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September 16 - 29, 2020 • jfp.ms
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Not Law Enforcement-Related “Yes, there are some things that we need to respond to that are not law-enforcement-related,” Wade told the committee. “We must be able to look at the system, probably vet those calls and have another additional resource for that individual.” “Maybe some calls don’t require a response,” he noted. “Where there is no threat of injury to the person, maybe that is handled by a civilian to keep that officer free for patrol operation or for those situations where his or her response is needed.” The discussion covered the challenges of dealing with homelessness, drug addiction and mental-illness issues in the city, all of which the police get calls to attend to. “Across the city, you see the homeless population increase across the city, drug abuse—we are seeing increasing numbers of those issues,” JPD Chief James Davis said at the special meeting. He said people with mental illness are indiscriminately dropped off in the city. “I met with the state (government), I cried out for some help,” Davis said. “What I am hearing is that the state hospital shut down, so the streets and the citizens (are) plagued with this problem.” He is referring to Mississippi State Hospital that treats mentally ill patients, some of whom are
Alternatives to Policing Mental Illness by Kayode Crown courtesy Mario clark family
ario Clark’s mother, Sheila Ragland, regrets calling 911 on Valentine’s Day, 2019. She wanted Jackson Police Department officers to transport her son to the hospital because he was having a psychotic episode. Doctors had diagnosed him with paranoid schizophrenia when he was 13. The police handcuffed and shackled Clark, she said, then beat and kicked him on the head. He died six days later. He was 31 and left behind a daughter. One in four killings in police officers’ hands involved someone with mentalhealth issues, the Treatment Advocacy Center, based in Arlington, Va., reports. For an eight-hour shift in Jackson, a police officer receives an average of 20 calls, JPD Deputy Chief for Administration Joseph Wade said Aug. 6 at the maiden meeting of the Jackson City Council’s lawenforcement ad-hoc committee. About half of those calls have no direct bearing on law enforcement, such as Mario Clark’s case. “Are there ways that we could bring in different civilians to respond to some of these calls so that we can have officers more focused on the really important investigative work, the real important work?” Ward 2 Councilman Melvin V. Priester Jr. asked. Wade, a 25-year veteran of the force, agreed with the suggestion, saying the City needs an alternative avenue to respond to the community’s needs. The police, he said, are ill-equipped to respond to every issue.
On Feb. 14, 2019, Mario Clark’s mother called Jackson police to transport him to the hospital due to a psychotic episode. Jackson police officers are now accused of killing him instead.
indigent and homeless. MSH’s Public Relations Director Kathy Denton denied the allegation. “We have responded to these rumors many times over the years,” she said. “It wasn’t true, and it’s not true now.” Downtown Mayhem City Council President Aaron Banks of Ward 6 said at the special meeting that, after getting a tip, he watched on Aug. 19, 2020, as someone he believed to be mentally ill was dropped on High Street . “I watched a black unmarked car with tinted windows, and (someone) got out and opened the back door, and a guy got out of the car that was talking to himself,” he said. Within 30 minutes, the same scene
repeated thrice, Banks added. “Someone said, ‘just watch’; they are literally taking them out of the state hospital, out of whatever, and dropping them off right here in Jackson,” Banks said. “And the first person to respond, and I was just watching, was a capitol or state police person, and the guy was just talking to himself.” Capitol Police, however, could not confirm if this is true, with two of the officers telling the Jackson Free Press that they have no knowledge of such an event. Banks, however, lamented that the State of Mississippi has long engaged in this practice, which is an ongoing discussion issue. “There are some things that we have to address with the State,” he said.
“But it is always an ongoing fight.” In 2017, U.S. District Judge Keith Starrett said the Mississippi Department of Corrections had dropped off a former inmate on Highway 25. A vehicle that was supposed to pick him up and drive him 153 miles to Columbus never showed up. Savannah Willies, who has spent 25 years in Jackson, made a presentation at the recent council meeting. “I work downtown, and we are seeing an increase of people with mental disorders being let loose on downtown,” she said. The Mississippi Department of Human Services later told this reporter she had no comment about the alleged practice. Dealing with Mental Illness Families as Allies Executive Director Joy Hogge, who is an expert on children with mental-health challenges, warns that when a police officer interacts with persons with mental illness, it creates the false notion that they are prone to violence. She faulted the system in which the police are the primary response in such situations. “One thing that is important to keep in mind is that most people with mental illness are not going to break the law and are not going to be violent,” she said in an interview. “So when the police, because we don’t have everything else set up the right way, have to respond to situations when someone has a mental illness, then it starts reinforcing that stereotype that mental illness is associated with violence and crime.” Mississippi does not have the full complement of services needed to attend to mental-health challenges, Hogge said. Resources put into institutionalizing people who are mentally ill could be put into community support, creating a more robust mental-health system and taking the stress off the police, Hogge added. “In Mississippi, there is a lawsuit that the State lost about different components of the mental-health system not working well enough together for us to have the right kinds of services in the community for people with mental illness,” she said. “We don’t have the range and depth of services that are needed; it’s more likely that the police will end up being called into a situation where it is really not their area of expertise.” She said more police and sheriff departments committing to crisis-intervention training would bring progress. “This is definitely an issue and a whole lot to look at, but there are some promising practices, and one of the most helpful programs for law-enforcement training is the crisis-intervention training,” she said. “It is the kind of program developed specifically for law enforcement for them to know how to interact with people with mental illness.” “The more that we can turn to programs like that, the better, and our state has
