Household images and hospital information of Quincy Jackson III, gathered by his mom, Tyeesha Ferguson. The psychological well being system makes it “simpler to criminalize someone than to get them assist,” she says. “He isn’t a throwaway little one.”
Meg Vogel for The Marshall Undertaking and KFF Well being Information
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Meg Vogel for The Marshall Undertaking and KFF Well being Information
SPRINGFIELD, Ohio — Tyeesha Ferguson fears her 28-year-old son will kill or be killed.
“That is what I am attempting to keep away from,” stated Ferguson, who nonetheless calls Quincy Jackson III her child. She remembers a boy who dressed himself in three-piece fits, donated his allowance, and graduated highschool at 16 with an instructional scholarship and plans to affix the army or begin a enterprise.
As a substitute, Ferguson watched as her as soon as bright-eyed, good-looking son sank into raveled psychosis, bouncing between members of the family’ houses, homeless shelters, jails, clinics, emergency rooms and Ohio’s regional psychiatric hospitals.
Over the previous 12 months, The Marshall Undertaking — Cleveland and KFF Well being Information interviewed Jackson, different sufferers and households, present and former state hospital staff, advocates, attorneys, judges, jail directors, and nationwide behavioral well being specialists. All echoed Ferguson, who stated the psychological well being system makes it “simpler to criminalize someone than to get them assist.”
Tyeesha Ferguson has been attempting to get psychological well being look after her son, Quincy Jackson III, for many of his grownup life. He has cycled out and in of hospitals and jails for a couple of decade.
Meg Vogel for The Marshall Undertaking and KFF Well being Information
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Meg Vogel for The Marshall Undertaking and KFF Well being Information
State psychiatric hospitals nationwide have largely misplaced the flexibility to deal with sufferers earlier than their psychological well being deteriorates and they’re charged with crimes. Driving the issue is a meteoric rise within the share of sufferers with prison circumstances who keep considerably longer, typically by courtroom order.
Sufferers wait or are turned away
Throughout the nation, psychiatric hospitals are short-staffed and constantly flip away sufferers or depart them ready with few or no therapy choices. Those that do obtain beds are sometimes despatched there by courtroom order after critical prison offenses.
In Ohio, the share of state hospital sufferers with prison prices jumped from about half in 2002 to round 90% at present.
The surge has coincided with a steep decline in complete state psychiatric hospital sufferers served, down 50% in Ohio previously decade, from 6,809 to three,421, in line with the U.S. Substance Abuse and Psychological Well being Companies Administration. Throughout that point, complete sufferers served nationwide dropped about 17%, from 139,434 to 116,320, with state approaches various extensively, from including group companies and constructing extra beds to closing hospitals.
Ohio Division of Behavioral Well being officers declined a number of interview requests for this text.
The decline in capability at state amenities unfurled as a spate of native hospitals throughout the nation shuttered their psychiatric items, which disproportionately serve sufferers with Medicaid or who’re uninsured. And the monetary stability of native hospital psychological well being companies is more likely to deteriorate additional after Congress handed President Donald Trump’s One Large Lovely Invoice Act, which slashes almost $1 trillion from the federal Medicaid price range over the subsequent decade.
The constricted circulate of recent sufferers by way of state hospitals is “completely” a disaster and “an enormous deal in Ohio and in all places,” stated retired Ohio Supreme Courtroom Justice Evelyn Lundberg Stratton. As co-chair of the state lawyer basic’s Job Power on Legal Justice and Psychological Sickness, Lundberg Stratton has spent a long time looking for options.
“It hurts everyone who has somebody who must get a hospital mattress that is not within the prison justice system,” she stated.
“I am sick; I take remedy”
Quincy Jackson III’s white socks caught out of the top of a hospital mattress as cops stood watch.
At 5-foot-7-inches, Jackson has a stocky construct and robotic stare. Employees at Blanchard Valley Hospital in Findlay, Ohio, had referred to as for assist, alleging Jackson had assaulted a safety guard.
“I am sick; I take remedy,” Jackson stated to the officers, in line with regulation enforcement physique digital camera footage. His fingers have been cuffed behind his again as he lay on the mattress, a free hospital robe masking him.
