LAUREL — A committee appointed by the Jones County Board of Supervisors to address how to handle mentally ill inmates recommended that the county seek assistance from WestWay Behavioral Health in Laurel.

The committee, which consisted of Jones County Sheriff Alex Hodge, Chief Deputy Clerk Concetta Brooks, County Administrator Charles Miller, District 1 Supervisor Johnny Burnett, and District 5 Supervisor Jerome Wyatt, said WestWay is equipped with a staff of professionals who could provide adequate care for inmates with mental illnesses. Report by Laurel Leader-Call.

A member of Pine Belt Mental Healthcare Resources, WestWay is formerly known as the Crisis Center in Jones County. It provides brief psychiatric intervention and stabilization services for adults requiring acute behavioral health care in Covington, Forrest, Greene, Jeff Davis, Jones, Lamar, Marion, Perry, Wayne, George and Jackson Counties.

According to administrators, WestWay’s goal is to stabilize clients in crisis so they can successfully return to the community with access to the necessary community-based mental health resources and avoid hospitalization.

“We came up with the idea of possibly using WestWay and seeing if they will oversee people if we assign a paid person to guard the combative and involuntary inmates,” said Miller. “(Concetta ) says we only serve several a year and this won’t be a terribly big number of people.”

Hodge and the board of supervisors are trying to address a mandates passed down by the State of Mississippi on the subject of holding mentally ill inmates in the Adult Detention Facility. In September Hodge told board members a decision would have to be made on whether to upgrade the current facility or out-source the responsibility to another agency.

“We are under a mandate to get our jail certified to hold combative, non-voluntary inmates,” said Hodge. “If you go back and look at the standards for certifying the jail, we don’t have the space.

“We currently have 200 inmates and 144 beds,” added Hodge. “Lunacies have to be in a cell by themselves and the facility must be conducive.”

Hodge said the Adult Detention Facility, where mentally ill inmates are currently housed, has concrete walls and floors. They also have cell bars and no padding.

Hodge also pointed out that the detention center staff is not trained to handle the mentally ill.

“This could expose the county to liability if we don’t know what we are doing,” added Hodge. “The folks at WestWay are trained and better equipped to handle these inmates.”

However, Brooks explained that the WestWay staff that assists the county with non-combative, voluntary mentally ill inmates are females who are not trained or equipped to handle combative individuals. That’s why it is important to provide someone to handle combative individuals if WestWay agrees to treat combative county inmates with mental illness.

Board President and District 4 Supervisor Andy Dial expressed concern about the expenses involved if WestWay agrees to handle the county’s combative, involuntary mentally ill inmates. After Miller explained that if a county employee guarded the inmates, the county would have to pay time and a half for everything over 40 hours, Dial said it may be cheaper to send inmates to Meridian for treatment.

Brooks informed supervisors the mental health facility that should be utilized by Jones County is located in Purvis, not Meridian. She said it costs about $150 -a-day for the facility to house and care for an inmate.

Hodge added that the supervisors would also be looking at the expense encountered by driving the inmates to Purvis or Meridian and back.

“Either way it goes, it’s going to cost the county,” said Hodge. “This is something we must address and can’t let continue the way they are.”

Wyatt agreed.

“Let’s not wait until we are sued or forced to do it,” said Wyatt.

Wyatt also noted that whatever the board decides at this point will be a short term solution. Wyatt suggested that county officials meet with surrounding county officials who may face the same dilemma and discuss partnering to build a regional facility of their own.

In the meantime, Hodge and Brooks were appointed to meet with WestWay officials to see if they could come up with an agreement. They will report back to the board at a later date.

In other business, Board Attorney M. Wayne Thompson presented board members with revised copies of a contract for fire protection service by the Jones County Fire Council. The fire council consists of West Jones Fire Protection District comprised of the Calhoun, Hebron, Pleasant Ridge and Soso Fire & Rescue Departments; Shady Grove-Sharon Fire Protection District comprised of Sharon and Shady Grove Fire & Rescue Departments; Northeast Jones Fire Protection District comprised of Glade, Myrick and Millcreek, Powers, Rustin and Sandersville Fire & Rescue Departments; Southwest Jones Fire Protection District comprised of Boggy, Johnson, Moselle, Ovett, South Jones, Union and Southwest Jones Fire & Rescue Departments; and the City of Ellisville Fire Department, excluded Ellisville from the contract. Ellisville is the only fire department that consists of both volunteer and paid firefighters.

