August 19, 2016


Jamycheal Mitchell and the Virginia prison system


https://www.theguardian.com/us-news/2015/aug/28/jamycheal-mitchell-virginia-jail-found-dead

Virginia
Young black man jailed since April for alleged $5 theft found dead in cell
Jamycheal Mitchell, 24, had been held in Virginia jail without bail for nearly four months, accused of stealing a Mountain Dew, Snickers bar and a Zebra Cake
Friday 28 August 2015 -- This article is 12 months old

Photograph: Facebook Jamycheal Mitchell, 24, was arrested in April for allegedly stealing a Mountain Dew, a Snickers bar and a Zebra Cake from a 7-Eleven
Related: The Counted: people killed by police in the United States – interactive
The Guardian has been counting the people killed by US law enforcement agencies since 2015. Read their stories and contribute to our ongoing, crowdsourced project


A young black man arrested by police in Portsmouth, Virginia, has been found dead in jail after spending almost four months behind bars without bail for stealing groceries worth $5.

Jamycheal Mitchell, who had mental health problems, was discovered lying on the floor of his cell by guards early last Wednesday, according to authorities. While his body is still awaiting an autopsy, senior prison officials said his death was not being treated as suspicious.

“As of right now it is deemed ‘natural causes’,” Natasha Perry, the master jail officer at the Hampton Roads regional jail in Portsmouth, said of his death in an interview. Perry said there were no obvious outward signs of injury to the 24-year-old’s body. Portsmouth police are looking into the death.

Mitchell’s family said they believed he starved to death after refusing meals and medication at the jail, where he was being held on misdemeanour charges of petty larceny and trespassing. A clerk at Portsmouth district court said Mitchell was accused of stealing a bottle of Mountain Dew, a Snickers bar and a Zebra Cake worth a total of $5 from a 7-Eleven.

“His body failed,” said Roxanne Adams, Mitchell’s aunt. “It is extraordinary. The person I saw deceased was not even the same person.” Adams, who is a registered nurse, said Mitchell had practically no muscle mass left by the time of his death.

A few hours after Mitchell was arrested on 22 April by Portsmouth police officer L Schaefer for the alleged theft, William Chapman [WHO IS THIS?] was shot dead by officer Stephen Rankin outside a Walmart superstore about 2.5 miles away in the same city. State prosecutor Stephanie Morales said on Thursday she would pursue criminal charges over Chapman’s death.

Except for a brief item stating that an inmate had been found dead, the story of Mitchell’s death has not been covered by local media in Virginia, and is reported for the first time here.

Adams said in an interview that her nephew had bipolar disorder and schizophrenia for about five years. Nicknamed Weezy, he lived with his mother Sonia and had been unable to hold down work. “He just chain-smoked and made people laugh,” said Adams. “He never did anything serious, never harmed anybody.”

Officials said that after his arrest, Mitchell was taken to Portsmouth city jail, where he stayed for almost three weeks before being transferred across the city to the regional jail on 11 May.

Ten days after that, the court clerk said, Judge Morton Whitlow ruled Mitchell was not competent to stand trial and ordered that he be transferred to Eastern State hospital, a state-run mental health facility in Williamsburg, for treatment.

The clerk said that typically in such cases “we do an order to restore the defendant to competence, send it to the hospital, and when the hospital has a bed, we do a transportation order, and he’s taken to the hospital.” Whitlow reiterated the order on 31 July and was due to review the case again on 4 September, according to the clerk.

But the hospital said it had no vacancy and the 24-year-old was therefore detained in jail until his death on 19 August, according to Adams, Mitchell’s aunt, who said she had tried to assist the hospitalisation process herself but was left frustrated.

“He was just deteriorating so fast,” she said. “I kept calling the jail, but they said they couldn’t transfer him because there were no available beds. So I called Eastern State, too, and people there said they didn’t know anything about the request or not having bed availability.”

When asked which state agency was ultimately responsible for ensuring Mitchell was transferred to the hospital, the court clerk said: “It’s hard to tell who’s responsible for it.”

Officials from the court, the police department and the jail could not explain why Mitchell was not given the opportunity to be released on bail.

Mitchell previously spent four months in the jail from April 2010, also on charges of petty larceny and trespassing, before being ordered released by the courts, according to Perry, the prison official.

She said Mitchell returned to the jail in January 2012, again on a petty larceny charge, before being released in May 2012 having spent a month in a state hospital.

Two spokespeople for Virginia’s department of behavioural health and developmental services, which runs Eastern State hospital, did not return several messages and emails seeking comment about Mitchell’s death.

Following the publication of this article, Maria Reppas, a spokeswoman for the department, said she would not discuss why a hospital bed for Mitchell was apparently not found. “Healthcare privacy laws, specifically HIPAA, do not permit DBHDS to comment on any individual’s treatment,” she said in an email.

