Mitigation (Chapters 8-11)

Welcome back!

During this week's reading, Stevenson continues with his focus on people who struggle with mental illness and the fact that people are being incarcerated for actions that they committed but had no control over. He brings up the argument that perhaps this problem is because all of the inmates end up having a similar backstory: they were not treated with the care that they needed in life. Lawyers and guards are also not trained to understand. People just have to be treated the right way for their mental illnesses and psychological struggles and then there will be less of a chance of them falling into a mess and being locked up behind bars.

Towards the beginning of chapter 10, Stevenson begins by giving us some statistics:

“Today, over 50 percent of prison and jail inmates in the United States have a diagnosed mental illness, a rate nearly five times greater than that of the general adult population... Disabled prisoners with epilepsy and seizure disorders would sometimes need assistance while convulsing int heir cells, and because they couldn't put their hands through the bars, guards would mace them or use fire extinguishers to subdue them. This intervention aggravated the health problems of the prisoners and sometimes resulted in death.” (p. 188)

Clearly, we are already getting the idea that prison guards don't have the proper training with regard to mental illnesses. Maybe it's time to start that.

In chapter 10, we meet Avery Jenkins. 

But before meeting Jenkins, we meet a robust, angry prison guard. He owns a big pickup truck that is covered in disturbing, troubling bumper stickers and Confederate flag decals, topped with a gun rack. Stevenson is walking into the prison for a legal visit like he always does but is stopped by a guard he had never seen before. He is muscular and six-feet, with a short ‘military haircut’ and ‘steel-blue’ eyes. Not a good image, and especially not someone to mess around with.

Despite Stevenson’s argument that lawyers coming to the prison for legal visits do not need to be strip-searched, the guard forces him to go into a bathroom and strip naked and proceeds to aggressively pat him down. He then forces Stevenson to sign the logbook, even though it only needed to be signed if a family member was visiting, and is not used for legal visits. It seemed as if the guard was doing everything in his power to make Stevenson's day a little less comfortable and pleasant. Before Stevenson is left alone in the visitation room, the officer makes sure to tell him that the big truck outside with the bumper stickers, flags, and gun racks is his.

After this encounter, we finally meet Avery Jenkins. We heard about him before, as he had sent Stevenson letters in writing so small and illegible that it was clear that he was struggling with something in his head. This encouraged Stevenson to make the trip out to visit Jenkins. He is an African American man and is unusually happy to see Stevenson, walking into the room with a big grin on his face. The first thing he asks is:

“Did you bring me a chocolate milkshake? I want a chocolate milkshake?” (p. 196).

When Stevenson says no, Jenkins' smile disappears and he is suddenly no longer happy. He only answers Stevenson’s questions with single words. Stevenson takes note of this and stops his interview to say:

“Mr. Jenkins, I’m really sorry. I didn’t realize you wanted me to bring you a chocolate milkshake. If I had known that, I would absolutely have tried. I promise that the next time I come, if they let me bring you in a chocolate milkshake, I’ll definitely do it. Okay?” (p. 196-197).

Just those few simple phrases were enough to make Avery Jenkins smile come back and brighten his mood again. Those words opened him up and suddenly he was able to spill out details to everything that Stevenson asked. This goes to show how knowing the right way to deal with/talk to someone who clearly has some mental issues can be really effective. 

Jenkins reveals his heartbreaking background. He had never gotten a chance to meet his father because he was murdered before he was born. When he was one, his mother died of a drug overdose. He had been in foster care from the age of two on, tossed between 19 different homes by the time he turned eight. This goes to show that his time in foster care was not any better. When he was young he began to show signs of cognitive impairment and schizophrenia. Instead of trying to help his situation, his foster parents would often give up on trying with him and abuse him instead: he was locked in closets, beaten, starved, etc. One day, the current foster mom he was with decided she could not take it any longer, so she brought him to the woods and tied him to a tree.

He was left there, tied up and alone, for three days. It wasn’t until the third day that a group of hunters found him. 

After this incident, he was placed yet again in foster care. He began to abuse drugs and alcohol, and when he turned 15 he began to have seizures and other types of psychotic episodes. 

