Mission Neglectful

When we at Dignity and Power Now saw Los Angeles County’s Mission Possible website we were floored. How could anyone take a website about the Los Angeles County jails seriously that says they provide “compassionate whole-person care”? The county uses blatant misrepresentation and coopts terms like “social justice” to paint a very un-lifelike picture that shows jails as places of healing. We of course know that is not true. The county made a video to go along with their campaign. So did we. Except we call ours Mission Neglectful.

There have been 6 deaths in the jails so far in 2018 and an average of 25 deaths every year – many due to medical neglect. In the video above DPN Campaign Lead James Nelson acts as a doctor who loves his job because he gets to do whatever he wants – including clocking out and working at other jobs. The script was based on information provided by a DPN source inside Twin Towers who handed over details on medical staff who work several other healthcare jobs while on the clock in the jails, including the psychiatrist whose name is bleeped out in our video. Oh, and the Ellen Wong story is sadly very real too.

DPN Deputy Director of Health and Wellness Melanie Griffin points out the absurdity of DHS Director of Community Health Mark Ghaly’s statement that “there’s a high no show rate to appointments,” saying, “You know, because prisoners just don’t show up.” The DPN source also provided information about how doctors will deliberately try to see prisoners while they’re in court or meeting with their lawyers so they can check them off on their list and send them back to the beginning of the line.

Outside of procedural neglect, Melanie also brings light to systemic abuses like the fact that people in the jails often do not have access to healthcare on the outside, expressing that people won’t be able to get followup treatment for diagnosed aliments and that they were probably caused by unaddressed socioeconomic issues to begin with. In the hiring video spoof Melanie sarcastically states, “But you get the be the doctor that tells them they have cancer.” Fact is, the county should be spending the $3.5 billion they plan to spend on jails on addressing fundamental healthcare in communities. That’s why we support the Reform LA Jails and Community Reinvestment Initiative, a ballot measure that if voted in would require them to do just that.

The Mission Neglectful video is part of a larger episode of the DPN produced show Grassroots with Jayda. The episode also includes a conversation with DPN Board Member and Statewide Health and Wellness Organizer Mark-Anthony Johnson. Watch the full episode below for more insight on the county’s misguided mission and what we’re doing about it.

New episodes of Grassroots with Jayda will stream monthly on Dignity and Power Now’s YouTube channel.

For more on the Reform LA Jails and Community Reinvestment Initiative visit reformlajails.com.

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Witnessing Wellness

Witnessing is a word that gets used a lot these days in social justice circles. Like many of our words that come into fashion, it can be easy for them to lose their meaning and or it can be hard to really figure out what that word looks like in action.

Institutions like jails, prisons, and detention centers are made to hide away and prevent witnessing.

So it felt very powerful to set up outside Lynwood Jail on February 10th and bear witness to the very regular trials, tribulations, and heartbreak that people experience visiting their loved ones inside. It felt very powerful to be able to offer support in the form of food, water, and gifts that support health. We gave out 30 DPN wellness kits with a Rest Easy Tea and a Cleansing Body Scrub. We listened to people talk about their families and what their incarcerated loved ones are going through.

This month we were a small group and without tables to boot. But we were able to connect with a lot of people who are interested in building people power and resistance to caging people.

Most of the folks we spoke to had family inside who were dealing with mental health problems. It was heartbreaking to hear how often that was the case. All the more motivation and fire to fuel the jail fight. LA County’s plan to use billions of dollars to make a jail for mentally ill people are blueprints for tragedy, further heartbreak, and injustice.

Let’s take care of ourselves and each other so that we can keep up the fight.

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The Whittier Police Killing: Criticizing Reforms as the Cause of Violence

Every time someone loses their life in the ongoing struggle for real public safety it’s a tragedy. Period. After the shooting in Whittier yesterday, it’s really important that we hold that truth while keeping in mind what we know.

