Man who was deemed incompetent to stand trial dies in custody at Travis County Jail
Submitted message from Sonja Burns (sonjaburns@gmail.com):
Man who was deemed incompetent to stand trial dies in custody at Travis County Jail<br />
https://www.statesman.com/story/news/crime/2024/05/24/robert-valentino-munguia-travis-county-jail-inmate-man-dies-in-custody-investigation-underway/73837673007
Hi everyone,
When I saw this headline on Friday, May 24, 2024 about the death of Robert Valentino Munguia in the Travis County Jail, I immediately asked myself: was Robert one of the many we have allowed to deteriorate (and die) because we do not have the appropriate services/ residential opportunities to meet the person's true level of need? After a google search, I am confident the answer is "YES". And we do not have the appropriate services/ residential opportunities because we do not account for those who actually require a much higher level of services in order to live safely in A community. By not accounting for this population, nothing we have done provides them the opportunity to access the right care at the right place at the right time. Instead, we have a pattern of waiting for a crisis – and far too often – a victim.
I have many questions:
How many times had he been arrested?
How many times had he been hospitalized? (Forensic, civil, and voluntary commitments as well as history of emergency detentions)
What levels of care had he qualified for in the community?
What levels of care had he received in the community?
What were prior charges?
How many times had he been found incompetent to stand trial?
How many times had he gone through competency restoration? Was he "restored" or deemed "unlikely to regain"?
How many times was he on the forensic waitlist in jail as "civil – charges pending"? How many times as "dismiss and transfer"?
Where were his places of arrest?
With a quick google search, I was able to discover Robert Munguia had a history of arrests- with varying levels of charges- along with prior evaluations for competency to stand trial. His history included an arrest from Zoe's "Safe" Place in 2016 – a board & care run by Tommie Yvette McKinney. Many of us are familiar with Yvette – if you are not, I recommend you do your own google search. For many years, Yvette has profited off of "caring" for the most vulnerable members of our community – allowing them to live in horrifying and dangerous conditions. And we have continued to allow this to happen because – where else will people go?
Now I was curious where Robert was last arrested before he died in our jail. I called the Travis County District Clerk, and staff read to me the place of arrest from the Probable Cause Affidavit: 4606 Connelly Street – a location run by none other than Yvette McKinney. I hopped in my car and drove over to see the place and check in on the residents (a number of whom I have followed for years). Full disclosure: my twin brother, who has now lived at ASH for over 15 years, cycled through MANY of Yvette's locations when he was not in hospitals or the jail. Though he was on the highest level of care available in the community (the ACT Team), my twin brother deteriorated greatly alongside his fellow residents under Yvette's care (many of whom were also ACT clients). He was even almost killed by another resident when the man beat him on his head with a metal tire iron. My twin and several of the other residents did not want the man to go to jail because it was clear he needed help for his serious mental illness.
When I arrived at Yvette's place, multiple residents asked me if I was from "ACT or FACT". I say this to highlight that these individuals are well- versed in the "highest levels of care" in the community. I spoke with a young man who does not know his own name and said that "they" will bring him his ID soon so he will know it. He asked me repeatedly if I was there to bring him his ID. I saw several residents I had checked in on regularly at previous locations run by Yvette. One woman hugged me and said she was so happy to see me and then proceeded to tell me "so many fights keep happening here …it is really dangerous here – everybody is angry" (something she had always said at the previous locations – and which I witnessed and knew was true). I have gone by 2 more times since Friday. The young man still does not know his name. Residents still ask me over and over if I am with ACT or FACT (staff asked me as well – before they asked me to leave the property- which I had not entered). The ages of the residents vary greatly, as do diagnoses (to include IDD and dementia). Every time I have gone by, multiple residents tell me (unsolicited) there are fights and it is really dangerous because there are very angry people. The facilities run by Yvette are essentially a tinderbox, and we will see many more terrible outcomes for our most vulnerable who reside there.
We must account for those whose "baseline" means they need a higher level of care than is available in the community. We cannot continue to try to work within the framework we have – where too often a coordinated release from the jail or discharge from the hospital for a person meeting the criteria for the highest level of care in the community means the only (best?) "housing" available is run by Yvette McKinney, who has repeatedly been investigated (and even arrested) for abuse, neglect, and exploitation of the clients she serves.
Over the weekend, I went to see my brother at ASH and I met a young woman who was visiting her father, a man who has lived his entire adult life with serious mental illness – he has been cycling through the state hospital since he was 19 (he is now well over 50). She was standing there as I told several staff of Robert's death because I know that many people at ASH really cared about him (please note: no one confirmed they knew him – so no violation of HIPAA). When I said that Robert had been arrested from Yvette's place, the young woman immediately said her father had also lived in Yvette's ("dangerous") Board & Care homes. She proceeded to tell me that her father is a client of our Local Mental Health Authority (Integral Care) and he used to go directly to the hospital when he needed it, but now he almost always comes from the jail (he has been arrested over 20 times). She said he needs long-term care – a much more structured and supervised setting- but there is nothing. She keeps trying to help him – but he is stuck in the revolving door. I asked if he would be able to live in a tiny home (as this is being proposed for the ASH campus for people who are not yet ready for community placement) and she said absolutely not. I have spoken with many persons advocating for/ providing services to individuals with complex mental health needs who are not yet ready for community placement, and they have ALL said tiny homes on the ASH campus are NOT an appropriate level of care.
When Robert died in our jail, he was one of over 130 people in Travis County on our forensic waitlist- people found incompetent to stand trial who are waiting in the jail for transfer to a psychiatric facility. At that same time, we had only 4 people in Travis County on our civil waitlist (Inpatient Care Waitlist). Our state hospitals used to serve primarily civil and voluntary populations, and now the majority of admissions are forensic (from the jails). We have forced people into the jails because they cannot access the right care at the right place at the right time. It is hard for me to imagine that Robert did not already meet criteria for inpatient care prior to his arrest (at least the criteria for "deterioration"). When we wait for the standard of "imminent" danger to self or others, we are too often too late – and then there is a victim. Our jail has become the "secure" residential opportunity for those who are not appropriate for the community and who cannot access the state hospital. Robert died alone in a jail cell because he could not access the level of care he needed.
We must act with urgency. And we must account for those who do require a secure setting in order to live safely. This will require a change under Regulatory – and it also means we must EMPOWER and REQUIRE the LMHA's/ LIDDA's to advocate for a person's true level of need.
We have an opportunity to create an intentional/ therapeutic community with multiple levels of care on the ASH campus. We have spent hundreds of millions on a new Austin State Hospital (with no additional beds), and we have committed millions more to a "diversion" pilot, with planning in process for a diversion facility, which will again cost many millions more. If we do not include as part of the continuum those who need something in between hospital level care and community placement, we will continue to fail our community members with the most complex mental/ behavioral health needs – and they will continue to cycle through inappropriate levels of care at a great human and fiscal cost – for everyone.
My condolences to everyone who cared and advocated for Robert Munguia. And my apologies to Robert and to those who became his victims because we were not able to keep him and others safe. We can and we must do better. -sonja