Conflicts of Interest in HB 1013, the Georgia Mental Health Parity Act

Regardless how many times politicians tell you they want to fight corruption, or that they are in politics for the right reasons, time has proven over and over, in the end those same politicians will not resist enriching themselves, given access to the public cash box.  And it's always the one's you trust the most who break your heart.

On May 5, 2020, registered agent Justin Hawkins filed the paperwork necessary to incorporate Talitrix, LLC.  The product Talitrix would soon market to law enforcement and criminal justice agencies around the country is a sort of high-tech ankle monitor, but in the form of an attractive sports watch, which comes to life when Bluetoothed to a smartphone.  The purpose of the Talitrix watch is to communicate continuous bio-metric and GPS data concerning the general state of being and whereabouts of various individuals released “outside the wire” from detention centers associated with agencies purchasing the system.  To be clear, there is nothing wrong with that.  Under the right circumstances, it might be an idea worth considering.

The patent application for the Talitrix monitoring system is in the name of Mr. Hawkins, but also in the names of Robert Todd Jones and Eric Brice Bennett.  Of the three, Mr. Jones is the Georgia House Representative for the 25th District located in a southern part of Forsyth County.

 

 

 

Rep. Todd Jones

Although the gentlemen referred above are listed as the system’s inventors, and hold the potential patent rights to the Talitrix system, the system itself is designed and produced by a foreign entity, Thundercomm Technology Co., Ltd. Located in Chongqing, in the heart of communist China.  But again, that’s all legal and I doubt those facts really shock anyone, at least not these days.

The problem here is that Todd Jones is an elected official in the Georgia State legislature.  Alongside House Speaker David Ralston, who rarely sponsors legislation, Todd Jones is lead sponsor of HB 1013, the Georgia Mental Health Parity Act.  Should this bill pass in its present form, Mr. Jones and his partners would stand to gain continuous large sums supplying Talitrix systems for individuals his legislation qualifies as, “involuntary outpatients.”  According to the Ralston-Jones bill, the term, “involuntary outpatients,” is one an unelected commissioner may unilaterally define, “by rule and regulation.” 

Put it this way, the term, “involuntary outpatients,” is one that a single, governor-appointed individual would be given authority to define.  So this bill, which stands to gain Todd Jones and the owners of Talitrix a veritable fortune, allows one individual, appointed by Georgia’s Governor, to decide whether you or I “qualify” as “involuntary outpatients” subject to being forced to wear the kind of bio-metric jewelry Mr. Jones’ company would supply at personal financial gain.

Talitrix "Sport Watch" Bio-metric GPS Monitor

In former days, this kind of arrangement would be considered a conflict-of-interest.  These days, however, when practically every bill passing into law is laced with public-private partnership scams benefiting those who propose them and the special interests who fund their campaigns, the term, “conflict of interest,” has apparently lost any practical meaning.  So, what’s one more scam when you consider the number of scams perpetrated each year during the Georgia General Assembly?

Aside from the obvious scam potential and benefits for Mr. Jones and his partners, and aside from the dangers of allowing a tantamount, unaccountable “Mental Health Czar” to rule on the population’s sanity by fiat, let’s take a little deeper dive and better understand the legislation now being called, Georgia’s “Mental Health Bill.”

The flowery language of this bill echoes that which we might expect Joseph Mengele to have written, establishing guidelines by which certain persecuted classes within the human population were “involuntarily assisted” to enter premises from which they would never depart alive.  The very idea that the State of Georgia would empower one individual to rule whether another individual is mentally stable enough to operate on his or her own recognizance, and potentially force that individual to wear one of Mr. Jones’ Talitrix sport watches, his or her every move monitored by Mr. Jones’ private staff, for the greater good of the people of Georgia, is detestable and dangerous to the freedom of every state citizen.  This bill stands on a slippery slope, its language written to concentrate unlimited powers into the office of a single individual, who if history informs, will be a mere figurehead awaiting instructions from the true powers of government.

Todd Jones (R) and GA Rep Micah Gravley Selling Talitrix to Tennessee Senate Subcommittee

In addition to enriching Todd Jones and the owners of his company, such as possibly Rep. Micah Gravley (R-District 67) seen above selling the system to the State of Tennessee, along with no-telling how many other elected officials in Georgia, those who support the Mental Health Bill do not mind spending untold millions of taxpayer dollars establishing a massive bureaucracy. Among the powers of that bureaucracy would be to provide grants to pay for supervision and coordination, and to support the "assisted outpatient treatment grantees" in administering the system.  The bill would also create a database within which detailed records regarding each individual placed involuntarily under monitoring would be housed for future use should the state decide it is necessary.  Importantly, HB 1013 would also “contract on an annual basis with an organization or entity,” presumably Mr. Jones’ company Talitrix, “possessing expertise in the practice of assisted outpatient treatment to serve as a technical assistance provider to the grantees.”  The bill further provides that the contract with such an organization or entity is one that could be renewed in perpetuity.

Using history as our teacher, Georgia’s proposed Mental health Bill is not only dangerous to the welfare and freedom of every Georgian, but is also a blatant attempt to enrich elected officials who sponsor it in conflict with personal interests and the interests of the public they serve.  Therefore, this bill must be defeated, and Todd Jones, along with any other elected officials who knowingly stand to gain by its passage, must resign.