When he was 17, he was left on the street after being declared incapable of management.

So, after hearing this background story, it is clear that Avery Jenkins has mental health issues. Stevenson wanted to make this clear. It is also noticeable that Jenkins never received the right treatment and help for his problems. 

It’s no surprise when we find out what happens to Jenkins: his poor judgment gets him into the mess of a crime. One day, he wandered into an elderly man’s home and stabbed him, thinking that he was a demon. He was arrested, charged for murder, and sentenced to death.

Stevenson brings Jenkins' case back to court and reveals the story of his past. He brings up the fact that some of Avery’s prior foster parents tried to argue that they weren’t knowledgeable enough and didn’t have the experience or support to deal with his serious mental disabilities. 

“We get angry when people fail to recognize the need for thoughtful and compassionate assistance when it comes to the physically disabled, but because mental disabilities aren’t visible in the same way, we tend to be dismissive of the needs of the disabled and quick to judge their deficits and failures.” (p. 199)

Stevenson uses that point to show how it can be understood why the court doesn’t take the time to consider mental health issues. That doesn't mean it's okay, though. In the courtroom, Jenkins may have appeared competent, but if the judge had simply spent a few minutes in a room alone chatting with him, I’m sure his opinion would differ.

After the court hearing, Stevenson decides to go back for a post-hearing visit with Avery Jenkins. When he pulls up to the prison, he sees the truck loaded with the stickers and the gun rack. But to all of our surprises, the officer that once appeared angry, threatening, and hateful was a completely new person. He treated Stevenson with respect and he did not make Stevenson strip. Before Stevenson walks away, the officer stops him and asks if he can tell him something. He then proceeds to mention that he was in the courtroom during the hearing and that he appreciated what Stevenson was doing. It turns out that the officer himself had been brought up in foster care, that and he himself had been moved around many times, making him feel worthless.

“You know, I guess what I’m trying to say is that I think it’s good what you’re doing. I got so angry coming up that there were plenty of times when I really wanted to hurt somebody, just because I was angry. I made it to eighteen, joined the military, and you know, I’ve been okay. But sitting in that courtroom brought back memories and I think I realized how I’m still kind of angry.” (p. 201).

All of this brings up the idea that officers struggle with mental issues as well — everyone does. No matter if you’re black or white, everyone has histories and everyone has internal feelings and struggles. If you don’t get help for those feelings or problems, you have to figure out a way to put them somewhere. For Avery Jenkins, stabbing an old man was his breaking point. For the blue-eyed officer, joining the military and becoming a prison guard was his anchor, as the job satisfied his want to hurt somebody. He could mess around and abuse people all day if he wanted to. 

Just before the chapter wraps up, we also find out that the officer, on his way transporting Jenkins from the courtroom back to the prison, made a secret stop at Wendy’s and bought him a chocolate milkshake.

Here we see Stevenson’s argument come to form: sometimes people need a little help, a little push in the right direction. We need to realize that if people were treated the right way, then they might not have done the bad thing that they did. We need to realize that lessening the severity of the punishments we force upon people who suffer from mental issues and allowing for treatments rather than punishments will in most cases make a positive difference. As we see in both Avery Jenkins and the officers' stories, seeing and hearing the right words can really spark a change in someone’s life. For Avery, it was hearing that he was going to get a chocolate milkshake. It was finally getting that chocolate milkshake. For the officer, it was learning that he wasn’t the only in the world who had troubling experiences with foster care as a child. He learned that he wasn’t alone and that there was hope for the future because there was someone out there making a difference. 

Seeing that made him want to make a difference too.

I couldn’t agree more with Stevenson's argument. People with mental illnesses need to be treated and supported just like someone with a physical injury that had just suffered through a car accident would.

We need to reduce the severeness of the punishments forced upon people who are struggling with mental issues and focus more on helping them instead.

Mitigation: the action of reducing the severity, seriousness, or painfulness of something. 

Thanks for reading!

WORKS CITED:

Stevenson, Bryan. Just Mercy. Spiegel & Grau, 2014.