An interim panel on mental health policy will hold at least two more hearings according to its chairman, who says its members are taking in information like “drinking water out of a firehose.”
Representative Wayne Wallingford (Photo: Tim Bommel, Missouri House Communications)
The committee has already heard issues including that there is a staffing shortfall within the Department of Mental Health, and that Missouri ranks 31st in the U.S. for access to mental health services.
Chairman Wayne Wallingford (R-Cape Girardeau) said after hearing from state organizations in the first hearing and non-profits in the second, the committee will take testimony on November 3 from individuals with experience dealing with mental health issues.
Wallingford anticipates there will be legislation in the 2022 legislative session that will stem from these hearings. He doesn’t have specific bills in mind, but he has his eye on some pilot programs that he feels have been working well in the Columbia area.
Wallingford said the committee also heard that law enforcement officers often find themselves sitting at hospital bedsides by those who have been arrested and suffer from mental health issues, until a space in mental health institutions can be found for them.
Women in Missouri prisons might not have to be separated from their newborns under a bill being considered for the legislative session that begins in January.
Representative Bruce DeGroot (Photo: Tim Bommel, Missouri House Communications)
The plan would allow some women who are pregnant when they are about to be incarcerated for short sentences to have their babies with them in prison so that they can bond with their newborns. The idea is being referred to as the establishment of “prison nurseries.”
Missouri Appleseed is an organization helping drive the effort. Director Liza Weiss said some other states already have such programs, and some of those have been in place for years.
The Department told House Communications that right now when a woman in a Missouri state prison gives birth, that baby goes into foster care or with a family member.
Representative Curtis Trent (Photo: Tim Bommel, Missouri House Communications)
Currently, pregnant women are housed at the prison in Vandalia. As of early October, 23 had delivered babies. In 2016, that number reached 73, but decreased to 49 in 2019 and 31 last year. The Department notes that in the last 4 years Missouri’s population of incarcerated women has dropped by 42 percent.
Representatives DeGroot and Trent are still developing draft language for their bills, and DeGroot said the Department of Corrections is involved. He expects to propose that the program be available to women whose sentences are for up to 18 months.
Missouri House members aren’t pleased with a lack of answers from the Department of Social Services in the wake of a federal report slamming its lack of response when children in foster care go missing.
Representative Mary Elizabeth Coleman (Photo: Tim Bommel, Missouri House Communications)
The U.S. Department of Health and Senior Services’ Office of the Inspector General report is based on 2019 data and was released last week. It said the state does not properly report when children are missing and doesn’t do enough to keep them from going missing again, if they are found.
That study found that 978 children went missing from state care at some point during 2019. In looking closely at the handling of 59 cases of children missing from foster care, it found that in nearly half there was no evidence that the state had reported those children missing as required by law.
Department of Social Services Acting Director Jennifer Tidball and Children’s Division Interim Director Joanie Rogers testify to the House Committee on Children and Families (Photo: Tim Bommel, Missouri House Communications)
The Committee heard testimony from Department of Social Services Acting Director Jennifer Tidball, who said many of the policy issues cited in the report stemmed from a previous administration. She produced a 2016 memo from then-director Tim Decker that allowed caseworkers to quit some practices and documentation, some of which she says has been resumed since 2019.
Coleman and other lawmakers were frustrated by what they saw as a “passing of the buck,” trying to blame that earlier administration, and a failure to follow the law and to implement programs the legislature has authorized to help the Division keep foster kids safe.
Representative Keri Ingle (Photo: Tim Bommel, Missouri House Communications)
Coleman said she was troubled that the Department did not today provide much information outside of what was in the federal report and even challenged its findings. She said the next step will be to hold a hearing focused on possible solutions.
After Tidball’s testimony the Committee heard from several child welfare advocates, offering their response to the report and possible responses, however Tidball and her staff left the hearing shortly after she spoke.
Women incarcerated in Missouri prisons and jails will now have access to feminine hygiene products free of charge, under legislation that became law in July.
Representative Bruce Degroot (Photo: Tim Bommel, Missouri House Communications)
Senate Bill 53, signed into law by Governor Mike Parson (R) on July 14, included language that requires city and county jails to join the state’s prisons in providing those products to female inmates at no cost. Many facilities had already been doing this. The new law codifies that practice and extends it to those facilities that weren’t.
Research in 2018 showed that in Missouri’s two female prisons, more than 80 percent of women were making their own hygiene products, and those they were given for free were ineffectual. These homemade products were often resulting in infections or other complications.
The same language found in SB 53 was also sponsored by Representative Bruce DeGroot (R-Ellisville) in his House Bill 318. DeGroot said the measure was a way to provide dignity to incarcerated women, while saving the state money.
