Act Immediately to protect the life of Kaiyere Campbell and get him the level of care he desperately needs!
Tarrant County Magistrate Judge, Anna Hernandez
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.
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.
Tarrant County Magistrate Judge, Anna Hernandez is the person who ordered Kaiyere onto this pointless two year long waitlist. And she is one of the people, in addition to the District Attorney (who can drop the charges), who can act with full discretion to de-criminalize Kaiyere, by dismissing the bogus case against him and getting him off of the waitlist for competency restoration, and into the care that he desperately needs at a State Supported Living Center.
Kaiyere's mother 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, constantly naked, 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.
Sign our petition to Judge Hernandez now, so we can get Kaiyere out of jail and into the level of care that he desperately needs.
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To:
Tarrant County Magistrate Judge, Anna Hernandez
From:
[Your Name]
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 intellectual developmental disability. This process is wasting precious time and resources. Please do not leave him languishing needlessly on this list, just for him to either die in jail before he ever makes it to the state hospital, or to make there and come back unable to be restored.
Kaiyere needs the proper level of mental health care for his severe conditions, not criminalization or jail.
Kaiyere's mother 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. And now, Shantel can't even visit Kaiyere in person anymore, only via video conference which wasn't even operational the last time she went to visit him.
Magistrate Judge Anna Hernandez, I am asking you to use your judicial discretion, and dismiss the case against Kaiyere, and remove him from the forensic waitlist for the state hospital competency restoration, so that he can be released from jail to get the proper level of care that he needs at a State Supported Living Center. Please act now to save Kaiyere from further suffering and criminalization, and help prevent this from continuing to happen to members of our community.