Thursday, December 28, 2023

By Josh McGhee

Hello MindSiters,

I’ve had a fantastic time reporting over the last year and I hope you’ve found the content illuminating. We’ve put together a truly impressive collection of investigative stories looking at the intersection of criminal justice and mental health. 

Now, I need to ask you to give as generously as you can so we can keep it going. Your donation will be doubled for the next four days.

Last week, we capped off the year by partnering with the Guardian US and Prison Journalism Project (PJP) to publish our investigation into the death of a man in solitary confinement in New Jersey. First, PJP came to us with an essay by Kory “Hussain” McClary describing the slow decline of the man incarcerated above him in the “crazy unit.” I spent the rest of the year attempting to learn the man’s story. The result was The Last Days of Little Eddie, a detailed look at the life and final days of Edward Robinson.

Earlier this year, working with students at Medill College of Journalism at Northwestern, we began publishing our Fateful Encounters series, which looks at how police departments respond to people in crisis across the country. The series has gone from Chicago, where we began, to New Hampshire, where we looked at the fatal police shooting of a 17-year old experiencing a mental health crisis on New Year’s Day, 2023.

Last week, we journeyed to Puerto Rico with our colleagues at the Centro de Periodismo  Investigativo and reported these disturbing facts: 1. Roughly one in every four times that police force is deployed against people there, it is used on those experiencing a mental health crisis. 2. The most common type of force used against mentally ill people is a Taser. 

The series also took us into the hearts, minds and dispatch centers of 911 call-takers – the often-overlooked first responders who make life-or-death decisions every day about which first responders should be dispatched to people in crisis.

Investigative journalism like this takes time and money. MindSite News is a nonprofit news outlet and we can only continue with your support.

As we prepare to enter 2024, please make a gift to guarantee that the quality of the journalism we provide to you gets better and better.

Thanks for your time and see you next year,

Josh McGhee