Fractured (full documentary) | FRONTLINE + @WFAENews + @FirelightMediaNYC

I've been to jail probably 40 times. I grew up in foster homes and group homes. My mother died. My father was in a psychiatric hospital. crafts I was putting a little eye with glue and I heard a voice in my head that said I have my eye on you and I called the Secret Service, the NSA, the FBI, the ATF, the DEA, no one has done anything if they are terrorizing me . If I can't get help from the police, I have over 100 police reports and no one has done anything. I don't want to be responsible for any kind of attack that may happen next because I'm trying to stop it. and no one wants to help.

I thank you for taking the time to listen to them over the last 2 years. I've been investigating the plight of inmates living with mental illness for the NPR station in Charlotte, North Carolina, where some of those inmates are too sick. To understand the charges against them, that means they cannot be tried. They can wait many months, sometimes more than a year, just to receive the care they need so their cases can move forward. I have gotten to know several of those inmates. It's Dylan Leadford. He is a 32-year-old man who had been living on the streets of Gastonia outside of Charlotte.

He has a long history of crimes, including Larsen possessing drugs, including soliciting sex with a minor online. His last arrest was in June 2022. Leadford. He is still in jail waiting for a bed in a state psychiatric hospital. I met him for the first time a month after he was arrested about 2 months later we met again. This is our third meeting. His lawyer is present. What are they telling you about why you've been here so long um because I'm not getting any information they're not telling me they're telling me there's a long wait to get to the hospital um I'm being patient I'm not really I'm not trying to rush the process , but there are a lot of legal things in my case that have not materialized yet, as far as you know, my mental health and all that, I am much better.

I keep hearing noises, of course. but I keep hearing voices and it's like a tape, it's like they're playing it on a tape, like it's here, right next to my ear, and it's a tape, like when I look at something like I look at that bathroom. sign right there I would say bathroom it's like playing a recording of what it is and you know I'm going to look at it before I look at it it's like predicting that I'll look at it Yes, Ed was arrested for allegedly calling a school to warn that there was a bomb on the property 911 523 was your emergency address uh person called the building today gave his name identified himself and said we have explosives buried on the grounds of B City High School said they were under a pile of dirt near a bus we're not sure where he speaks no explosive device was found according to Ledford's attorney an evaluation indicated that Leedford appeared to have delusions and paranoia associated with schizophrenia like many inmates living with serious mental illnesses that Leadford does not have.

I think he needs medication. I have seen two doctors on the computer here. Now there is a delay and what this artificial intelligence is able to do is it is able to change the conversation and fake the entire conversation, so when I talk to the screen it is able to change what they say, what I say, but it doesn't really I think it's medicine what I need. I need resources to defend myself. You know I need, I need defense, oh, okay, I guess it's you, listen. thank you again thank you we will be in touch thank you very much After being in prison for approximately 7 months, a judge said that Ledford's mental health prevented him from understanding the charges against him and assisting in his own defense, under the US.

In the U.S. Constitution Leadford was determined to be incapable of proceeding to trial or ITP, there is a common understanding that if you are unable to understand the nature of the proceeding and if you are unable to assist in your own defense and have a mental health diagnosis, then you will not be eligible. can go to court. We don't hold those people accountable for their behavior in the same way we would someone who doesn't meet those criteria. This is Dylan Ledford's file and in this image you can see how much better than him. He looks the same as yesterday, he desperately wants people to understand what he believes is endangering everyone before they can be judged.

ITP inmates like Leadford need to have their mental capacity restored, which typically happens in a state psychiatric hospital; They receive medications if they need them. and lessons like these about the judicial system once both sides have presented their case, it is up to the judge or jury to decide whether the defendant is guilty or innocent restoration is not a complete treatment restoration is getting you to the point where you can work with lawyer, after you enter the courtroom you can approach the court clerk who will be sitting to my right and Iden they have to be able to answer some basic questions about the legal system, it is judicial education in school so they understand enough to go. forward after leedford had been in jail for almost a year his lawyer asked the judge to dismiss the charges against him gable david a phillips who simply resides in you can take a seat with the permission of the court the first matter will be dylan leadford you can find this on the green calendar page 12 margin 43 okay good morning Mr.