Adams said medics at the jail told her Mitchell refused to take medication for his conditions. Before his arrest her nephew was on prescriptions for the antipsychotic drugs Prolixin and Zyprexin, and the mood stabiliser Depakote, according to Adams. She said prison officials then prescribed him the antipsychotic drug Haldol and Cogentin, which is intended to reduce the side-effects of the other medication, but he refused to take the drugs.

Adams said prison officials said her nephew had also been declining to eat. She said she saw Mitchell in court in recent weeks and estimated that he had lost 65 pounds since being detained. “He was extremely emaciated,” said Adams.

The aunt said relatives had not been able to visit Mitchell because he had not given jail officials their names as approved visitors. “His mind was gone because he wasn’t taking his meds, so he didn’t have a list for anyone to see him,” she said.

Asked to confirm the family’s claims about Mitchell deteriorating after declining food and medication, Perry said: “I don’t have that information.” She referred inquiries to the jail’s medical office, where an official who gave her name as Ms Thomas said: “I can not divulge any information relating to this patient.”

Perry said the 24-year-old had been housed alone in a regular jail cell comprising a bunk with a mattress, a toilet, a sink, a shelf and a slit-like window. She said she did not know the size of the cell and declined to estimate.



http://wavy.com/2016/08/08/portsmouth-naacp-calls-for-release-of-jamycheal-mitchell-jail-video/

Portsmouth NAACP calls for release of Jamycheal Mitchell jail video
By Emily Satchell
Published: August 8, 2016, 11:21 pm Updated: August 9, 2016, 7:08 pm

Video -- Portsmouth NAACP calls for release of Jamycheal Mitchell jail video
Related: Hampton Roads Regional Jail releases details on Jamycheal Mitchell’s death


PORTSMOUTH, Va. (WAVY) — The Portsmouth branch of the NAACP says security footage from outside Jamycheal Mitchell’s jail cell was recently discovered. Now, they’re calling on Hampton Roads Regional Jail officials to release it.

In a news release sent Monday, the Portsmouth NAACP said:

The decision by Jail Superintendent David Simons not to release the video footage just further heightens the level of distrust and frustration. Jamycheal’s family and the Portsmouth community deserves full transparency in this process. Having auto responses of, ‘It’s a part of an investigation,’ is no longer acceptable, especially since this incident happened almost a year ago.”

The organization says officials originally stated that video from outside Mitchell’s cell was recorded over.

10 On Your Side sat down with the Portsmouth NAACP President James Boyd.

“If the video exists then they should come out and say it. There have been multiple reports, even omissions from the jail that it does, so we believe it should be open to the community,” said Boyd. “We believe it does exist.”

Mitchell was found dead in his cell at Hampton Roads Regional Jail on Aug. 19, 2015. A state investigation showed that Mitchell died of starvation while waiting to be transferred to Eastern State Hospital for a mental health evaluation.

Mitchell’s family has filed a $60 million wrongful death lawsuit.

The jail has filed an opposition to the Mitchell family’s wrongful death suit. Jail officials have said that their own investigation “revealed no breach of HRRJ policies or procedures, and no criminal action or negligence by HRRJ staff.”

“Having this auto response [from the jail] that there is part of an investigation [still happening] or the silence, it’s not good enough,” said Boyd. “Especially in this process, a year out from the incident happening, it’s not good enough for the community.”

The Portsmouth NAACP is also renewing its call to have federal investigators look into Mitchell’s death. The organization, along with six other groups, called for an investigation by the Department of Justice in June.

The FBI responded with a statement, saying they were aware of the situation and were evaluating whether or not a federal civil rights investigation is warranted.

Seven organizations call for DOJ investigation into death of Jamycheal Mitchell



http://wavy.com/2016/06/22/inmates-named-in-jamycheal-mitchell-lawsuit-claim-intimidation-by-jail-staff/

Sheriff responds after inmates in Jamycheal Mitchell lawsuit claim intimidation by jail staff
Andy Fox/Reporter; By Deanna LeBlanc, Emily Satchell and Andy Fox
Published: June 22, 2016, 7:26 pm Updated: June 23, 2016, 7:12 pm


PORTSMOUTH, Va. (WAVY) — Four inmates who say they saw mistreatment of Jamycheal Mitchell at the Hampton Roads Regional Jail before he died of starvation now say they fear for their lives.

The inmates wrote letters from jail to Mark Krudys, who is representing the Mitchell family in their lawsuit against the jail. In the letters, the inmates allege extensive mistreatment including being denied meals, denied medication, and placed in segregated cells against their wills.

Read the full letters from the inmates

In one letter, an inmate writes, “The officer told me the other day that I was walking the green mile and I’m a dead man walking.” It goes on to say, “they came back here the day before yesterday and asked us not to testify against them and they tried to bribe us.”

