An Inconvenient Truth

“There is no greater tyranny than that which is perpetrated under the shield of the law and in the name of justice.” 

― Montesquieu, The Spirit of the Laws

Reginald Cornelius Latson

During the entire tragic ordeal of Reginald Cornelius "Neli" Latson the quote above often revisited my mind. It has taken up permanent residence in my heart. Only when I heard the grand jury verdict for the Eric Garner case did I feel as shocked and defeated as I did when I heard that Mr. Latson had no choice but to plead guilty to felony assault for an incident that should not have occurred  because he had no business in the corrections system in the first place. This despite the stellar efforts of the outstanding attorney championing him. The miscarriage of justice here is breathtaking. How much more harm will be done to this young man before he gets the help he needs?

It is time to appeal to Governor McAuliffe to do the right thing and grant Reginald Latson a pardon.

I am  humbly asking everyone to please sign this petition:

https://www.change.org/p/pardons-department-grant-a-pardon-to-reginald-cornelius-neli-latson

On Thursday, Neli Latson pleaded guilty to felony assault for a scuffle that took place while he was being transferred to a "suicide watch" cell in prison. He was in psychiatric crisis and suicidal.  It is the latest in a long series of wrongs done to him by a system that is criminalizing behavior beyond individual control. Just to be clear: Mr. Latson was suicidal, decompensated, and in severe psychiatric crisis. He was being forcibly moved to a cell when a scuffle occurred. Only Mr. Latson was seriously hurt. He was shot with a Taser and bound in a restraint chair for hours. After which he was charged with felony assault by prosecutor Eric Olsen. He charged Mr. Latson for something that occurred during the throes of a major mental health crisis.

Matthew Ajibade photo credit
 https://pbs.twimg.com/media/B66cc8gCEAAWD0S.jpg:large

A heartbreaking side note about restraint chairs in the criminal justice system: 22-year-old Matthew Ajibade of Savannah, Georgia, died in police custody bound in a restraint chair on New Year's day. Mr. Ajibade was bipolar and the police were tasked with escorting him to the hospital. They were given his medication and per the police report informed regarding the dosage. How he ended up dying in bound restraint in solitary confinement at the Chatham County Detention Center is another day's horror story. Current reports do not have sufficient detailed information to tell us why he was not taken to the hospital. Mr. Ajibade's death is the latest example of why neurodivergent people in general and mental health consumers in particular who intersect with the criminal justice system while in crisis need to be promptly released to health crisis centers rather than having public servants whose job is not to manage mental health crises place people in bound restraint chairs and into solitary cells. Matthew's story can be read here.


Back to the incredible tragedy of Neli Latson, who, as Ruth Marcus alluded,  prosecutor Eric Olsen pursued as zealously as Les Misérables Inspector Javert pursued Jean Valjean.

Quoting Ms. Marcus's Washington Post article:

"That charge is being brought by the second, deliberate obstacle to transferring Latson from prison to treatment: Stafford County prosecutor Eric Olsen, Virginia’s answer to Inspector Javert. Latson’s intellectual disability, Olsen has argued in court, is “an aspect of convenience. When his advocates want him to be ( ableist slur redacted), he is.”

Here is some inconvenient truth. Intellectual disability is not "an aspect of convenience". The degree of anyone's individual disability constellation may not be apparent, but the cost being paid by those individuals with diverse neurologies during crises is too high.

I am quite certain Tario Anderson wanted to understand why a painfully bright light was being shined on him and why he was shot with a Taser and arrested. Like my young son, he is a nonverbal autistic, and was therefore unable to respond by speaking to any police demands. There is no "aspect of convenience" here.  Mr. Anderson, Mr. Ajibade, and Mr. Latson wanted to be understood. Who would want to be shot with a Taser, or arrested and placed in bound restraint?

Prosecutor Olsen denying that Mr. Latson's disabilities are impacting his ability to respond appropriately make it painfully clear that criminal justice autism training in Virginia needs to happen quickly. Authorities lack any understanding of communication differences like echolalia, scripting, auditory processing disorders, and sensory issues that directly impact an autistic adult under high stress regardless of how they communicate. That is scary because the next Mr. Latson, Mr. Ajibade, or Mr. Anderson  could happen at any future date.

