The Tarrant County Commissioners Court has renewed a contract with My Health My Resources to provide mental health and intellectual disability services in the county jail.
The commissioners voted 4-0 on Tuesday, Oct. 15, to renew the contract. Precinct 4 Commissioner Manny Ramierz was not present at the session.
The renewal came as the county faces multiple lawsuits alleging wrongful deaths of inmates with mental health issues and intellectual disabilities, such as Anthony Johnson Jr. and Trelynn Wormley .
The program to identify inmates that need such services began in April 1990, according to court documentation.
“After identification, the program staff works to divert the individual from the criminal justice system into an alternative program more suited to the individual’s needs,” the document states. “The services performed include screening and evaluation, recommendations for psychiatric treatment needs, psychiatric evaluation, counseling and therapeutic support, court liaison services, competency hearings, case management for pre-trial release plans, and referral to community support services for housing or financial assistance.”
The contract is for just over $8.2 million.
Commissioners also renewed a $1.6 million contract with MHMR for similar services countywide, and another for people on probation and parole that will cost $64,500. Another $13 million was set aside for public health services in the county.
Fort Worth resident Jackee Cox told commissioners that she took issue not with the kinds of investments that were approved, but rather the degree to which each got fiscal attention.
“What bothers me is that there’s so little money when you consider the measure of the need,” she said.
Cox and others noted how the contract came in the wake of a $750,000 judgment in a lawsuit filed by the family of Georgia Baldwin, who died in the jail in September 2021.
Baldwin suffered from mental illness, and as a result had been identified as incompetent to stand trial in July 2021. She was scheduled to be transferred to a mental health facility to undergo a process called competency restoration, but had yet to be moved due to a lack of availability in state facilities.
“She was obviously, obviously a person who needed mental health services more than she needed to be put in solitary confinement in the jail,” Cox said. “I hope that going forward, somewhere, somehow, you’ll come up with more money for mental health in the jail.”
Susan Garnett, CEO of MHMR in Tarrant County, was present to answer questions about the screening process for mental health patients in the jail.
During the approximately four-hour booking process, inmates go through an initial screening, where they are asked things like if they’ve ever been in special education classes, she said. If an inmate is a “positive hit,” they are sent to a more intensive assessment by MHMR professionals to identify if they belong in specialized mental health housing.
“Our systems communicate back and forth regarding people’s needs, and then all of this is the information that’s used for the jail to make decisions regarding the housing of the inmate,” she said.
Fort Worth resident Reed Bilz noted how Baldwin had been identified as mentally ill, but did not receive the services she needed.
“Georgia was not diverted to a suitable facility, but instead was incarcerated without proper care or monitoring, until she died of severe dehydration,” Bilz said. “Before you renew this contract and spend $8 million of taxpayers’ money, I ask that you order an investigation to discern how many other inmates were denied the care that they deserved.”
Bilz also urged the commissioners to add an accountability clause and establish an oversight process for MHMR’s mental health services in the jail.
The Tarrant County Sheriff’s Office faced scrutiny earlier this year when another inmate whose family and supporters claimed needed to be moved to a state-supported living center for his intellectual disability remained in jail, despite an order for his transfer to a mental health facility for competency restoration.
Family and supporters of 21-year-old Kai’Yere Campbell said that the court order mandating his transfer for competency restoration was inadequate, as he suffers from an intellectual disability, not a mental illness, and is thus incapable of being restored to a state in which he could understand his situation.
They said he refused to put on clothes and smeared the walls of his cell with food and excrement as a result of his inability to understand his situation.
Campbell was ultimately transferred to a state-supported living center in June.
Speakers also mentioned Anthony Johnson Jr., who died in the Tarrant County jail in April after an altercation with guards.
The 31-year-old Marine veteran suffered from schizophrenia. He was arrested after seeking mental health services at a Fort Worth hospital and being turned away. His mother, Jacqualyne Johnson, has said that hospital staff told them he was not violent enough to be admitted for services.
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