Ferguson referred to as it certainly one of his “episodes” and stated her son skilled extreme psychosis incessantly. In a single incident, she stated, Jackson “went for a knife” at her house.
From December 2023 by way of July 2025, Jackson was arrested or cited in police studies on at the least 17 events. He was jailed at the least 5 instances and handled greater than 10 instances at hospitals, together with three state-run psychiatric amenities.
A latest psychiatric analysis famous that Jackson has been out and in of group and state amenities since 2015.
Jackson is amongst a glut of individuals nationwide with extreme psychological sickness who overwhelm group hospitals, courtrooms, and jails, finally resulting in backlogs at state hospitals.
Excessive-profile incidents
That dearth of care is commonly cited by households, regulation enforcement authorities, and psychological well being advocates after folks scuffling with extreme psychological sickness hurt others. Up to now six months, at the least 4 incidents made nationwide headlines.
In August, a homeless North Carolina man reportedly identified with schizophrenia fatally stabbed a lady on a prepare. Additionally in August, police stated a Texas gunman with a historical past of psychological well being points killed three folks, together with a toddler, at a Goal retailer. In July, a homeless Michigan man who members of the family stated had wanted therapy for many years attacked 11 folks at a Walmart retailer with a knife. In June, police shot and killed a Florida man reportedly identified with schizophrenia after authorities stated he attacked regulation enforcement.
Mark Mihok, a longtime municipal decide close to Cleveland, advised a spring gathering of judges and attorneys he had by no means seen so many individuals with critical psychological diseases dwelling on the streets and “now punted into the prison justice system.”
37-day watch for a mattress
At Blanchard Valley Hospital, sheriff’s deputies had taken Jackson from jail for a psychological well being examine. However Jackson’s actions raised issues.
Within the physique digital camera video, a nurse stated Jackson was “going to be right here all weekend. And we’ll be calling you guys each 10 minutes.”
The officer responded: “Yeah, nicely, if he retains appearing like that, he’ll go proper again” to the county jail.
Inside minutes, Jackson was taken again to jail, yelling on the officers: “Kill me, motherf—–. Yeah, shoot them, shoot them. Pop!”
Statewide, Ohio has about 1,100 beds in its six regional psychiatric hospitals. In Might, the median wait time to get a state mattress was 37 days.
That is “a very long time to be ready in jail for a mattress with out significant entry to psychological well being therapy,” stated Shanti Silver, a senior analysis adviser on the nationwide nonprofit Remedy Advocacy Heart.
Lengthy waits, typically leaving individuals who want care lingering in jails, have drawn lawsuits in a number of states, together with Kansas, Pennsylvania, and Washington, the place a big 2014 class motion case compelled systemic adjustments reminiscent of increasing disaster intervention coaching and residential therapy beds.
Ohio officers seen mattress shortages as early as 2018. State leaders assembled activity forces and expanded therapy in jails. They launched group packages, disaster items, and a statewide emergency hotline.
But backlogs on the Ohio hospitals mounted.
Ohio Division of Behavioral Well being Director LeeAnne Cornyn, who left the company in October, wrote in a Might emailed assertion that the company “works diligently to make sure a therapeutic setting for our sufferers, whereas additionally defending affected person, employees, and public security.”
“It is heartbreaking”
Eric Wandersleben, director of media relations and outreach for the division, declined to reply to detailed questions submitted earlier than publication and, as an alternative, famous that responses could possibly be publicly present in a governor’s working group report launched in late 2024.
Elizabeth Tady, a hospital liaison who additionally spoke to judges and attorneys on the Might gathering, stated 45 sufferers have been ready for beds at Northcoast Behavioral Healthcare, the state psychiatric hospital serving the Cleveland area.
“It is heartbreaking for me and for all of us to know that there are issues that must be accomplished to assist the prison justice system, to assist our communities, however we’re caught,” she stated.
Ohio officers added 30 state psychiatric beds by changing a hospital in Columbus and are planning a brand new 200-bed hospital in southwestern Ohio.
Nonetheless, Ohio Director of Forensic Companies Lisa Gordish advised the gathering in Cleveland that including capability alone will not work.
“If you happen to construct beds — and what we have seen in different states is that is what they’ve accomplished — these beds get crammed up, and we proceed to have a waitlist,” she stated.
