Jamycheal Mitchell

In April 2015, Jamycheal Mitchell, 24, was arrested for allegedly stealing $5 in snacks from a 7-Eleven. He had a long history of bipolar disorder and schizophrenia and had previously been diagnosed as mildly intellectually disabled. Following a mental health screening, a court ordered that Mitchell be treated at a state mental hospital, but that order was not forwarded to the hospital for more than two months, according to a lawsuit later filed by his family. At the hospital, an employee shoved the order into a drawer, along with a “significant number” of other competency restoration orders. Mitchell’s name was never entered into the log for incoming patients. While in custody at the Hampton Roads Regional Jail, Mitchell was “repeatedly mistreated and/or purposefully ignored” by jail staff and in the last months of his confinement, was “almost never permitted to leave his cell,” according to the complaint. Correctional officers also routinely denied Mitchell food, according to the lawsuit. Over the course of his incarceration, Mitchell lost at least 40 pounds, according to the lawsuit. “At a court hearing held approximately three weeks before his death, his family was shocked to see how gaunt Mitchell had become,” according to the lawsuit. Mitchell’s aunt made more than 40 calls to jail officials in a bid to help her nephew. Jail officials told her that Mitchell failed to eat, but other incarcerated people reported that Mitchell ate hungrily when provided food. Correctional officers also turned off the water in Mitchell’s cell, and denied him clothing, a mattress, a sheet and blankets, leaving him in a cold cell. Although psychotropic medications were prescribed for him, he received almost note of them and medication was discontinued a month before his death. His feet and legs became significantly swollen. At other times, “Mitchell was forced to the ground, dragged, sprayed with mace, stood upon, punched and kicked” by corrections officers. One incarceration person reported that officers treated him “like a circus animal.” Mitchell was discovered dead on August 19, 2015. A medical examiner listed his cause of death as “Probable cardiac arrhythmia accompanying wasting syndrome of unknown etiology,” while another noted that he was "nearly cachectic," meaning the loss of body mass that cannot be reversed nutritionally. “Upon viewing his body, Mitchell's family was stunned," according to the lawsuit. "Their beloved Jamycheal, despite his struggles with mental illness, had been a vibrant young man who loved music and always made people laugh. In his place was a withered figure the family could hardly recognize.”

The 112-page lawsuit filed last week outlines the litany of allegations against 39 defendants, including the Hampton Roads Regional Jail, the state Department of Behavioral Health & Developmental Services and the private prison health care firm, NaphCare. Family filed a $60 million lawsuit.

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