Hope in a court mental health docket

There’s plenty of bad days in Courtroom 1 of the Manchester Court House – but on this day, on the table where defendants wait nervously for a stern, black-robed judge to tell them if they are going to jail or not, Judge Mansi Shah laid down pizza boxes and turned to give Charlesha Washington a hug.

“Did you walk the dogs?” the judge asked, smiling.

It was a catch phrase of Washington’s as she progressed through the rigors of the Richmond General District Court’s behavioral health docket – an alternative for people with mental illness who are charged with certain crimes. It says that if they stick to a program of treatment and report to probation officers for drug testing, their charges can be dismissed.

But it wasn’t until some weeks into her 7 1/2-month journey, that the judge finally learned Washington meant it to say she was doing OK that day.

Finding hope in courts’ behavioral health dockets

“And I learned that she really did walk her dogs,” the judge said.

“I really do,” Washington said.

Washington landed in the behavioral docket the way people do, an arrest, in her case on a charge of assault and battery. But the behavioral docket is a mix – a judge’s potential big stick and help from a team comprising Richmond Behavioral Health Authority staff, probation services, prosecutor, public defender and police who might get at the underlying issues that could turn a life around.

“When I first came here, I was scared of her, but she was so supporting, so enthusiastic,” Washington said of the judge who had just hugged her, but who sat on the high bench in those black robes on court day for docket participants.

“I felt so alone trying to cope,” Washington said after the hugging. “But I was here with other people; I saw that other people were trying, too.”

There were plenty of hugs Friday, as Shah gave recent graduates of the docket program their certificates and a yellow rose – though Paul Fox, 64, handed his back to the judge: “She saved my life,” he said, adding that he finally saw a way out of a trap of mental illness.

“I still keep your letter in my file,” she told him.

Fox, who got into the program after his arrest on a charge of failure to appear, wrote that letter asking to participate in the docket, though he wasn’t sure he qualified. He pledged he would change a life that had brought him in and out of jail many times.

“Mr. Fox was well-known to us,” said Richmond police Lt. Shane Waite. “I’m so happy to see you so changed … it just feels so good to see.”

Shah would take Fox’s letter out of her files, too, from time to time. It was a reminder to help keep him on track as he struggled through the docket’s regimen of court appearances, probation checks, counseling and group sessions. She read it too when he broke the rules – in his case “going MIA” to a sober living program in Kentucky.

But he came back, though coming back means the tough challenge of starting over.

Fox became the “O.G.” – for docket participants it means original group member, the mentor in weekly substance abuse and trauma recovery group sessions, and not its street meaning of “original gangster.”

Now, once he finishes paying off his accumulated court fines, he wants to head back to Kentucky to train to become a peer support specialist.

“I think I can help other people,” he said. “That’s what I want to do.”

On Tuesday, local artist Hamilton Glass sketched part of a mural design on a wall of the main building of Richmond Behavioral Health. The wall faces East Canal Street.

Awtum Johnson, a support coordinator with Richmond Behavioral Health, and artist Hamilton Glass work on a mural celebrating RBH’s 25th anniversary. Glass was working with employees to create the artwork at 107 South 5th Street Tuesday, July 20, 2021. The mural will cover the wall facing East Canal Street.

(L-R) Awtum Johnson, a support coordinator with Richmond Behavioral Health, and Brenay Brockenbrough, a case worker with RBH, work on a mural celebrating RBH’s 25th anniversary. Artist Hamilton Glass was working with employees to create the artwork at 107 South 5th Street Tuesday, July 20, 2021. The mural will cover the wall facing East Canal Street.

Awtum Johnson, a support coordinator with Richmond Behavioral Health, helps paint a mural at RBH’s main building. RBH is celebrating a quarter-century of work.

Brenay Brockenbrough, a case worker with Richmond Behavioral Health, works on a mural celebrating RBH’s 25th anniversary. Artist Hamilton Glass was working with employees to create the artwork at 107 South 5th Street Tuesday, July 20, 2021. The mural will cover the wall facing East Canal Street.

(L-R) Carla Heath, a peer specialist coordinator with Richmond Behavioral Health, and Awtum Johnson, a support coordinator with RBH, work on a mural celebrating RBH’s 25th anniversary. Artist Hamilton Glass was working with employees to create the artwork at 107 South 5th Street Tuesday, July 20, 2021. The mural will cover the wall facing East Canal Street.

Artist Hamilton Glass draws a circle on a mural celebrating Richmond Behavioral Health’s 25th anniversary. RBH employees were helping paint the artwork at 107 South 5th Street Tuesday, July 20, 2021. The mural will cover the wall facing East Canal Street.

On Tuesday, local artist Hamilton Glass sketched part of a mural design on a wall of the main building of Richmond Behavioral Health. The wall faces East Canal Street.

Awtum Johnson, a support coordinator with Richmond Behavioral Health, helps paint a mural at RBH’s main building. RBH is celebrating a quarter-century of work.