(July 18, 2016) Jails and prisons have become “default mental institutions” in San Francisco, according to a Civil Grand Jury report released last Thursday. (“Grand jury: San Francisco jail a ‘default mental institution',” CBS SF, July 15).
“This increase of mentally ill and homeless inmates in need of health, psychiatric, and reentry services further depletes the resources of the department,” the report noted.
The report's findings echo those of a comprehensive national survey of county sheriffs and detention officers released last week by the Treatment Advocacy Center and Public Citizen that found jails across the country are overwhelmed and unequipped to handle inmates with mental illness.
“The crises in public health and social services has made the jail an unintended provider of psychiatric and social services for the mentally ill and the homeless services the jail has neither the capacity nor the mandate to provide,” the Grand Jury report states. “This increase of mentally ill and homeless inmates in need of health, psychiatric, and reentry services further depletes the resources of the department.”
Among the grand jury’s recommendations are calls for Jail Behavioral Health Services to be staffed 24 hours a day, crisis intervention and suicide prevention training, and the establishment of a method for family members of inmates to communicate concerns about mental and physical health to staff.
Sheriff’s department officials said last week they were reviewing the grand jury report and working on plans to address the problem.
“The whole issue of behavioral health in custody is one that is being studied by re-envisioning the jail replacement project, and it’s an extremely important issue,” department spokeswoman Eileen Hirst said. “We’re glad that the grand jury decided to focus on that part of the jail system.”
The Grand Jury’s findings reiterate concerns raised by advocates across the country: the criminalization of mental illness has reached unprecedented levels and shows no sign of slowing down any time soon.
The problem is so big that this September the Treatment Advocacy Center will be launching an expansion of our psychiatric bed campaign, #aBedInstead, to end this injustice and ensure access to inpatient treatment for people with severe mental illness.
Visit #aBedInstead to learn more about our campaign.
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