Representatives McCreery and DeGroot both worked with an organization called Missouri Appleseed regarding the issue. Appleseed is a nonprofit based in St. Louis. Founding Director Liza Weiss said women in Missouri prisons were having to choose between things like buying adequate hygiene products, or talking to their children on the phone.
Representative Tracy McCreery (Photo: Tim Bommel, Missouri House Communications)
On Friday, October 1, Missouri’s gas tax will increase for the first time in 25 years, but Missourians who don’t want to pay the increase have an option.
Representative Becky Ruth (Photo: Tim Bommel, Missouri House Communications)
The tax will increase by 2.5 cents October first, with more incremental increases every July 1 until it reaches a 12.5 total increase in 2025. The Department of Transportation estimates the increase, when fully implemented, will generate another $460-million annually for the state’s roads and bridges.
Those who don’t want to pay the increase will be able to apply for a refund. The Department of Revenue has prepared a draft of the form that would be used, which can be viewed here. A final version is expected to be available, either digitally or by paper copy, by the time applications can be accepted between July 1 and September 30 of next year.
Ruth said she’s not concerned that letting people get back some of their tax dollars will hurt the overall goal, that of giving the Department of Transportation more funding to maintain the state’s roads and bridges.
Ruth said the Department has been running about $800-million behind what it needs for road work, per year. The increase will cover a significant portion of that gap, and will also put Missouri in position to draw federal dollars from an anticipated infrastructure bill.
Ruth said she was grateful for the bipartisan support this proposal received. She thinks that is due, in part, to the refund provision, and to lawmakers recognizing a need for additional money for transportation.
A cemetery that is historically significant, especially for the African American community at Clinton, Missouri, could be preserved by the Department of Natural Resources under a bill signed into law this year.
One of the veterans buried in Antioch Cemetery is Otis Remus Lyle, who served during World War I. He is buried next to his father, George. Otis’ wife, Nellie, remarried after his death and is also buried in Antioch. (Photo: Tim Bommel, Missouri House Communications)
The legislation authorizes the state DNR to acquire Antioch Cemetery in Clinton. It could turn the cemetery into an educational site to be operated by the state Division of Parks.
Many of those interred in the five-acre cemetery are people who were once enslaved. It was established in 1885, but the first burial occurred 17 years earlier; that of 36 year old James F. Davis, who died in 1868. Two acres of the site were deeded to Clinton’s African American residents in 1888, for $50. More land was gifted in 1940.
There are many homemade headstones at Antioch Cemetery, including that of Charley Kerr, who died in 1914 as the result of a stab wound. (Photo: Tim Bommel, Missouri House Communications)
The earliest born individual in Antioch Cemetery is identified only as Aunt Mason, who was reportedly 106 years old when she died in 1887. Contemporary newspaper accounts said she was “probably” the oldest person in the state at the time. Papers recalled that while enslaved, Aunt Mason had been owned by at least four families, serving as a nurse for one. One of those may have been the family of a man who was a state representative at the time the Civil War broke out. It was around that time that she was freed, and for much of the time after that she lived alone. Papers claim she was later shunned by her neighbors as a “witch and a soothsayer,” but recall she was “remarkable,” and retained vivid memories of her early life. Hers is one of the many graves in Antioch that lacks a marker.
Representative Rodger Reedy stands at the grave of World War I veteran Gove Swindell, in Antioch Cemetery in Clinton. Reedy sponsored a bill aimed at ensuring the long-term preservation of Antioch. (Photo: Tim Bommel, Missouri House Communications)
The cemetery is also the final resting place of several veterans, including Jackson “Uncle Jack” Hall, who fought in the Civil War and died in 1911, at the age of 108.
It also includes brothers Charles and Clarence “Pete” Wilson, who served in World Wars I and II, respectively. Charles served in France with the 92nd Infantry Division; a segregated infantry division of the U.S. Army that inherited the “Buffalo Soldiers” nickname given to African American cavalrymen in the 19th century. Clarence was a Sergeant in the Army Air Corps.
Those in the cemetery haven’t always been allowed to rest peacefully. In 1891, about two weeks after he was buried, the grave of Mat Wilson was desecrated and someone stole his body, leaving behind only his head and feet.
Burials at Antioch Cemetery have continued into the modern era, and the legislation will allow that to continue.
Click the left and right arrows below for more photos from Antioch Cemetery:
The Missouri House voted Wednesday to override Governor Mike Parson’s (R) vetoes of several spending proposals in the state budget, including one aimed at stemming the sexual abuse of children in Lincoln County.
Representative Randy Pietzman (Photo: Tim Bommel, Missouri House Communications)
The Senate did not concur on those overrides and allowed the governor’s actions to stand, and those proposals to fail.
House members including Lincoln County representative Randy Pietzman (R-Troy) took to the floor expressing anger and frustration that Parson rejected $300,000 to fund a 3-year pilot program that would’ve hired investigators, a prosecutor, and staff to address an increase in sex offenders in the region.
