I-TEAM: Richmond Co. Sheriff’s Office responds to lack of funding for mental health

AUGUSTA, Ga. (WRDW/WAGT) – The I-TEAM is uncovering new details about the dying of an Augusta man by the hands of the Richmond County Sheriff’s Workplace.

Nelson Graham’s household says he was in a psychological well being disaster and that’s why they reached out to deputies for assist.

They now remorse that decision for assist after deputies in the end used a taser on Graham.

He later died.

The second in command on the sheriff’s workplace sits down with the I-TEAM and admits deputies want extra coaching and assets when coping with psychological well being sufferers.

The I-TEAM additionally uncovered psychological well being calls have skyrocketed in Augusta- Richmond County. We obtained information that discovered a 66 p.c improve in psychological well being calls to the RSCO in 5 years.

The sheriff’s workplace tells our Will Rioux it’s requested commissioners for extra money for that important coaching however was turned down.

And that request was earlier than the 911 name to Nelson Graham’s dwelling in December. His household is devastated that extra may have been carried out.

So the I-TEAM pressed Augusta’s new mayor for solutions. An incident report is shining a light-weight on the evening deputies visited nelson graham at his dwelling on George Highway.

We additionally obtained 911 name recordings.

“We obtained known as out to do a psychological well being evaluation on a 33-year-old male.”

“The household says he’s been threatening to harm the kids within the dwelling, and he’s been aggressive.

“Officers have already been dispatched.”

On Dec. 16, 2022, at 10:15 p.m., Richmond County deputies Kevin Clarke and Madison Emerson have been the officers despatched to graham’s dwelling for a 10-13, a court-ordered psychological analysis.

The report reads, his spouse, Christina Graham, known as the cellular disaster hotline as a result of nobody responded to the court-ordered psychological analysis she filed on her husband and Nelson was “behaving erratically.”

Each deputies reported discovering Nelson sitting in his bed room together with his arms folded over his chest.

Whereas making an attempt to move him to a hospital “deputies grabbed Nelson Graham’s arms making an attempt to unfold from his chest. Graham was passively resisting through refusing to offer deputies his arms.” Finally, all three ended up on the bottom “the place deputies tried to bodily detain him”.

Deputy Emerson gave verbal instructions to graham which have been ignored earlier than utilizing a TASER.

He remained “useless weight masking his arms.” Deputies once more used a TASER and famous it was “nonetheless displaying little to no impact” so Deputy Emerson drive surprised him “a number of occasions.”

Whereas handcuffing him and transferring him to the lounge deputies observe Graham continues to be “useless weight and had not spoken a phrase.”

They started CPR and even used Narcan. Graham was transported to the hospital the place he died.

“I used to be devastated. I used to be I couldn’t imagine it. , I’m nonetheless attempting to course of it proper now,” Denzel Graham is Nelson’s little brother. He was a father to eight kids, however Denzel says his brother all the time had challenges with psychological well being.

“Conditions like this could by no means happen ever in life the place any person’s life is taken away as a result of psychological well being.”

The incident report tells us physique cameras have been rolling. The I-TEAM requested a replica however to date it has not been supplied. So, we don’t know what it reveals, and we don’t know why Nelson Graham died. The sheriff’s workplace tells us toxicology outcomes are pending.

Whereas that investigation is ongoing, the sheriff’s workplace tells me psychological well being calls like this are skyrocketing and so they want extra assist.

Chief Patrick Clayton is the second in command to Sheriff Richard Roundtree on the Richmond County Sheriff’s Workplace, “In regulation enforcement, there’s three points that we’re requested to do. And requested to take care of by the residents. They’re going to be homelessness, drug habit, and psychological well being topics. However we’re not given the assets to successfully take care of them.”

He tells the I-TEAM the women and men of the sheriff’s workplace want the assets they as soon as just lately had.

Simply in 2020, a Disaster Intervention Staff, or the CIT program was introduced with nice fanfare even making our newscast that 12 months.

As a part of this system, the Richmond County Sheriff’s Workplace partnered with the state of Georgia by way of Serenity Behavioral Well being to pair deputies with social employees who’re educated to take care of psychological well being calls.

“We did see that had worth,” explains Chief Clayton. “We did see that we have been beginning to scale back calls.”

The issue is shortly after the beginning of the CIT program, the COVID pandemic began.

The sheriff’s workplace says restricted state assets and manpower and in the end, cash for the CIT program was lower.

In the meantime, because the I-TEAM confirmed you in a yearlong sequence ‘Faces of homelessness’ our homeless inhabitants jumped almost 150% p.c following the pandemic and our psychological well being methods stay in disaster.

Will Rioux: “Do you’re feeling just like the CIT program may have helped in that incident?”

Chief Clayton: “Sure, and I hate to invest on that, however I all the time I feel that you probably have an individual as a educated specialist in coping with, you realize, psychological well being topics, it may undoubtedly be a profit. And it’s one thing I feel we now have to we now have to prioritize sooner or later.”

We analyzed 5 years of knowledge from 2017 to 2022 and located psychological well being calls have elevated a whopping 66 p.c in Augusta, culminating in additional than 28 hundred requires deputies in 2022 alone.

“They’re not one, one or five-minute calls,” explains Chief Clayton. “These are calls which might be going to be half-hour, hour to typically hours as a result of we’re coping with folks which might be mentally ailing.”

Crucial time prevents deputies from getting again on the street to patrol for calls they in the end are usually not adequately educated to deal with.

“That is one thing that we’ve obtained a whole lot of help initially from the mayor and the commissioners saying that they wished to have this program after which we proposed it final 12 months… and crickets,” says Chief Clayton.

Final November the sheriff’s workplace requested commissioners to create two behavioral well being specialists below the sheriff’s workplace since Serenity was having staffing scarcity points.

The fee is $150,000 together with wage, advantages, and tools.

In line with the price range request from the sheriff’s workplace, it requested 15 objects however solely three have been accredited. The Behavioral Well being Specialists weren’t considered one of them.

The specialists would additionally present wraparound companies doing follow-ups and ensuring psychological well being topics are linked with assets and a case file is began.

The I-TEAM pressed Augusta’s new Mayor Garnett Johnson about native {dollars} to take care of a neighborhood disaster.

Mayor Garnett Johnson “Town of Augusta definitely has some budgetary challenges and definitely wouldn’t need to decide to that at this level.”

Will Rioux: “However is that one thing that you may perhaps push for or that you’d push for sooner or later?”

Mayor Garnett Johnson: “I’m not sure as I said, our price range is already stretched past management proper now, doing among the easiest issues for our taxpayers, ensuring we keep our infrastructure, guarantee that we offer enough lighting in areas proper now that doesn’t have it. So, I’d be for supporting these {dollars} as they stream by way of the state and federal degree.”

A transparent drawback with no clear answer.

The I-TEAM requested Nelson Graham’s brother Denzel if he thought his brother would nonetheless be alive at the moment if these psychological well being specialists have been in place.

“Completely. 100%… to see the shift in his life and to see that he was crying out to us for assist and we tried to get him assist and that value him his life, it’s going to perpetually be with me and stick to me.”

A brother, father, and husband shouting for assist with nobody educated to assist him there to reply the decision.

In November, the I-TEAM confirmed you one more incident the place a member of the family known as deputies for assist getting a beloved one to the hospital. A mother known as when her son was in disaster and a deputy ended up hitting him within the head and placing him in jail for 2 weeks. When the I-TEAM began asking questions, all of his fees have been dropped.

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