Leford, um you, with the permission of the Court, there is a motion on the docket that was filed by Ms. Mont Leon. I have it and that is why we are here today. Thank you, honor the procedural history of This case is something that we unfortunately see all too often and that is Mr. Leadford was booked into our jail about a year ago. I'm a little lost with some of these cases where my clients are in custody for so long. As long as they have been that way in Mr. Ledford's case, I filed a motion to dismiss.

It's like dropping a bomb, basically asking the judge to dismiss a case. They don't want to risk something happening in the community. There was nothing else. Mr. Leadford has had two evaluations. Both evaluations agreed that he is not capable of continuing. He has been admitted to a state hospital but does not have a bedtime. Mr. Leadford is being deprived of his due process rights. The case is not moving forward, nothing is happening and I believe he is detained beyond a reasonable period of time, Miss Monleon, if the court dismissed this case today, what would happen to his client, your honor?

I hope we can get an involuntary sentence. committal order they potentially take him to our local hospital and evaluate him if he is taking the medication that was prescribed to him now he hasn't and I think the jail has a policy of not forcing inmates to take medication so if refuse to take it will not force them to accept it, Miss Hamond. I appreciate Ms. Monon representing her client, but she has no solution at this time. She says that in jail she is not receiving the treatment he needs and that she does not take his medications. then when you are on her you ask her what her plan was she said I hope he is involuntarily committed so this is a big concern for the state because not only do we have to protect him but we also have to protect our citizens, so to say I'm not being represented properly that's not what I'm saying I say that's what you're saying ma'am sir thank you that's all that's all we need to say here today that I'm not being represented correctly, she's incompetent, You need to come first, she is sir, could you please be quiet sir?

Okay, I'll give her a chance to speak if she wants the court to also be looking at the charge, which is a false report of mass violence. on educational property under the statute, can be held for 39 months, which would be the maximum sentence for an age felony in the aggravated range. It doesn't reach the level of one year. Now the court has questions about where this young man could get help. who needs the statute also says that if there is a possibility that he could be restored we do not know if he can be restored because he will not take his medication and his evaluation said that they believe that he could be restored with help through Therefore, Bron Hospital, for all For those reasons, your motion to dismiss is denied.

Thank you for listening to us, your honor, thank you. This is exactly how I anticipated it would happen. Yes, I know she spoke to Leedford yesterday. What did she say? He was quite agitated. yesterday, um, he didn't really address anything that I wanted to talk to him about, he had an agenda of what he wanted to talk about well and I think that's where his frustration came from today, yeah, his aunt and uncle didn't show up today. Did they even know I have no idea? Yeah, I have no idea. um you know the father was right, he doesn't really have a support system so he does, frankly, he doesn't depend on me either since I'm not a medical professional.

I don't go there and tell him what he needs, all I know is that what he needs is not jail, so none of this is helping him. Yes, as of November 2023 there were 166 ITP inmates in North Carolina waiting for a bed, our investigation found. that half of those charged with serious crimes like leadford are behind bars more than 313 days before being transferred to a hospital, in a half mile turn right on fox drive and i have learned that those long dumbbells are a problem in All over the United States at least 17 states have been sued over the weight of inmates.

A federal appeals court has ruled that it is unconstitutional for inmates to wait more than 7 days after a court determines their inability to proceed, but my reporting shows that in many states inmates wait months and those wait times do not include the number of days that inmates stay in jail before it is discovered that they are ITP, it is important to say that the long roads to basically restore their capacity or even get a bed, that is the least problem when we organize a town hall. As for the problem of people living with mental illness and ending up in the criminal justice system, the biggest problem is that we didn't have what we needed to treat the mental illness that actually landed that person in the criminal justice system in the first place. . bad, as we describe the level of care of behavioral health services in prison settings, it's worse in the community, it's much harder to find people to care because we've had 1.2 million people in North Carolina without health insurance, That's right, and poverty and mental illness often coexist and that's why I need the legislature to hurry up and pass a budget so I can expand Medicaid and start trying to fill this gap, but I just want to be clear that We are making up for a past sin here where we have never treated behavioral health to the same extent as general health and have never prioritized it as part of primary care.