“The fire chiefs have met and expressed issues with the contract,” said Thompson. “They want independence to operate fire stations the way they deem best.

“Before you today is a copy of the contract so you can see what’s out there. There are only a few departments that have issues with the original contract.”

Dial said there are only four of five departments that refuse to sign the contract.

“The majority of the fire council is in agreement and want to move forward,” said Dial.

Thompson said at this point, the county is hopeful all departments will sign the contract.

“As long as they are doing the job, we won’t tell them how to do their business,” he said. “They are continuing to provide service; we just don’t have a contract.”

Tammy Mental Health Issues, Mississippi

An inmate looks out of one of the segregation cells at the Greene County Jail. / Dean Curtis News-Leader

Proposed new tax would not be salve Grant will help inmates with mental illnesses get treatment.

A new collaborative project, now in its infancy, is aimed specifically at helping people who suffer from a serious mental illness get into treatment and stay out of jail. Report by News-Leader.com.

The partnership between law enforcement, jail officials, prosecutors and area mental health advocates has started to identify those stuck in a cycle of incarceration.

Parts of the collaboration project are funded by a two-year, $200,000 grant from the U.S. Department of Justice, which was awarded to the Greene County Jail.

Simultaneous to the jail’s project, Springfield police have begun to implement the city’s first comprehensive program focused on people suffering with mental illness.

Project participants hope the collaborative programs will free up city and county resources chronically drained by a small group of untreated mentally ill citizens.

Police Chief Paul Williams said the collaboration project, described as being on “the ground floor,” will need public and private support to combat what is widely perceived as a community problem.

“The standard has always been that if someone is doing something illegal, they go to jail,” Williams said.

“Really, the underlying issue could be mental illness.”

The police

Since beginning to work with the other officials in January, Springfield police have identified 16 people in the center-city area who suffer from mental illness and who cross paths with law enforcement often.

Now, when police respond to minor incidents involving these individuals, instead of taking them to jail, they are often diverted to available community resources.

Williams said, so far, two of the 16 are in treatment.

“The rest, we are still working with,” he said.

If successful, the list could be expanded to include those who are recognized as untreated mentally ill and live in other parts of the city.

The department’s new program is modeled after mental health programs at the Memphis Police Department in Tennessee and the Tulsa Police Department in Oklahoma, where Williams served for more than 20 years.

Williams hopes that, in time, local community groups, law enforcement and private citizens work together to help make the program successful.

“There needs to be more community involvement as opposed to just ignoring the problem.”

The grant will cover some specific instruction called Crisis Intervention Team training, a major component of the police department’s program.

That training focuses on the interaction between the mentally ill and law enforcement and is one of Greene County Deputy Cathy Ussery’s specialties.

“It kinda changes your tactics,” said Ussery, Crisis Intervention Team training coordinator with the sheriff’s office.

“Some tactics work better for someone with mental illness.”

The training

Ideally, officers who complete the 40-hour crisis intervention training are able to spot the difference between a psychotic episode, a drug-induced craze or something else entirely.

To date, only about six Greene County deputies — including Ussery — have received the specialized training.

“We are not a pioneer by any means,” said Sheriff Jim Arnott.

Ussery hopes to extend the training to more deputies as well as other police forces in nearby municipalities, including Springfield police.

“It’s something that the community desperately needs,” she said.

“We want to be able to train as many officers as possible.”

Williams said his goal is to have about 10 percent of the police force receive the specialized training.

One of the major goals of the training is to educate officers on community resources available to people suffering from mental illness.

For now, though, those resources are limited.

Beyond cooperating with family members, area law enforcement have two choices for mentally ill offenders: emergency room or jail.

“As of right now, there is nothing really in between,” Ussery said.

She and Williams said finding a viable alternative is a priority goal of the project.

“It would be great if we had something like that,” Williams said.

“But we aren’t there yet.”

The released

Another grant-funded aspect of the project is helping mentally ill inmates transition to life on the outside.

To that end, participants can receive medications, counseling sessions, a month of housing and bus passes to make it to appointments.

