit psychiatrist told the court Mr. Fields was competent, and he was returned to the jail. Again, he waited for a hearing.
In August, the court psychiatrist tested him again at the West Tower jail.
Mr. Fields appeared to have forgotten what he had learned. The psychiatrist said he became easily confused and upset when asked about the duties of courtroom personnel. He told her that "time served" – a court order shortening a jail sentence – was "not a good deal."
On Sept. 27, Judge Johnson ordered Mr. Fields back to the state hospital. He got back on the waiting list but remained in the jail.
This time, he waited much longer.
Frustrating wait
Ms. Patterson said other inmates started picking on her grandson, stealing his food and taking advantage of him.
"He's like a child in pre-K," she said. "There are certain things that if you don't ask him or talk to him he won't know to do."
Frustrated by the wait, Ms. Patterson asked Advocacy Inc. for help. On her behalf, the group sued the state on March 21.
Mr. Fields was transferred back to the state hospital on March 27. The plan is to teach him about the court system again in hopes of restoring him to competency.
If deemed competent, he will come back to the jail and wait for a hearing.
Mr. Crawford, the other inmate Advocacy Inc. named in its lawsuit, was arrested after he punched an off-duty police officer who tried to get him to stop cursing at customers at a Wal-Mart.A judge ruled him incompetent to stand trial after he told a psychiatrist he had been receiving messages from the devil and through television. The judge ordered him treated at North Texas State Hospital in Vernon, but three months later he was still in the Dallas County Jail.
The backlog has also frustrated county officials, who say mentally incompetent inmates pose a risk for the county and take up space in an overcrowded jail.
"We don't want that individual sitting in our jail waiting to be assessed any more than the group does," said county Budget Director Ryan Brown, who recently presented the Dallas County Commissioners Court a plan to speed up and monitor competency cases.
The problems were discovered in a review of the jail population conducted after a criminal justice director was hired in November to ease overcrowding.
Right now, the path from jail intake to trial involves several county departments, creating inconsistencies and delays, Mr. Brown said.
Under the plan approved by commissioners, the county would hire a case manager, prosecutor and public defender to identify mentally disabled inmates, prioritize hearings and ensure such inmates don't get lost in the system.
The goal is to cut the time spent in jail in half, saving the county a projected $467,544 over a year.
"It does nobody any good for them to be decompensating and becoming incompetent again and then getting in line to go back to Vernon," he said.RELATED ARTICLES