Heartland Behavioral Healthcare in Massillon, Ohio, is likely one of the state’s psychiatric hospitals.
Meg Vogel for The Marshall Undertaking and KFF Well being Information
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Meg Vogel for The Marshall Undertaking and KFF Well being Information
This 12 months, Jackson waited 100 days within the overcrowded and lethal Montgomery County jail for a mattress at a state hospital, in line with jail information.
Ferguson stated she was afraid to depart him there however couldn’t bail him out, partly, she stated, as a result of her son can not survive on his personal.
“There isn’t any place for my son to expertise signs within the state of Ohio safely,” Ferguson stated.
Sick system
Patrick Heltzel bought the prolonged therapy Ferguson has lengthy looked for her son, however he stabbed a 71-year-old man to demise earlier than getting it.
The 32-year-old is certainly one of greater than 1,000 sufferers receiving therapy in Ohio’s psychiatric hospitals.
“Folks want long-term care,” Heltzel stated in October, calling from inside Heartland Behavioral Healthcare, close to Canton, the place he has lived for greater than a decade after being discovered not responsible by purpose of madness of aggravated homicide. Inpatient care, he stated, helps sufferers determine what remedy routine will work and ship the remedy wanted “to develop perception.”
As he spoke, the sound of an open room and sufferers chatting crammed the background.
“It’s a must to know, ‘OK, I’ve this continual situation, and that is what I’ve to do to deal with it,'” Heltzel stated.
Patrick Heltzel together with his canine, Violet, throughout a household go to in October 2023. (Jan Dyer)
Jan Dyer
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Jan Dyer
Because the ranks of criminally charged sufferers in Ohio’s hospitals have elevated over the previous decade, the shift has had an affect on affected person care: The hospitals have endangered sufferers, have grow to be extra restrictive, and are understaffed, in line with interviews with Heltzel, different sufferers, and former employees members, in addition to paperwork obtained by way of public information requests.
Escapes and a lockdown
Katie Jenkins, government director of the Nationwide Alliance on Psychological Sickness Larger Cleveland, stated the shift from largely civil sufferers, who have not been charged with a criminal offense, to criminally charged sufferers has modified the hospitals.
“It is exhausting in our state hospitals proper now,” she stated. Sadly, she stated, sufferers who’ve been in jail convey that tradition to the hospitals.
Within the first 10 months of 2024, at the least 9 sufferers escaped from Ohio’s regional psychiatric hospitals — in contrast with three complete within the earlier 4 years, in line with state freeway patrol studies.
In a single occasion, two feminine sufferers at Summit Behavioral Healthcare close to Cincinnati escaped after one lunged at a employees member. In one other, a person broke a window and climbed out. Many of the escapes, although, weren’t violent.
Days after a affected person at Northcoast jogged away throughout a visit to the dentist in a Cleveland suburb, state officers stopped permitting sufferers to depart any of the six regional hospitals.
A memo to leaders on the hospitals stated officers had seen “similarities throughout a number of amenities,” elevating important concern about “guaranteeing affected person and public security.”
For Heltzel, the shortcoming to go on outings or to his mom’s home on the weekends was a setback for his therapy. In 2024, when the lockdown started, he had extra freedom than most sufferers on the psychiatric hospitals, repeatedly leaving to go to the native fitness center and attend off-site group remedy.
His mom signed him out every Friday to go house for the weekend, the place he drove a automotive and performed together with his 2-year-old German shepherd, Violet. On Sundays, Heltzel was a part of the “dream workforce” at church, volunteering to function the audio and slides.
Federal information reveal that, at Ohio’s bigger state-run psychiatric hospitals, together with Summit and Northcoast, sufferers and employees have confronted imminent hazard.
In 2019 and 2020, federal investigators responded to affected person deaths, together with two suicides in six months at Northcoast. One hospital worker advised federal inspectors, “The ability has been understaffed for some time and it is getting worse,” in line with the federal report. “It is rather harmful out right here.”
Incapacity Rights Ohio, which has a federal mandate to watch the amenities, filed a lawsuit in October in opposition to the division. The advocacy group, alleging abuse and neglect, requested for information of employees’s response to a Northcoast affected person who suffocated from a plastic bag over their head. On the finish of October, the courtroom docket confirmed the events had settled the case.
