With kids like these who needs enemies? A woman with a long history of mental illness and an equally long arrest record died in the Bexar County jail. The cause of death is undetermined. Now the family has filed a lawsuit. They claim that their mother was ignored. Damn straight! Guilty!
Ms. Dotson was crazier than a shit house rat, according to the family. She has been in and out of treatment facilities and county jail. She was held in Bexar County jail on a misdemeanor charge for several months. Her bond, $300 dollars. We are talking the price of a quarter pound of some primo weed, a couple of 40 ouncers and assorted munchies. The family couldn’t be bothered to pay the bond.
The Sheriff didn’t want her. The jail staff tried to set her up with a personal bond. That means no money down, sign the damn paper. Ms. Dotson refused to cooperate on three separate occasions.
The family stated, that during previous arrests Mom was diverted into a mental health setting. The family blames the Sheriff’s office for not shuffling her off to the booby hatch. Cops are pretty good at classifying people who are, “crazier than shithouse rats.” Unfortunately that is not a diagnosis. Unknowable, at this point, is how many times jail medical personnel attempted to evaluate her. HIPPA don’t you know. Being uncooperative may be a feature of mental illness, but isn’t enough for a diagnosis. Past history is a start, but not definitive. Witness the mental health field in action. She’s crazy, now she’s not, oops back to being crazy. What day of the week is it?
Conditions in the jail were apparently better than what she was used to at home.
Apparently Joni Mitchell was right, “You don’t know what you got until it’s gone.” Now the family who could not be bothered to care for mom when she was free, nor bail her out when she was incarcerated, is suing. Dear old Mom, dead, ought to be worth a couple of million. Alive she wasn’t worth $300.
I don’t begrudge them their grief. But if the family wants to see who was responsible for their mother’s death in jail, I have a solution. Get the family together, stand in front of a large mirror and take a hard look. There are your culprits.