9 months ago
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Their Families Said They Needed Treatment. Mississippi Officials Threw Them in Jail Without Charges.
by Isabelle Taft, Mississippi Today, with data analysis by Agnel Philip, ProPublica, reporting by Mollie Simon, ProPublica
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When sheriff’s department staff in Mississippi’s Benton County took Jimmy Sons into custody several years ago, they followed their standard protocol for people charged with a crime: They took his mug shot, fingerprinted him, had him change into an orange jumpsuit and locked him up.
But Sons, who was then 20 years old, had not been charged with a crime. Earlier that day, his father, James Sons, had gone to a county office to ask that his youngest son be taken in for a mental evaluation and treatment. Jimmy Sons had threatened to hurt family members and himself, and his father had come across him sitting on his bed with a loaded shotgun.
On Sons’ booking form, in the spot where jailers usually record criminal charges, was a single word: “LUNACY.”
