In the first four months of 2024, five people have died in Tarrant County Jail.
All but two of them had a confirmed mental illness, and all but one were Black men.
Since 2017, at least 64 people have died in this jail's custody. Please help us make sure that Kaiyere Campbell is not next.

Kaiyere is Black, and has a diagnosis of being intellectually and developmentally disabled (IDD), autistic and schizophrenic. Although he is 21 years old, developmentally, he is 8 years old. His condition is well documented with MHMR of Tarrant County, with whom he has been a client since 2 years old.

On December 11th, 2023, Kaiyere was arrested from his group home. He had only been there since September -- his first time being away from his mother, Shantel, while awaiting placement in a State Supported Living Center. In the course of having a manic episode, his nurse was injured. The group home staff called the Fort Worth police for help, the nurse explained the situation, and specifically asked that they not take Kaiyere to jail, but rather to the ER at JPS to provide crisis care and stabilize him, but the police refused, and took him to jail instead, and he has now been charged with assault of an elder.

His bond is $3,500, but he can’t be bailed out because he is on a "mental health hold.” He has been found incompetent to stand trial and is awaiting transfer to a state hospital for competency restoration. The waitlist for competency restoration has over 2,000 people and is almost two years long. The purpose of competency restoration is to ensure he can understand his charges and participate in his defense – so he can be convicted for his disability. We know that he cannot be restored because of his mental capacity. This process is wasting precious time and resources.

Shantel is extremely concerned for her son's safety and well-being. He has been in jail since December and is deteriorating there. He is now suicidal, not eating regularly and losing weight, hallucinating, picking at his body and now has huge scars on his back, scalp and arms, and is urinating and defecating on the floor of his single cell.

Kaiyere needs the proper level of mental health care for his severe conditions, not criminalization or jail.

We need the District Attorney to drop the charges, and for MHMR to expedite Kaiyere's placement in an SSLC. Please follow the instructions in this tool to send a letter to the people who have the authority to get Kaiyere out of harm's way and into the supportive care that he needs.