Pietzman directed his criticism squarely at the governor, saying this was a plan he and others in the county worked for years to develop. The governor has said that a federal grant program can be used to address this issue but Pietzman says that will not work.
The chamber also voted 151-3 to reverse the governor on a $2-million item that included 3-percent pay raises for caseworkers and supervisors in the Children’s Division. These employees deal with abuse, neglect, and other issues facing children in the custody of the state.
Representative Raychel Proudie (Photo: Tim Bommel, Missouri House Communications)
On another vote, the House voted to restore funding for court costs to the owners of certain wedding venues. St. Louis Republican Jim Murphy said these owners were years ago told by the Department of Revenue they did not need to pay sales tax, but years later the Department sent them bills for tens of thousands of dollars in back taxes. Eventually everything was paid back to those owners but the court costs.
A new law could soon have more Missourians on nutrition assistance going to farmers’ markets.
Representative Martha Stevens (Photo: Tim Bommel, Missouri House Communications)
Language in House Bill 432 will bring the Farmers’ Market Nutrition Program (FMNP) within the Women, Infants, and Children (WIC) program back to Missouri. This will allow those receiving WIC assistance to use vouchers at farmers markets.
Missouri previously participated in the program up until more than a decade ago.
The program will be maintained by the state Department of Agriculture, which must submit to the USDA by November an implementation plan. Stevens said it will likely be next year before WIC recipients in Missouri can get vouchers, as the program funding is grant based.
A museum telling an important story in the nation’s sports and cultural histories is featured on a new license plate that will soon be available to Missourians.
The Negro Leagues Baseball Museum in Kansas City began in a one-room office in 1990 and today is in a 10,000 square-foot home among the Museums at 18th & Vine in Kansas City. It is the only museum dedicated to the Negro Leagues, which originated in Kansas City in 1920 and offered people of color a chance to play professional baseball at a time when they were barred from playing in the major and minor leagues due to racism.
License plates bearing the Museum’s logo will soon be available. It will cost $15 more than a regular license plate registration, and applicants can opt to donate $10 to the museum. This is the result of legislation carried by Representative Mark Sharp (D-Kansas City).
Sharp said the legacy of the Negro Leagues goes far beyond sports, having just as much to do with United States’ history and culture, and it meant a lot to him personally.
Sharp carried Senate Bill 189 which included language that he also sponsored in House Bill 100, to create the plate. The proposal received broad, bipartisan support in both chambers.
The last living model for one of the Missouri State Capitol’s best-known artistic features paid a visit to his likeness today, giving in what could prove to be a “fond farewell.”
Harold Brown, Junior, in front of his likeness (the baby whose diaper is being changed) in the Benton Mural, “The Social History of Missouri,” in the Missouri State Capitol (Photo: Tim Bommel, Missouri House Communcations)
In 1935, the legislature commissioned Thomas Hart Benton to paint the walls of the House of Representatives’ Lounge on the Capitol’s third floor. Benton called it “The Social History of Missouri;” a history that he felt would be incomplete without a baby, for without children there would have been no expansion into the west.
Enter Harold Brown, Junior, then the 1 year-old son of Missouri Adjutant General Harold Brown, Senior. While Benton was visiting the General’s home he saw young Harold crawling on a blanket and asked to include him in the mural. The Browns agreed and Benton sketched the youngster.
It is Harold’s likeness that became a baby having his diaper changed while a political rally plays out behind.
Thomas Hart Benton’s sketch of one year-old Harold Brown, Junior, who he later included in his mural on the walls of the House Lounge in the Missouri State Capitol. (Photo: Tim Bommel, Missouri House Communications)
Brown, now 86, said with a wry smile that he’s “getting pretty feeble,” so he’s not sure how many more times he will be able to visit the mural.
His father is also in the mural. Benton was actually at the family’s home to sketch Harold, Senior’s likeness when he got the idea to include Harold, Junior. The elder Brown is the foreman of a jury in a courtroom scene near the southeast corner of the Lounge.
Brown also has the sketches Benton made of him and of his father. The sketch of his one-year-old self includes blotches of paint; the artist’s reminders to himself of what colors to use for the infant’s skin and eyes.
Benton signed the sketch, “To the Browns with apologies.” Brown explains, Benton was concerned Brown’s parents wouldn’t appreciate his rendition of their baby boy.
Harold’s father, Harold Brown Senior, also made it into Benton’s mural. He is the jury foreman in this scene – he can be seen with his left hand over his wright wrist. (Photo: Tim Bommel, Missouri House Communications)
Brown, Junior’s bare-bottomed likeness and the rest of the “Social History of Missouri” can be seen during guided tours of the Missouri State Capitol, which are offered by staff of the State Museum.
