California Sheriff Magazine
January 2007
Executive Director’s Perspective
Local Lockup Travesty: The Mentally Ill Do Not Belong in Jail
We all intrinsically know this to be true, so what are we doing about it? This is the question that California Sheriffs have been asking and beginning to answer since the beginning of the 21st century. To help us find the practical answers, CSSA and Eli Lilly Corporation sponsored a day long conference in Sacramento on July 14, 2006. The conference was appropriately titled "From Words to Deeds, Changing the Paradigm for Criminal Justice and Mental Health". Over 70 mental health and criminal justice leaders from around the state focused on the goal of ending criminalization of individuals with mental illness. County jails in California house almost 80,000 inmates each and every day, and it is estimated that 16% of those inmates, or 12,800, have histories of mental illness. Another 18,000 mentally ill offenders are incarcerated in state prisons.
During the conference, attendees interactively explored specific jail diversion tactics to reduce the fiscal burden on the criminal justice system and improve the lives of individuals with mental illness who get caught up in the crime cycle, by providing appropriate access to treatment rather than criminalizing them for their illness. All attendees acknowledged the recent judicial order to hire more than 550 new mental health staff in the state prisons to help deal with the soaring prison suicide rate and the severe overcrowding situation. Governor Schwarzenegger intends to construct new facilities at a cost of more than $600 million.
CSSA President, Sheriff Gary Penrod, of San BernardinoCounty, wrote in the last issue of California Sheriff about the severe overcrowding and early release of convicted felons in California's 125 county jails. Currently over 221,000 jail inmates are released back to our communities each year before serving all their sentenced time in jail. This problem could be lessened substantially if all mentally ill offenders were treated rather than jailed.
Speakers and dialogue during the interactive workshop sessions focused on a true shift in the paradigm for criminal justice and mental health. They suggested an effective jail diversion system that fosters treatment rather than punishment. Successful jail diversion will require our courts, law enforcement agencies, mental health professionals, community mental health and non-profit agencies to change the ways mentally ill offenders are treated within our communities.
Conference speakers included Carol Hood, Deputy Director of the Mental Health Services Act (Prop 63), Helen Thomson, long-time champion of mental health issues in the State Assembly and currently a member of the Yolo County Board of Supervisors, Mark Renfowitz, Orange County Mental Health Director, David Janssen, Los Angeles County Chief Administrative Officer, and Kathleen Connolly, San Francisco Citywide Case Management Forensics Team. The keynote luncheon speaker was our very own past president of CSSA, Sheriff Bill Kolender of San DiegoCounty and a member of the Statewide Mental Services Oversight and Accountability Commission (Prop 63), who stressed success by collaboration of all parties.
The afternoon workshops focused on the four components of effective jail diversion:
Pre Incarceration: Outreach with mental health intervention occurring as early as possible working with families, consumers, clinicians, and care providers. Law enforcement and mental health providers must work together to better understand the roles and outlooks of each.
Diversion at Time of Arrest: Mental Health Courts and mental health training for law enforcement.
In-Jail Treatment: Train officers and mental health staff in jails and have specialty beds for inmates with mental illness.
Re-Entry: Discharge planning, housing, and out-patient treatment.
The Attorney General's opinion regarding the use of MHSA funding for mental health courts was discussed. Although the costs of customary court staff such as the Judge, attorneys, the bailiff, etc are not allowable, mental health clinicians and case managers who provide and monitor the defendant's treatment are allowable costs. Also for positions that may include both court and mental health functions, the expanded costs attributed to the mental health functions would be allowable costs.
The conference, which was the third in a series supported by the Lilly Corporation, was a huge success. The organizing committee, led by Dave Meyer from the University of Southern California, and Sheriff Curtis Hill is developing follow-up strategies including a fourth conference sponsored by CSSA and Lilly in 2007.
Lessening this local lockup travesty is a major component of CSSA's top priority in 2007 and beyond: Relieving jail overcrowding and early releases through the development of programs such as mental health jail diversion, and renovation/construction of existing and new program space and housing in local detention facilities.
- Steve Szalay
CSSA Executive Director