Mr. Olsen used an ablest slur for intellectual disability in open court. I cannot wrap my head around the idea of someone who is a member of the Virginia bar and a prosecuting attorney of his standing being ignorant of Rosa's Law, since the law has been in effect since October 5, 2010.  So I can only conclude that again, Mr. Olsen has a great deal of inconvenient truth to learn about disability. This language in open court also implies a bias that is disturbing and bodes ill for any disabled person who crosses Mr. Olsen's path.

The statement " He is a person with autism that also has this hate, this racial hate and this hate for law enforcement" is belied by the testimony and letters of people who were part of  Neli's life before that awful day he went to the library and found it closed. So the preponderance of the evidence belies his statement that Mr. Latson has either racial hate or hate for law enforcement. What each incident involving Mr. Latson does show is authorities are not understanding the needs of disabled people. How can someone conflate mental health crises with racial hate? When you spend all your time hammering prosecutions, I guess every accused looks like the same nail.

I do not believe Mr. Latson can take much more of this. Please help appeal to Governor McAuliffe to pardon Neli and allow him to receive the urgent treatment and supports he needs.


#FreeNeli

The Autistic Self Advocacy Network Calls for Pardon for Neli Latson:  http://autisticadvocacy.org/2015/01/asan-calls-for-pardon-for-neli-latson/

Updated  Bazelon statement about the plight of Reginald "Neli" Latson: http://www.bazelon.org/News-Publications/Statement-on-the-Plight-of-Reginald-Latson.aspx

Information on Neli: http://www.thearcofva.org/advocacy/current-advocacy-issues-and-activities/reginald-neli-latson/


The death of Matthew Ojibade: http://www.alternet.org/news-amp-politics/savannah-man-dies-restraining-chair-while-police-custody#.VK9fMV9UjZc.twitter


 Marcus, Ruth. "Why Is Reginald Latson Being Denied the Help He Needs?" The Washington Post 29 Nov. 2014. Web. 8 Jan. 2015. <http://www.highbeam.com/doc/1P2-37441317.html?>.

On Ruth Marcus' Latest Op Ed On the Neli Latson Case

"That’s not to say Latson should be free. He is, by the accounts of those who know him best, a sweet young man who nonetheless can become aggressive when agitated. Winchester, Va., jail superintendent James Whitley, who took the extraordinary step of testifying on Latson’s behalf at two sentencing hearings, described him as “like a child wanting to please us.”
Latson should be in a secure residential treatment facility, and Virginia’s mental health officials support this outcome even as its corrections system incarcerates him ."   -Ruth Marcus,  Reginald Latson’s case points to a major problem in U.S. prisons, Washington Post Opinions 

Ms. Marcus has continued to write excellent pieces on the Neli Latson case, and should be applauded for bringing his unjust incarceration and solitary confinement to the public. While I understand her latest post, her attempt to explain the way the Latson case exemplifies a greater problem, and I agree that problem exists and needs to be dealt with, I am extremely concerned with something else.

Ms. Marcus writes that Neli Latson, who has already served time for assaulting a police officer of which the last year was served in solitary confinement should not be free. She says he should be in a secure residential treatment facility. Let us call things what they are.  A secure residential treatment facility is the politically correct way of saying a mental institution. 

She describes Mr. Latson as a "sweet young man who nonetheless can become aggressive when agitated". Stop and make a mental list of everyone you know who can become aggressive when agitated.  Should they all be in a "secure residential treatment facility" aka mental institution, for the rest of their lives? If a person, in an act of road rage, throws a plastic cup with soda at a driver who cuts them off,  and that person drives their car off the road and breaks their ankle, should the person with road rage be placed in a mental institution for the rest of their lives? If the person who goaded Mr. Latson into aggression had not been a police officer, and Mr. Latson had not been a Black male with a hoodie, would this case have even gone to trial?  Ms. Marcus agrees that Mr. Latson should not have been in prison. She is quick to remind us of Mr. Latson's IQ in each of her articles on this case. 

She quotes The Bazelon Center's Alison Barkoff, who says: 

“Neli is important because he exemplifies one of the systemic problems that the settlement agreement addresses,” said Alison Barkoff, a former Justice Department lawyer now with the Bazelon Center for Mental Health Law.“When services are not readily available in the community, behavioral health crises are often treated as a crime,” Barkoff said. “It is counterproductive, costly and inhumane to punish people for their disabilities instead of getting them help.”

So let me quote that again. "When services are not readily available in the community, behavioral health crises are often treated as a crime." Barkoff said. "It is counter -productive, costly and inhumane to punish people for their disabilities instead of getting them help." 