Retired sheriff’s deputy Louella Reynolds labored as a police officer at Northcoast for about 5 years earlier than leaving in 2022. She stated the rise in criminally charged sufferers meant the hospitals “completely” grew to become much less protected. Her hip nonetheless hurts from a affected person who threw her in opposition to a cement wall.
Reynolds stated officers ought to be capable to carry weapons, which they do not, and that extra employees are wanted to deal with the sufferers. Obligatory additional time was frequent, she stated, and infrequently employees would report back to work and never “know after we would get off.”
A catastrophe that wasn’t averted
Again at Heartland, Heltzel requested conditional launch. The decide denied the discharge request.
Heltzel stated it was devastating. He grew up Catholic and stated, “I used to be sort of in search of absolution.”
Now, Heltzel stated he’s practising acceptance. “Acceptance is all of the extra essential to apply when you do not agree with one thing,” Heltzel stated, including, “I am a ward of the state.”
He nonetheless hopes to be launched: “I simply do what I can to maneuver ahead.”
Heltzel, like Jackson, had been hospitalized earlier than and launched. In early 2013, Heltzel stated, he requested his dad to kill him.
“And he refused and I did smack him,” he stated.
Heltzel was despatched to Heartland for a brief keep — about 10 days, in line with his mom, Jan Dyer. She recalled “begging” the hospital employees to maintain him.
Heltzel stated he remembers not being prepared to depart: “I used to be nonetheless sick, and I used to be nonetheless delusional.”
Again at house, he stated, he had a “sense of existential dread, like that every one this horrible stuff was going to occur.” He stopped taking his remedy.
Inside weeks, Heltzel killed 71-year-old Milton A. Grumbling III at his house, putting him in a chokehold and stabbing him repeatedly, in line with courtroom information. He beat him with a distant management after which left, taking a Bible from the house, in addition to a hoop. Delusional with schizophrenia, Heltzel believed that Grumbling had sexually abused him in one other life, in line with the information.
A member of the family of the person he killed advised the decide in 2023 that Heltzel ought to “keep in jail,” in line with courtroom information.
In denying his conditional launch, judges cited Heltzel’s failure to take remedy earlier than killing Grumbling.
Jenkins, who stated she labored at a state hospital for 9 years earlier than changing into the lead advocate for NAMI Larger Cleveland, stated psychiatric drugs can take so long as six weeks to grow to be absolutely efficient.
“So purchasers aren’t even getting stabilized after they’re being hospitalized,” Jenkins stated.
‘He isn’t a throwaway little one’
In a July interview, Jackson stated inconsistent care or unmedicated time in jail “worsens my signs.” Jackson was on the cellphone throughout a keep at a state psychiatric hospital.
Tyeesha Ferguson seems by way of police studies, courtroom information, and hospital information for her son, Quincy Jackson III.
Meg Vogel for The Marshall Undertaking/KFF Well being Information)
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Meg Vogel for The Marshall Undertaking/KFF Well being Information)
With out drugs, “my head hurts, to be trustworthy,” Jackson stated, earlier than asking to get off the cellphone as a result of he was hungry. It was lunchtime. “Are you able to get the data from my mother?” Jackson stated. “She has the information.”
After Jackson hung up the cellphone, Ferguson defined that “he says the meals is superb, so he doesn’t wish to miss it.” And, she added, the hospital employees had not but seen the explosive aspect of her son.
In early September, after 45 days at Summit — his longest keep but at a state psychiatric hospital — Jackson returned to the Montgomery County jail dealing with misdemeanor prices due to an altercation in April with employees at a Dayton behavioral well being hospital. In courtroom, Ferguson stated, her son struggled to clarify to the decide why he was there. On a video name from the jail days later, she noticed him enjoying together with his hair and ears.
“That tells me he is not OK,” Ferguson stated.
Earlier than Jackson’s analysis greater than a decade in the past, Ferguson stated, her son wasn’t a troublemaker. He had objectives and desires. And he is nonetheless “beloved and favored by lots of people.”
“He isn’t a throwaway little one,” she stated.
KFF Well being Information is a nationwide newsroom that produces in-depth journalism about well being points.
The Marshall Undertaking – Cleveland is a nonprofit information workforce masking Ohio’s prison justice techniques.
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