A violent storm rolled through downtown Mobile last Tuesday, arriving with enough thunder and driving rain to mask the cries of a woman being attacked inside the RSA Tower parking garage. Voters were still making their way to the polls for Election Day when the assault happened, and by the time the weather cleared, a very different kind of storm had begun to build around how the man accused of the attack had been moving in and out of the local judicial and mental health systems for years without ever being stopped.
The man charged in the attack, Douglas Dunson Jr., has a criminal history that stretches back decades. He was sentenced to 20 years in prison in 1996 and was not released until sometime in 2016. Within a year of getting out, he was already being arrested repeatedly, and efforts were made to have him evaluated for commitment after he beat a female cousin with a brick. That case sent him to EastPointe Hospital in Daphne for treatment from September through November of last year. Once released, though, the pattern of arrests resumed almost immediately, including several charges of indecent exposure connected to repeated incidents of public exposure downtown earlier this year.
The case has drawn attention to a bond and release policy the city put in place last year, intended to keep people accused of nonviolent offenses from sitting in jail for weeks or months simply because they could not afford to post bond. Under that policy, municipal judges have been permitted to release nonviolent defendants on their own recognizance, a practice meant to ease jail overcrowding and prevent poorer defendants from facing what amounts to extended detention over an inability to pay. City officials say the policy was never intended to become a revolving door for people who repeatedly fail to appear for scheduled court dates, and records show Dunson was released on his own recognizance at least 11 times since last May, plus four additional releases ordered directly by judges.
The last two of those judicial releases were signed off by Karlos Finley, who is currently the Democratic nominee for a Circuit Judge seat in this November’s general election. Finley has said he was simply applying the law as written, and has pointed out that police officers and alleged victims did not sign formal complaints against Dunson in connection with the exposure incidents, which limited what the court could act on. City officials, for their part, maintain that Dunson’s pattern of repeated arrests and missed court dates should have made him ineligible for release on his own recognizance in the first place.
Records also show that on multiple occasions, jail staff requested a mental health evaluation for Dunson, who has been diagnosed with schizophrenia, only for him to be released before the evaluation could be scheduled and completed. Documentation from his time in custody describes behavior including throwing feces at guards and talking about God and exorcists, yet no emergency evaluation was requested in response, and Dunson was released after the standard 48-hour holding period expired each time.
The case has renewed longstanding concerns about how the region handles people who cycle repeatedly through homelessness, untreated mental illness and the criminal justice system. Alabama closed Searcy Hospital, the regional state psychiatric facility that once served Mobile and the surrounding counties, roughly eight years ago, leaving far fewer long-term placement options for people who need sustained psychiatric care but do not necessarily meet the threshold for permanent commitment. Short-term hospital stays and group home placements, mental health advocates say, are often not enough to stabilize people with serious, chronic mental illness, and the gap in long-term care options has left jails and municipal courts to manage cases that were once handled by the state hospital system.
Local officials and advocates say the case underscores a need for better coordination between the Mobile County jail, local police and the courts when a person with serious, ongoing mental illness becomes a repeat presence in the system. When jail staff have made multiple attempts to have someone evaluated and the person is released before the scheduled evaluation date, advocates argue there should be a clearer process for either requesting an emergency evaluation or flagging the pattern for judges handling future release decisions. Similarly, when someone appears in municipal court repeatedly on similar charges, some officials say judges and police should have better visibility into that history before decisions are made about bond or release.
The attack remains under investigation, and Dunson has not been convicted of the charges against him. But the scrutiny of his case has already prompted broader conversations among city officials, court officials and mental health advocates about whether current policies and communication channels are adequate for handling repeat offenders who also have serious untreated mental illness. Advocates say the goal of any changes should be twofold: protecting public safety while also connecting people with the sustained treatment they need, rather than cycling them through short jail stays and brief hospital admissions that rarely address the underlying illness.