I keep emphasizing the need to place Neli Latson based on the Olmstead decision. Everyone ignores that and blames his behavioral crisis on his autism, then supports punishing him for one behavioral crisis based upon an abnormally high stressor without considering what this Olmstead decision demands. So lets discuss the Olmstead decision. Let me quote from ADA.gov:

"In 2009, the Civil Rights Division launched an aggressive effort to enforce the Supreme Court's decision in Olmstead v. L.C., a ruling that requires states to eliminate unnecessary segregation of persons with disabilities and to ensure that persons with disabilities receive services in the most integrated setting appropriate to their needs."

U.S. v. Rhode Island – 1:14-cv-00175 – (D.R.I. 2014)
On April 8, 2014, the United States entered into the nation’s first statewide settlement agreement vindicating the civil rights of individuals with disabilities who are unnecessarily segregated in sheltered workshops and facility-based day programs.  The settlement agreement with the State of Rhode Island resolves the Civil Rights Division’s January 6, 2014 findings, as part of an ADA Olmstead investigation, that the State’s day activity service system over-relies on segregated settings, including sheltered workshops and facility-based day programs, to the exclusion of integrated alternatives, such as supported employment and integrated day services.

Amanda D., et al. v. Hassan, et al.; United States v. New Hampshire – 1:12-CV-53 (SM)
The Justice Department intervened in Amanda D. v. Wood Hassan, a lawsuit alleging that the state of New Hampshire fails to provide mental health services to people with disabilities in community settings in violation of the Americans with Disabilities Act and Section 504 of the Rehabilitation Act of 1973. On December 19, 2013, the Department, along with a coalition of private plaintiff organizations, entered into a comprehensive Settlement Agreement with the State of New Hampshire that will significantly expand and enhance mental health service capacity in integrated community settings over the next six years. 

U.S. v. Puerto Rico – 3:00-cv-01435 – (D.P.R. 1999) 
Several years ago, the Division issued two CRIPA/ADA findings letters concluding that the Commonwealth of Puerto Rico was violating the constitutional and legal rights of several hundred persons with developmental disabilities who had been living in one or more of the Commonwealth's six residential institutions. Shortly thereafter, the Division reached agreement with the Commonwealth that Puerto Rico would develop and implement a series of measures to drastically transform the nature of its service-delivery system for persons with developmental disabilities. In recent years, the Division has been actively monitoring the Commonwealth's compliance with three CRIPA/ADA consent decrees, as well as several other court orders, all executed to protect the rights of persons with disabilities.

It is Virginia's legal obligation to deliver the services Mr. Latson needs. This can be accomplished in two phases, first a transitional phase that undoes the damage to his mental health done by placing him in solitary confinement for a year and incarcerating him in the first place. Second, by completing a transition to a community based program when Mr. Latson has shown progress and providing the personnel support and other services needed for Mr. Latson to safely navigate his community.  Fulfilling  Olmstead obligations requires that Mr. Latson's entire case be reviewed by the DOJ to insure that justice was done to begin with. It is quite clear from Stafford County prosecutor Olsen's own statements that what was done to Mr. Latson was done because for attorney's own personal derogatory views of Mr. Latson.  Again quoting Ms. Marcus' article:

 "This scuffle warrants, at most, internal prison discipline, not additional prosecution by Stafford County Commonwealth’s Attorney Eric Olsen (R), who describes Latson as a cop-hating, racist thug pretending to be “mentally retarded” rather than a young man with a disability in need of treatment."

She goes on to state that Mr. Latson should plead guilty because the prosecutor is biased.  I thought that cases of prosecutorial bias should be investigated by the proper authorities. Plea agreements are the foundation of  injustice towards Black males in this country. Unable to afford good legal assistance, and pressured to do so, many innocent Black males are incarcerated by exactly this scenario. Prosecution is trying to make an example of them, so they are told to plead guilty to something that they are not guilty of and this fills the prisons while perpetuating the stereotype of the aggressive, criminalized Black male. Wow. I'm stunned by this. The road to hell for Mr. Latson is continually paved with the good intentions of people, inevitably white people, who find pleading guilty a simple act without weighing the consequences to a Black disabled man.

Ms. Marcus has written excellent pieces on this case. This one, except for what I have noted, is also an excellent piece. But the issues I disagree with I disagree with vehemently. We are not talking about words on paper or in a classroom. We are talking about a young man's life. Let's get it right this time.

#FreeNeli