A Collin County grand jury decided this week that eight jailers didn’t commit a crime related to the in-custody death of Marvin Scott III. But the panel took an unusual step, urging that a group be formed to use lessons from Scott’s death to examine how to prevent similar tragedies.
“We recommend that this work group consist of a diverse group of Collin County community leaders, criminal justice and law enforcement stakeholders, local hospitals and mental health providers,” the grand jury said in the written statement. “The goal of this work group should be finding the best solutions for the treatment of individuals with mental illness who come into contact with the criminal justice system.”
Although Collin County District Attorney Greg Willis’ role in the legal process is done now that the grand jury declined to indict the jailers, he vowed to lead the call for a working group.
“There’s a certain power in the simplicity of the grand jury coming together and making what to normal people seems like a very reasonable request: Let’s find the best solutions for how things happen when mentally ill people come into contact with the criminal justice system,” Willis said.
He was sparse on details, speaking with The Dallas Morning News the day after the grand jury issued its statement, saying he doesn’t want to pretend to have all the answers.
He said the first steps will be important: identifying stakeholders and agreeing on the problem. Then comes settling on solutions and determining feasibility.
Willis hopes to convene the group “in the next couple of months.”
It’s not clear what such a group may look like in Collin County. But police working groups in other states have shown some progress in leading to reforms.
In 2019, Minnesota Attorney General Keith Ellison and the commissioner of the state’s Department of Public Safety, John Harrington, convened an 18-member group to develop recommendations and action steps designed to reduce deadly encounters between police and civilians.
The group — composed of law enforcement officers, community activists, criminal justice advocates, prosecutors and scholars — convened for a dozen public hearings, listening sessions and group discussions throughout the state.
They heard testimony from groups representing people with mental illness, autism advocates, researchers and relatives of people who had been killed by police — including Wanda Johnson, whose son, Oscar Grant, was shot in the back by a police officer in Oakland in 2009, and Valerie Castile, whose son, Philando, was shot during a traffic stop near Minneapolis in 2016.
In February 2020, the working group released a list of 28 recommendations and 33 action steps. A year later, the group reported progress on 23 of its suggestions, including narrowing the threshold for police use of deadly force and the creation of an independent panel to investigate instances of police force that result in serious injuries or deaths.
Several of the group’s suggestions were incorporated into the Minnesota Police Accountability Act of 2020, which was signed into law in the months after the murder of George Floyd.
“I’m proud that we in Minnesota set a national model for coming together and staying together through our differences and disagreements to making concrete recommendations,” Ellison said in February. “When we implement them, we will reduce deadly-force encounters.”
Other work groups have been formed in Louisville, Ky., following the police killing of Breonna Taylor, and in Prince George’s County, Md.
Willis anticipates there will be disagreements and challenges. But he said he’s focusing on what he’s sure everyone can come together on: that a person’s life is worth the work.
“I believe, and I think most people believe, that every human being has an inherent dignity to them, regardless of the state of their mental illness. And these people are worthy of our attention,” Willis said.
Scott, 26, died March 14, several hours after he was arrested in Allen on a minor cannabis charge. Later that day, he began exhibiting what Collin County Sheriff Jim Skinner has described as “strange behavior” while he was in custody. He was strapped to a chair and pepper-sprayed before he became unresponsive. Scott died at a hospital.
His family’s attorney, Lee Merritt, said Scott had been diagnosed with schizophrenia and suggested he was suffering a mental health crisis.
A spokesman for Skinner said Wednesday that the sheriff “looks forward to participating in the group.”
“Like sheriffs and other leaders across the country, Sheriff Skinner recognizes — and expects the work group will agree that communities must care for persons with mental illness, behavioral-health issues, or an intellectual or developmental disability,” said the spokesman, Assistant Chief Deputy Nick Bristow. “Peace officers arrest some persons with mental illness on serious charges and bring them to the county jail. But peace officers also arrest some on low-level, nonviolent, misdemeanor charges, and these persons should be diverted from jail where it is safe to do so.”
Bristow went on to say that counties need appropriate facilities for the treatment of mental health problems and an effective diversion program.
“This is a community-wide challenge,” Bristow said. “In Collin County, it will take multiple stakeholders to improve the care for the mentally ill, including enhancing the county’s diversion system.”
Collin County Judge Chris Hill said in a written statement that he looks forward “to working with District Attorney Greg Willis and Sheriff Jim Skinner, bringing together a diverse group of community leaders to explore opportunities to improve services for individuals with mental illness in the criminal justice system.”
Ken Fulk, the mayor of Allen, where Scott was originally arrested, said Wednesday that the city fully agrees “with the grand jury’s suggestion for a wide-ranging study of the events of March 14 and are committed to participating in that process.”
“Our officers treated Mr. Scott with respect, were concerned for his physical well-being and quickly called for paramedics who transported Mr. Scott to a hospital for a medical evaluation,” Fulk said. “Our community fully supports improvements in resources, training, protocols or access to mental health care prior to an interaction with law enforcement to prevent tragedies such as this from occurring in the future.”
Although representatives for Scott’s family welcomed the idea of a work group, they said it still won’t bring the accountability they were looking for in his death.
“There’s things that can come from it,” Merritt said after the grand jury’s decision was announced. “But I believe in order for this kind of thing to be less frequent, there has to be accountability.”
Staff writer Kelli Smith and The Associated Press contributed to this report.
