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Bills spurred by mentally ill man's death clear first hurdles

The Daily Progress - 1/14/2017

RICHMOND - Several bills drafted in the wake of a mentally ill man's unexplained death at Hampton Roads Regional Jail passed the first of many hurdles in the General Assembly Friday morning.

Members of the Senate Committee on Rehabilitation and Social Services approved a handful of bills that are intended to close systemic gaps laid bare by the death of Jamycheal Mitchell in 2015 and several subsequent investigations that failed to explain how the 24-year-old wasted away in plain sight.

The bills passed out of committee Friday include measures that would:

give the Board of Corrections the authority to investigate deaths in local and regional jails;

require standardized mental health screening of inmates;

require state officials to develop a discharge plan for mentally ill inmates; and

require annual mental health training for new corrections officers.

Some of the bills now move to the Senate Finance Committee for consideration. If approved there, they must be agreed on by the House in order to reach the governor.

Mitchell was arrested after stealing $5 in snacks from a convenience store near his Portsmouth home. The bipolar and schizophrenic man lost 46 pounds over 101 days at the jail.

He died from extreme weight loss and heart problems. His death sparked an outcry that led to some of the bills that were passed out of committee on Wednesday.

Mental health advocates had mixed reactions to Friday's meeting.

Mira Signer, executive director of the National Alliance on Mental Illness of Virginia, said she was disappointed that the bill requiring mental health training was referred to the Finance committee instead of being approved outright by the committee.

"They don't seem to really be prioritizing this problem, and so they sent it to Senate Finance, but everybody knows that's where bills go to die," Signer said.

Sen. John A. Cosgrove Jr., R-Chesapeake, raised concerns during the meeting that the bill requiring training would cost local governments funding they don't have.

"This is the classic definition of an unfunded mandate," Cosgrove said. "...I know every time something comes up, someone mentions Jamycheal Mitchell, and it was tragic, but at the same time, this is a substantial burden on the localities with no money going with it."

Sen. Barbara A. Favola, D-Arlington, the bill's patron, countered that the measure would only require new corrections officers to receive mental health training not existing officers and it could be done in conjunction with training the new officers already receive.

Virginia's local and regional jails held more than 3,350 seriously mentally ill inmates in June 2016, and Signer said three-fifths of those are concentrated in 12 jails.

Six of those jails reported requiring an hour or less of mental health training for corrections officers, Signer said.

"The need is very high, and this kind of training should not be discretionary," Signer said.

She also has concerns about the Board of Corrections taking on the added responsibility of investigating deaths in local and regional jails. Signer said the Office of the State Inspector General, the state's top watchdog, might be the agency best suited to take on the role.

The state inspector general's office reviewed Mitchell's death but was unable to ascertain how he died because its employees do not have the authority to investigate jails, officials with the office have said.