This story, originally published by MindSite News, is the latest installment of Fateful Encounters, an ongoing investigative collaboration between MindSite News, the Medill Investigative Lab-Chicago at Northwestern University and other media outlets exploring police response to mental health crises. This work is generously supported by the Sozosei Foundation. Marquis Rivera was going to kill himself. […]
mental illness
Posted inCriminal Justice, Incarceration, Partner Content
Michael Johnson Spent 3 Years in Solitary and Was About to Give Up on Life. Then He Got a Letter from his Daughter.
This story was originally reported and published by MindSite News, a nonprofit news outlet that reports on mental health. To read more stories like this, sign up for the MindSite News Daily newsletter. Michael Johnson had all but given up on living when a letter from his 14-year-old daughter, Ja’Kyra, arrived for him at Pontiac Correctional Center in 2015. […]
Posted inCriminal Justice
Mother of Mentally Ill Ohio Man Killed by Police Turns Grief Into Advocacy
Kimberly Roquemore spent the better part of February constantly checking the Ohio attorney general’s website for the results of her son’s death investigation. At least 17 times a day, she found herself hitting the refresh button and found no updates on the page. Roquemore had a feeling that the grand jury wouldn’t indict Desmond Ragland, […]
Posted inCriminal Justice
He Needed Help During a Mental Health Crisis. Then an Officer Killed Him.
Kimberly Roquemore’s maternal instinct kicked into high gear during the summer of 2022. She had this unsettling feeling in the pit of her stomach that her second-oldest child, Maalik Roquemore, was in danger. The 32-year-old was a Black man living in America with mental illness. Kimberly, a registered nurse, was a week away from moving […]
Posted inHealth, Mental Health
How Mental Illness Among Black Americans Goes Misdiagnosed
First, came the depression diagnosis. Then, a catatonia diagnosis. PTSD and anxiety labels were thrown in the mix, too. In college, 12 people Natasha Pierre knew had died within six months, and all she could do was talk to the campus priests about how she was feeling. The trauma piled on, and being in New […]
Posted inCriminal Justice
Man Who Fatally Choked Jordan Neely Arraigned on Criminal Charge
The man who used a lethal choke hold on Jordan Neely inside a New York City subway car is facing a felony charge of second-degree manslaughter — but the Neely family’s attorneys say the charge doesn’t go far enough. Daniel Penny has pleaded not guilty to the manslaughter charge, which carries a maximum sentence of […]
Posted inHealth, Mental Health
The Criminalization of Black Men’s Mental Health
Jordan Neely wasn’t committing a crime. He was in need of help. In the week since he died after a lethal choke hold inside a New York City subway car, his family has called the statement from the ex-Marine who killed him “a character assassination.” He didn’t know anything about Neely’s mental health history before […]
Posted inCriminal Justice, Policing
Irvo Otieno’s Death Hits Home For Another Virginia Family
Princess Blanding and her family have endured the pain of losing two relatives experiencing a mental health crisis to police violence within a five-year period. The trauma of watching body camera footage of the minutes before her “brothers” died is acute. And the recent death of Irvo Otieno in Virginia is reigniting her call to […]
Posted inCriminal Justice, Incarceration
Homicides Committed by Black Women Are Rare. So What’s Going On?
This year has been marked by tragic moments of public violence, from a grocery store massacre in New York to a small-town school shooting in Texas. But three incidents this summer have stood out for an unusual similarity. In July, a shooter opened fire in a Dallas airport after threatening to blow up the facility. […]