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Summary: Chapter Ten: Mitigation
Stevenson recounts the history of how mentally ill people were shifted out of prisons and into state mental hospitals and then out of institutions entirely. By the late 1990s, many mentally ill people were no longer receiving treatment and ended up committing offenses that landed them back in jails, which were not equipped for their needs. Stevenson takes the case of Avery Jenkins, a mentally ill prisoner on death row for murder. Upon Stevenson’s arrival at the prison to meet Avery, a pro-Confederate, racist prison guard forces Stevenson to submit to a strip search, even though strip searches are not a requirement for lawyers. After this humiliation, Stevenson meets Avery, who is obsessed with having a chocolate milkshake.
Avery spent his childhood in abusive foster homes, has cognitive impairments, and suffers psychotic episodes. At Avery’s hearing, Stevenson presents evidence ignored by previous lawyers about his mental illness and his foster parents’ inability to cope with his needs. A month later, Stevenson goes to the prison to visit Avery and again encounters the pro-Confederate guard. To his surprise, the guard is respectful and explains that he listened to every word Stevenson said at Avery’s hearing. The guard reveals that he was a foster child too, and hearing Avery’s history made him realize how angry he still is about the abuse he suffered. He thanks Stevenson for the work he’s doing and says that after Avery’s trial, he bought Avery a chocolate milkshake. Stevenson wins the new trial and gets Avery placed in a mental health facility.
Analysis
Using the stories of Avery Jenkins and George Daniel, Stevenson illustrates how the justice system punishes instead of helping people who struggle with mental illness. Stevenson reinforces the notion by comparing prisons to warehouses for the mentally ill, suggesting little humanity behind the process. He highlights Jenkins’s mental illness by noting that Jenkins can’t explain why he’s in prison or what help he wants from Stevenson. Jenkins’s break from reality is so great that his sole concern seems to be a chocolate milkshake. Stevenson also shares a bit of history of the mental health system, sharing how reforms making involuntary commitment more difficult often lead to poor or disabled people who suffer from mental illness but lack treatment options ending up incarcerated. The statistic that over 50 percent of U.S. inmates suffer from mental illness reinforces the magnitude of the issue. Stevenson compares the lack of mitigation for his client’s mental illness to punishing someone with no legs for not being able to climb stairs. He uses the metaphor to express the cruelty of the situation. While those who commit crimes need to be held accountable, criminalizing those with mental illness with no regard for the person’s disability is unjust.
Confederate imagery stands as an attempt to maintain a power structure rooted in a history of slavery. Though he grew up around Confederate imagery and spent years working in the deep South, Stevenson’s unsettled feelings at the sight of the pickup truck covered with Confederate stickers foreshadows the behavior of the vehicle’s owner. As he enters the prison, Stevenson offers details that show his concerns proved correct. The guard who owns the truck means to display his power over Stevenson, though he offers a pretense disguising it as protocol. With references to my prison and my truck, the guard displays a sense of ownership that Stevenson suggests extends to him during his visit. Stevenson explains the historical use of Confederate symbols, highlighting his grandmother’s experience as the daughter of enslaved people, violence in the post-Reconstruction era, activity by the Klu Klux Klan, and backlash to civil rights activism. Each of these moments in history were marked with intimidation and violence against Black people, with Confederate symbols used as a reminder of the terror. Stevenson’s anger at the guard and his own powerlessness suggest the deep meaning these Confederate symbols still carry.
Stevenson uses the prison guard to show that the understanding that results from closeness to a situation comes with transformative power. Stevenson builds a picture of the prison guard’s character through his assumptions based on the guard’s truck, his own hostile interaction with the man, and another client’s statement that the guard has a bad reputation and others try to avoid him. His surprise at the guard’s unexpected pleasant demeanor on the next visit to the prison suggests a vast difference in the man’s behavior. Through listening to Stevenson’s advocacy on Jenkins’s behalf at trial, the guard develops a new understanding of Jenkins based on their similar experiences in the foster care system. The guard’s realization that everyone needs some measure of mitigation reinforces the notion that all people could benefit from comprehension through proximity. Stevenson’s statement about not being defined by bad things that happen suggests his own new understanding of the guard and his hostile behavior. Stevenson uses the symbol of a chocolate milkshake the guard buys for Jenkins to show how this sort of deep understanding has the power to bring transformation and comfort to all involved.
