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In 2015, 24-year-old Jamycheal Mitchell鈥攚ho had schizophrenia and bipolar disorder鈥攕tole a Zebra cake and Mountain Dew from a convenience store in Norfolk, Virginia. Police arrested him on April 22, 2015, and about four months later, on August 19, he was found dead in his jail cell.

The case brought up a lot of questions for reporter Gary Harki, who covered it for The Virginian-Pilot and won the 2018 Al Nakkula Award for Police Reporting, co-sponsored by CMCI鈥檚 Department of Journalism and the Denver Press Club.

As he learned more about Mitchell鈥檚 case, Harki was left with as many questions as answers.

鈥淲hy was this guy in jail for so long? He wouldn鈥檛 have gotten that much time had he been tried and convicted,鈥� he wondered. 鈥淚t was that small of a case, but he was caught in this criminal justice system that is not prepared to handle people that have his type of illness.鈥�

Harki decided to look for similar cases, both locally and nationally. To his surprise, he found dozens of other cases throughout the country that were just as troubling. His attempt to build a more comprehensive investigation revealed another issue: No agencies or individuals collected the information necessary to document the extent of the problem.

After some urging by his editor, Harki applied for, and was awarded, the O鈥橞rien Fellowship in Public Service Journalism at Marquette University. The opportunity allowed him to spend the 2017鈥�18 school year working with Marquette students to further his study. With Harki鈥檚 guidance, the team built a database to track 404 deaths of people with mental illness in jails across the country since 2010. According to their reporting, at least 11% of people with mental illnesses who died in jails had family or friends who warned the jails about their condition.

Based on these findings, Harki published 鈥淛ailed in Crisis,鈥� a series illuminating the deaths of mentally ill people in jails throughout the country鈥攐ften under horrific and preventable circumstances. His reporting led to a U.S. Justice Department investigation into how the Virginia jail was treating inmates, especially those with mental illness.

鈥淗arki鈥檚 reporting discovered highly disturbing trends,鈥� says Director Chuck Plunkett, who oversaw the 2018 Nakkula award selection process and discussed the investigative series with Harki and Rebecca Carballo, a Charleston Gazette-Mail reporter who helped build the database while she was a Marquette student. 鈥淭oo often, those being held against their will for lack of appropriate beds in clinical settings are subjected to inhuman treatment.鈥�

Plunkett: We鈥檝e seen horror stories for decades about problems that result when people suffering from mental illness are housed in jails, when what they need is treatment at a mental health facility. Why has it been so hard to find useful data about what happens when those jail stays go wrong?

Harki: I think a lot of it comes down to the fact that nobody collects the data. The federal government doesn鈥檛 track it, and the states don鈥檛 really track it. The Bureau of Justice Statistics tracks things through a death-in-custody report, but they have never really tried to track what somebody鈥檚 medical history was, which mental illness would be a part of.

I think it鈥檚 frustrating to a certain degree to sheriffs, too, but it鈥檚 also part of a larger problem of criminal justice data in general, which is that there鈥檚 all these questions out there鈥攑olice shootings, different things with jails and prisons and isolation鈥攁nd none of it is tracked very well. Part of it is there鈥檚 just not a lot of will from jailers or communities to track the data because then you might have to deal with a problem.

Plunkett: That might be the better way to fine-tune it. Is there some kind of institutional bias in these entities that鈥檚 just too embarrassing or too much trouble or too many potential pitfalls?

Harki: I think a lot of it comes down to, one, it is work to try and track this stuff, and two, a lot of the time the data that gets collected is with the federal government, where you鈥檝e got a carrot and a stick. It鈥檚 like, 鈥榃e might withhold funding from you if you don鈥檛 provide us with information.鈥� That鈥檚 how the uniform crime report data gets collected. That鈥檚 never been the case with this jail data, and it鈥檚 also a lot more decentralized.