The four inmates were all interviewed by Krudys’ firm in preparation of the lawsuit. They claim to have witnessed acts of mistreatment directed toward Jamycheal Mitchell while he was in custody.

In their letters, all four inmates are requesting transfer. Two are already at Western Tidewater Regional Jail but say the mistreatment takes place there, as well.

State Police open criminal investigation into Jamycheal Mitchell’s death

Mark Krudys filed a motion in federal court Tuesday asking a judge to move the inmates in order to “protect inmate witnesses in this case from correctional officer intimidation and abuse.”

Portsmouth Sheriff Bill Watson responded Thursday, saying he would move inmates if their relatives were concerned for the inmates’ safety. The statement reads in full:

Sheriff Watson wants to send a message to any inmate’s families that if they fear for the safety of a family member currently in the Hampton Roads Regional Jail that he will have them moved to and receive the protection of the Portsmouth City Jail. Some restrictions may apply.”

According to court papers regarding the Mitchell case, the Hampton Roads Regional Jail investigated the claims of the four inmates who wrote to Krudys and asked for help transferring out of the jail.

A letter from the attorney representing the jail to Krudys reads, “the jail staff interviewed the inmates referenced in your initial letter… Only one inmate expressed a desire to be moved to another facility, and that inmate was relocated.”

Court documents say the other three inmates expressed that they felt safe.

“I don’t like the Hampton Roads Regional Jail and I’ll be the first one to tell you that,” Sheriff Watson told 10 On Your Side’s Andy Fox. “It was a shame he [Jamycheal Mitchell] was transferred from Portsmouth over to Hampton Roads Regional Jail.”

Sheriff Watson says he was forced to transfer 50 inmates from the Portsmouth City Jail to the Hampton Roads Regional Jail in the spring of 2015. One of those inmates was Mitchell.

“He was one of those in the crowd that went over there, and I wonder if he was still here, would he still be alive? And that bothers me,” Sheriff Watson said.

Sheriff Watson is well aware of the criticisms against the Hampton Roads Regional Jail, inmate complaints and inmate family complaints.

“I feel like if they are being harassed, or they fear for their safety then they are able to come to the safe haven of the Portsmouth City Jail,” Watson said.

Virginia State Police have now opened a formal criminal investigation into the circumstances surrounding Mitchell’s death.

“There are people over there who say they are being harassed. These correctional officers are guards, and they are not deputies and they are not law enforcement certified like we are,” Sheriff Watson added.

It should be noted that the sheriff gets more funding the more inmates he has, and he makes it sound like it’s an easy thing to do to get them transferred to his jail.

“All they have to do is transfer them back here. It’s not rocket science. Just tell them we want them back.” Watson says the more inmates the more funding you get.

“You should take better care of your inmates,” Watson said to the Regional Jail.

10 On Your Side reached out to the jail, but did not get a comment back. However, the Assistant Superintendent at Hampton Roads Regional Jail tells 10 On Your Side that the jail intends to release “proof” on Friday that the inmates’ claims are “in some cases untrue, and in other cases impossible to be true.”

The Mitchell family is requesting $60 million in the lawsuit, which alleges negligence in the care for Jamycheal Mitchell. About 40 people made up of jail staff, jail medical team members, court clerks and staff members at Eastern State Hospital are named as defendants in the suit.

So far, three of the defendants have filed motions requesting the lawsuit be dismissed.



http://wavy.com/2016/07/26/judge-denies-request-to-transfer-inmates-who-claimed-abuse/

Judge denies request to transfer inmates who claimed abuse
By Associated Press
Published: July 26, 2016, 1:10 pm Updated: July 26, 2016, 4:29 pm

Photograph -- Jamycheal Mitchell


PORTSMOUTH, Va. (AP) — A federal judge has rejected a request to transfer inmates who claimed they were being mistreated by officials at a Virginia jail where a 24-year-old mentally ill man died last year.

Hampton Roads Regional Jail releases details on Jamycheal Mitchell’s death

Inmates named as witnesses in the lawsuit filed by the family of Jamycheal Mitchell said in a brief last month that officials at Hampton Roads Regional Jail are threatening and mistreating them. They asked the judge to issue a protective order and transfer them to a different facility.

Whistleblowers file complaint in Jamycheal Mitchell death investigation

U.S. Magistrate Judge Lawrence Leonard rejected their request Monday. He called their allegations “troublesome,” but said there isn’t enough credible evidence to support their claims.

Mitchell’s family filed a lawsuit in May claiming correctional officials physically abused and withheld food from him before his death.



What began as another tragic death has turned into a major scandal, consisting of prisoner neglect, abuse and a cover-up which is emerging one bit at a time in the news. The prison in question and even the judge who denied the request of witnesses to be moved to another facility all have that stench of a dead mouse behind the stove. I'm sure there will be more to come, unfortunately. I'll try to find and collect further articles.