The Mendocino-Lake Counties Human Rights Monitoring Project
By Lynda McClure
The Grand Jury's report on Carol Dunlap's suicide in the Mendocino County Jail is a validation of the grassroots impacting on the system to expose serious concerns in our county. It was the hard work of grassroots groups, including HRMP and the People's Alliance for the Mentally Ill (PAMI), that provided the data and witnesses - the tools needed by the Grand Jury - to illuminate the wrong doings of California Forensic Medical Group, the contracted corporate health care provider at the jail. The report was critical of the Department of Mental Health and jail personnel, as well.
With people sitting on the Grand Jury who truly care about the well being of the whole community, not just the segment with which they identify, who have a sense of justice and a willingness to speak out against the parts of the system that aren't working properly, the grassroots can work through the governmental system to effect change.
Copyright Mendocino Environmental Center 1998
Permission granted to excerpt or use this article if source is cited