(March 25, 2015) The Douglas County, Kansas Commission and Sherriff’s Department announced on Monday plans to conduct research on the number of jail inmates with mental illness in an effort to determine how to better serve them (“County updates public on efforts to improve jail, mental health care,” Lawrence Journal-World, Mar. 23).
“…this issue goes well beyond the county jail,” said Douglas County Commissioner Jim Flory. “We’re looking at this as a community issue.”
Sheriff Ken McGovern said the county is going to look at several models that have worked to reduce inmate populations in other communities, including diversion practices like crisis intervention teams (CIT) and mental health courts and greater collaboration between law enforcement, mental health providers and the judicial system.
“There is not one community or agency in the country that is doing everything completely right,” McGovern said. “But there are a lot of communities out there doing a lot of good things, and it is our job to find those ideas and bring them back here.”
The meeting Monday was the first of six public forums the county plans to hold on issues involving the jail and mental health care.
While Douglas County’s efforts to investigate ways to better serve or deter offenders with mental illness are certainly commendable, the buck shouldn’t stop there.
Mentally ill individuals in Kansas are much more likely to end up in jail or prison than in a public psychiatric hospital because almost no hospital beds are available. Even if an individual is fortunate enough to get admitted, the average length of stay is only five days, far less time than is needed to stabilize someone in psychiatric crisis. As a result, jails and prisons have become de facto mental health facilities for these individuals.
Read the Treatment Advocacy Center’s report “The Treatment of Persons with Mental Illness in Prisons and Jails” for more information.
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“…this issue goes well beyond the county jail,” said Douglas County Commissioner Jim Flory. “We’re looking at this as a community issue.”Sheriff Ken McGovern said the county is going to look at several models that have worked to reduce inmate populations in other communities, including diversion practices like crisis intervention teams (CIT) and mental health courts and greater collaboration between law enforcement, mental health providers and the judicial system.
“There is not one community or agency in the country that is doing everything completely right,” McGovern said. “But there are a lot of communities out there doing a lot of good things, and it is our job to find those ideas and bring them back here.”
The meeting Monday was the first of six public forums the county plans to hold on issues involving the jail and mental health care.
While Douglas County’s efforts to investigate ways to better serve or deter offenders with mental illness are certainly commendable, the buck shouldn’t stop there.
Mentally ill individuals in Kansas are much more likely to end up in jail or prison than in a public psychiatric hospital because almost no hospital beds are available. Even if an individual is fortunate enough to get admitted, the average length of stay is only five days, far less time than is needed to stabilize someone in psychiatric crisis. As a result, jails and prisons have become de facto mental health facilities for these individuals.
Read the Treatment Advocacy Center’s report “The Treatment of Persons with Mental Illness in Prisons and Jails” for more information.
To comment, visit our Facebook page.
Visit our blog archive to read all our recent posts.