At the press conference Whittier Police Chief Piper made an important point. It is true that laws, propositions, and other reforms are being passed at the ballot box overwhelmingly by the people of California, including Black and Brown folks who want something different than laws that have used prisons and jails to tear our families apart for decades. In the case of AB 109, the bill was signed into effect by the governor. It is also true that in moments like these it is very easy to criticize reforms as the cause of the violence. That is also harmful. Reforms like AB 109 have the real potential to reduce harm in our communities by lowering recidivism, however, they are not being implemented with that goal in mind. In fact, just the opposite is happening.

What we know is that the purpose of AB 109 was not only to fix a deplorably overcrowded prison system in California, but to ensure that our loved ones who are coming out of the system never return.

What we know is that if you’re going to stop “the revolving door” of incarceration, you won’t get there by investing in the people who operate the door.

What we know is that Assembly Bill 109 was designed to give hundreds of millions of dollars a year to reentry services including substance abuse, mental health services, and housing to reduce recidivism. However, of the $1.4 billion that Los Angeles County has received in AB 109 funding, 76% of it has gone to the sheriff’s department and to probation. Reentry service providers, community based treatment programs, housing, job training, and many other vital services that have been proven to reduce recidivism have been de-prioritized.

What we know is that our folks who have lived inside the Los Angeles County jail system are experts and leaders in the Reimagine 109 campaign calling for LA County to put at least 50% of AB 109 funds where they belong. This includes in the hands of formerly incarcerated Black and Brown leaders who are running real programs and have concrete proposals for how to reduce harm in our communities. None of those needs include pouring over a billion dollars into law enforcement.

In this moment it easy to criticize reforms that are being set up to fail. What we know though is that if we are going to achieve real public safety for our communities, we’re going to have to fight for every single dollar to make it happen.

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Push Back on the Fear and Safety of Law Enforcement

Baca stepped out of the courthouse on August 1st, came down to face the cameras, and began to justify all the reasons why he was withdrawing his guilty plea. I listened to him make his statement and a couple things came up for me…

There’s a really offensive irony in the fact that he continues to play up his Alzheimer’s diagnosis as a reason why he shouldn’t go to prison. Meanwhile we still have hella folks inside who aren’t getting proper treatment. Law enforcement’s psychological and emotional wellbeing has so much more value and weight than the psychological and emotional wellbeing of Black and Brown people in Los Angeles County; particularly incarcerated people. Clearly Baca is using his diagnosis as a legal maneuver while many of our folks in the jail system, which he ran for years, are experiencing cognitive “impairments that are beyond minimal” (as his lawyer described him.) Baca may in fact benefit from the “mental health diversion” climate that has the county’s attention but our loved ones inside have yet to see those benefits.

Even when you talk about an officer involved shooting the popular narrative is that “police are scared for their lives.” The family members of Donnell Thompson, Jr. have expressed that he had a disability. Those needs were met with military force. The Sheriff’s response in his case was to deploy SWAT, deploy armored vehicles, and kill him.

https://www.facebook.com/fusionmedianetwork/videos/1514818068544166/

Donnell Thompson, Jr.’s case is a clear indication of how the fear and psychological health of law enforcement is valued over the safety and lives of people in our community. They are given so much more priority – even in a legal context, which is why Baca is playing up his diagnosis so hard. All the while Donnell’s family endures another example of “treatment” for Black people. This is a clear indicator of the crisis of state violence.

The health and wellness of incarcerated and formerly incarcerated Black and Brown people and their loved ones is the necessary priority. It is all the more critical that we look at it not as supplement to the conversations of stopping lethal and excessive force, but as essential. Twin Towers Correctional Facility in downtown LA is still the largest mental healthcare provider in the country and Los Angeles County is looking to build another jail to function as a treatment facility. As long as incarceration and public safety are the lenses through which we “treat” Black and Brown people’s health our communities will never be safe.

It is necessary that we push back on this narrative that the fear and safety of law enforcement should be the deciding factor in determining the life and death of Black and Brown people.

Building Resilience Archives - Dignity and Power Now

It is necessary that we push back on this narrative that the fear and safety of law enforcement should be the deciding factor in determining the life and death of Black and Brown people.