(April 1, 2015) Shane Watkins, a 39-year-old who suffered with schizophrenia, was shot and killed last month when Lawrence County, Alabama sheriff’s deputies responded to a domestic disturbance at the home he shared with his mother (“Ala sheriff: Training not enough for mental health care crisis,“ Decatur Daily, Mar. 30).
Following the incident, Lawrence County Sheriff Gene Mitchell said that providing officers with more training on how to appropriately interact with people with mental illness is not necessarily the solution.
“Our weakness is not in our training,” Sheriff Mitchell said. “Our weakness is the lack of treatment that’s available.”
Watkins' mother said her son had been off his medications for schizophrenia for three weeks at the time of the shooting. She had tried to get him treatment at several psychiatric facilities, but was denied because there were not enough beds.
“It made me sick because it was so preventable,” said Watkins’ mother. “It’s not his mental illness that killed him. It’s negligence.”
Still, many would argue that it is unfair to expect law enforcement officers to double as mental health workers and jails to serve as de facto mental health facilities.
“It’s a cumbersome system,” Sheriff Mitchell said. “Jails are not hospitals. Jails are for incarcerating people that are under criminal charges.”
Alabama received an F grade in the Treatment Advocacy Center’s study on the prevalence of mental health diversion practices. The state has virtually no jail diversion programs and is among the states spending the least on public psychiatric treatment programs.
The national disgrace of criminalization will not end until we stop regarding this failure as acceptable and make universal use of the diversion tools known to keep individuals with severe mental illness out of jails and prisons.
Read the Treatment Advocacy Center’s report on mental health diversion practices to learn more.
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Visit our blog archive to read all our recent posts.
Following the incident, Lawrence County Sheriff Gene Mitchell said that providing officers with more training on how to appropriately interact with people with mental illness is not necessarily the solution.“Our weakness is not in our training,” Sheriff Mitchell said. “Our weakness is the lack of treatment that’s available.”
Watkins' mother said her son had been off his medications for schizophrenia for three weeks at the time of the shooting. She had tried to get him treatment at several psychiatric facilities, but was denied because there were not enough beds.
“It made me sick because it was so preventable,” said Watkins’ mother. “It’s not his mental illness that killed him. It’s negligence.”
Still, many would argue that it is unfair to expect law enforcement officers to double as mental health workers and jails to serve as de facto mental health facilities.
“It’s a cumbersome system,” Sheriff Mitchell said. “Jails are not hospitals. Jails are for incarcerating people that are under criminal charges.”
Alabama received an F grade in the Treatment Advocacy Center’s study on the prevalence of mental health diversion practices. The state has virtually no jail diversion programs and is among the states spending the least on public psychiatric treatment programs.
The national disgrace of criminalization will not end until we stop regarding this failure as acceptable and make universal use of the diversion tools known to keep individuals with severe mental illness out of jails and prisons.
Read the Treatment Advocacy Center’s report on mental health diversion practices to learn more.
To comment, visit our Facebook page.
Visit our blog archive to read all our recent posts.