Carballo: No one really seems to have the data looking at why people are dying in jails. A lot of states had it where they tracked jail deaths, and they tracked how many mentally ill people were in jail, but they didn鈥檛 track how many mentally ill people died in jail. And some of the states had data where they could have figured it out, but their open record laws would say, 鈥榃ell, that would require us to create a record and we don鈥檛 have to create a record for you,鈥� so they don鈥檛 give you the data. So some states actually do have the capability to figure it out, but that鈥檚 time, effort and money.

Plunkett: This was quite an ambitious project. I鈥檇 like to hear your thoughts on a state newspaper uncovering social injustices across the country.

Harki: It was a tricky thing to do a national story at a local paper, but I had written about this issue since 2015. It just seemed like, look, here it is and it鈥檚 a national story. We need to write it because it鈥檚 not just happening here in Norfolk, Virginia. It鈥檚 happening all over the country.

Once I got the O鈥橞rien Fellowship for Public Service Journalism from Marquette, the question was, 鈥榃hat do we do with this issue? How do we go at this again?鈥� It was almost like a movie or something. We just needed to pull the camera back and look at it through a broader lens. My editors were thankfully on board from the beginning, saying, 鈥楲et鈥檚 create the database and let鈥檚 do the story. We think we have the knowledge to do it and the right location to do it because of Mitchell.鈥� And that鈥檚 what happened.

Plunkett: Let鈥檚 talk about the role that data journalism played in your work. How should newsrooms think about equipping their journalists with these skills? Not every beat accommodates the time and resources for this kind of work, but what鈥檚 the right mix?

Harki: On some level, I think everybody should have a basic level of data journalism or a basic knowledge of it. It鈥檚 just going to help you as a journalist. You鈥檙e going to know a little bit more than other people about how to handle some of this stuff because everyone comes into contact with data.

I feel like in terms of skill sets in data, I鈥檓 not that advanced. But I can look at something and know what the data is, and know that we need to work with it, and know what鈥檚 out there or find it ourselves to be able to do stories like this鈥攖o be able to look at it and say, 鈥極K, what is the best we can do? What is the best information we can have so that we can speak about this on some authority?鈥�

It is easy to dismiss things sometimes because it鈥檚 one story鈥攊t鈥檚 anecdotal evidence. Being able to put a number on it and say there are patterns to it and there鈥檚 a reason behind those patterns, that鈥檚 a really important thing to be able to do as a journalist and at the heart of why I believe in data journalism.

Plunkett: Your reporting highlights comments from jailers and sheriffs who argue that more resources should be invested in mental health treatment facilities, even if it means pulling funds from traditional policing budgets. What research needs to be done to help policymakers bring this kind of reform?

Harki: It gets really complicated. This is such a localized issue because of the way mental health systems are decentralized in the United States and because jails are decentralized. In a lot of places there鈥檚 not a lot of oversight over county jails, including Virginia. What really needs to happen鈥攁lmost on a municipal level, not even a state level鈥攊s sort of a cost-benefit analysis and people saying, 鈥楬ey look, if we put more money into treatment, then you鈥檙e not going to have as many people getting into jails and into the criminal justice system, and that鈥檚 going to save money in terms of court costs, lawyers, housing.鈥�

Carballo: As Gary was saying, treatment is a more long-term solution. It鈥檚 definitely something that might help with recidivism, and in a lot of the cases we looked at while building the database, sometimes they weren鈥檛 in there鈥攖his wasn鈥檛 their first offense鈥攕o it is definitely a more long-term solution to the problem.

Harki: If you look at places like Miami or Tucson, they鈥檝e done that analysis over time, and they鈥檝e recognized that not only is this better for us as a society because we鈥檙e keeping people out of jail and keeping people from suffering in these places because we don鈥檛 have the ability to treat them there, but we鈥檙e also likely saving money and resources by doing it this way. It鈥檚 just easier on everybody for both moral and monetary reasons.