Many of these people no longer have families, so their relatives may have tried and given up after a while. They just dried up in the '60s and '70s during JFK's big promises that we were going to move from these big institutions to these more community settings and the big institutions started downsizing and some closed, but the community settings were never under this. legislation. institutions will be replaced by therapeutic centers in 1963 John F. Kennedy signed a law that funded Community Mental Health Care so people could receive treatment outside of large institutions. It should be possible within a decade or two to reduce the number of patients in mental institutions by 50. % or more the new law provides the tools with which we can achieve this goal despite JFK's initiative.

Community mental health care was underfunded and people with serious mental illness faced care and housing challenges and many states found they had cut too many beds North Carolina eliminated nearly half of its state psychiatric beds over the past two decades to In 2016, the state was ranked among the lowest in the country for hospital beds per population. Staffing shortages during Covid only worsened the burden. I talked to dozens of people about it. They told me they were frustrated, the judges, the Das, the healthcare providers, the jail staff too, they are also on the front lines of this mental health crisis, thank you, hello, how are you?

I met with Derwin Brisco, Chief Deputy of the Cleveland County Sheriff's Office, about an hour outside of Charlotte, so we're going down this hallway to the lodge. Okay, we house 324 inmates daily. What percentage of the inmates you have here now do you think have a mental illness? I would say I would say about 40% this guy this guy is hit hitting the wall or hitting the wall I don't know what he's doing I don't know what he's doing How many would you say what percentage of serious mental illnesses like psychosis or Something, probably , about 10% of the people we have in our facilities, who are in some type of isolation where it may be due to their suicidal tendency or ifThey have clothes on, they are not suicidal, he has no clothes on, so he has a suicidal cigarette, that tells me it's a suicide, okay, yes, with these individuals the officers have to physically see them four times an hour to make sure that be well.

I've seen a A study that indicated that people with serious mental illness are more likely to be arrested for minor crimes is that what you see me doing is because they are not getting the help they need on the outside. They are committing very small crimes, second degree criminal trespass or disorderly conduct and they will end up being arrested again and again, how? Right now there are many people who cannot continue. We currently have about six people who cannot. How long have you been waiting for a bed? We have one person who has been waiting about 8 months but we had one who was here for over a year I was waiting that long waits are pretty common this is personal for you right you told me you have a nephew here who is unable to continue, yes, ma'am, I do what that is for you, um, it's very difficult because I know.

This individual and I know the things his family has tried, numerous approaches have unintentionally compromised him and landed him in outpatient care to provide him with the treatment he needs. Chief Brisco's nephew, Devonte Watson, is 31 years old and faces three charges, including assault on the law. police officer who allegedly occurred when he was arrested for stealing his mother's car Watson has been in jail since July 2022 was declared ITP for 4 months later as Leadford has been waiting for a bet at the Bron hospital they feel the system has failed Not only has he failed them, but he has failed him so much that it got to the point where he is now inside our facility, uh, not being able to get the help that he needed outside, I think when it comes to problems mental. the health or the people inside our detention centers of course race is going to play a part in it um and I say that because economics goes all the way down to racial status um a lot of times I feel like depending on your race you might be offered less. things that anyone else can be and that's not just mental health, that's a lot of things and if I don't have the funds because I'm not offered the same things it's because of my race, so of course I won't be treated the same as anyone else.

Nacional level. I think race also has some impact. Data shows that African Americans are overrepresented in prisons across the country. The same thing happens in North Carolina after we spoke. Chief Brisco took us to the floor where the inmates are housed. It was quiet when we entered, but we were warned that the inmates might get irritated by seeing the cameras. Most detention officers work 12-hour shifts, and a growing number of inmates they work with are living with mental illness. Emotional impact on you when dealing with people who have mental illnesses. For me, it's definitely not easy.

You know it's something you have to deal with on a personal level and you try not to be able to take it home with you. Sometimes you're going to leave your family just to come here and it may have feces because they bother you just for little things, you're trying to take care of people who don't even care about themselves, we've had officers here hurt, you know, by people who suffer from mental problems. Us and what type of injuries you have seen. I've seen. Know. I saw a guy who got kicked in the neck and it hurt him quite a bit.

He couldn't go back to work, so you think the detention officers have to deal with that. PTSD due to work, man, I can give you an example, one of my own, like if I walk into a room, I need to be able to see the door, we're not a profession to deal with mental health people, that's not our job title. our job I think there needs to be more mental health facilities and mental health professionals to help with some of this because the jails are filling up with them, I mean, and the system really needs to take a hard look at it because the longer The harder they go here, the crazier they get the right treatment inmates can get worse it's been almost 4 months since I visited Dylan Leadford his last lawyer changed jobs and his new lawyer Matthew Hawkins called me to tell me that Ledford's mental health has been deteriorating how are you well how are you well good to see you Yes, it's good to see how you're doing, Mr.

H. Sor, so why are you here now? What brought you here today is that someone told you to come. Well, what are we up to, Mr. Hawkins, his lawyer, said he's going to try to get them involved. custody, do you know what that is, custody? I'm not sure what it is, but I'm, I'm, I'm all for it if my lawyer says that's the right thing to do. I'm, I'm behind him, so. It's to take him somewhere so he can get medical attention, what's the protocol for that, well we file a motion, okay, let the judge approve, it's actually an order, okay, and the jail here accepts it, they contact Right Hawkins. he's trying to transfer Leedford to a secure unit at a state prison which is where they house inmates who are deemed too dangerous, vulnerable or sick for the prisons to get books here, so tell me who's been visiting you.

Nobody came to visit me before. you come to see me. I'm questioning myself and being questioned, so this is an opportunity for me to express the things I've been questioned about. Yes, in front of the camera. Yes, so now you understand if they are interrogating me. and then no one comes to see me and then you come to see me with a camera, that means now that they have questioned me I have my story clear and I know that this is facial recognition and I have to say exactly what they say I say: Okay, you think We're going to use facial recognition, although they don't have facial recognition, oh, I got it, I got it.

I can not lie. Okay I get the lie I get it and the reason I can't lie is because they You're using facial recognition and I'm not a liar and this is what Dylan the last time you saw him he was like this yeah oh when You sent him to custody, what's going to happen? In custody, they simply have better medical facilities there. especially when it comes to dealing with people with serious mental health issues so he would stay in custody hope

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y until his bed in Bron is ready there are still 10-15 people on that waiting list but not for me There's nothing worse than where he is now, so I think it makes sense to try to give him at least a little springboard to get to Bron, because we just don't know that 10 to 15 people on the waiting list could mean a couple of weeks, It could mean a couple of months, it could mean six months, we have no idea Leadford was transferred to safety about a week later, Chief Brisco's nephew, Devonte Watson, has been in prison for almost a year and a half and still is waiting for a bed.

I really feel like the longer he stays in jail, his mental state changes and he has to keep coming down here. It is difficult for me to see that he is inside the jail without receiving the proper care that he needs and it is not the fault of the jails. designed to provide adequate care to mentally ill inmates after 531 days behind bars, Leadford finally got a hospital bed, but many more across the country remained trapped in a

fractured

system. People who are in this process of being found, capable and committed to state hospitals. I think there should be more accountability for those people who may not even understand that what they are doing is wrong.

If we want to have a functioning community that prioritizes everyone's success, then we must take care of the most vulnerable. people and that's exactly who these people are