While the services that can be provided are short- term, they are designed to fill the gap to enable a needy person to sign up for Medicaid or veteran’s benefits if they qualify, or at least give the person a little time to get a job.

So far, about 50 former inmates are in various stages of the program.

“Hopefully they won’t end up in that revolving door of coming to the jail over and over,” said Melissa Ussery, mental health coordinator for the Greene County Jail.

(Melissa Ussery is Cathy Ussery’s sister-in-law).

In applying for the grant, county officials noted:

“Greene County Jail has become the largest mental health care facility in the area.”

People with mental illnesses are usually not taking medication when they arrive at the jail because they can’t afford them or have not been clinically diagnosed. Emergency rooms are the main medical provider for the uninsured.

“They are often rearrested and the cycle continues,” the application reads.

When the two-year grant expires, participants hope to have provided screening, assessment and discharge planning for about 400 people with mental illness who are detained for non-violent offenses.

As for the 50 former inmates taking advantage of the services, it isn’t yet clear if the project has been effective at limiting jail stints.

Melissa Ussery said patience is needed when treating people with mental illness. She said many also suffer from addiction and getting out of jail could lead to relapse.

But she added: “Relapse is a part of recovery.

“So, it depends on how you measure success.”

In proposing a new law enforcement tax, Greene County officials speak of many problems, holes and issues with the local criminal justice system.

They also speak of how a new 1/4-cent or 1/8-cent tax could provide remedies on some fronts.

No officials, however, have spoken about revenues from such a tax easing the problem with mentally ill inmates at the jail.

With a new tax, many new county-paid jobs have also been suggested or recommended, some at the jail. None, however, have been suggested as a way to deal with mentally ill inmates or reduce their numbers.

In addition, no one interviewed for this two-day report spoke of a new tax as the pathway to addressing this problem.

Movement toward any sort of solution, experts and officials say, would require more funding not for law enforcement but for resources for the ill outside jail and outside law enforcement, for instance at mental health facilities.

An additional wise move, experts say, would be to change commitment laws to force the seriously mentally ill to take help or to take medication.

Tammy Grants, Mental Health Issues, Missouri

HARRISBURG, Pa., Sept. 29, 2011 /PRNewswire-USNewswire/ — The Department of Corrections will invest two new federal grants, totaling more than $600,000, to help provide treatment for female offenders with mental health and substance abuse issues, as well as support criminal justice research within the state prison system.

The first grant, awarded by the U.S. Department of Justice, is a Second Chance Act Grant totaling $410,467. These funds, in addition to $41,100 in-kind state matching funds, will be used to support treatment and recovery services for female offenders at the State Correctional Institution at Muncy who meet certain requirements. Report by PR Newswire.

“This grant allows us to develop and test a well-designed strategy for offenders with dual disorders,” Corrections Secretary John Wetzel said. “This increases the likelihood of successful offender re-integration and improved public safety by reducing the likelihood of future criminal activity.”

Approximately 100 to 150 female offenders with dual co-occurring mental health and substance abuse disorders, who are within 18 months of their parole eligibility date and who will return to Allegheny, Dauphin or Philadelphia counties, will benefit from this grant.

The funds will be used over a two-year period to support a specialized therapeutic community at SCI Muncy. The program will provide integrated mental health and substance abuse treatment services in addition to supportive services addressing education, family relations, safety, and housing. The DOC will partner with the Department of Health’s Bureau of Drug and Alcohol Programs, the Department of Public Welfare’s Office of Mental Health and Substance Abuse Services, the Pennsylvania Board of Probation and Parole, local service providers and community organizations to ensure services will continue for participating offenders after their release from prison.

“This grant award allows everyone involved in treatment and recovery for these specific offenders to work together toward a common goal,” said Mary Finck, manager of the DOC’s re-entry program. “We are pleased we were selected for this grant and will work hard to use it to improve public safety through specialized treatment of offenders.”

The second grant has been awarded by the Department of Justice’s National Institute of Justice totaling $209,323.

“This grant is another big win for us,” Wetzel said. ”It was very competitive, and only five awards were made nationwide.”

The grant award, made under the “Criminal Justice Researcher-Practitioner Fellowship Placement Program,” will fund a one-year project that places an academic professor from the University of Maryland as an “embedded criminologist” within the DOC to provide technical assistance with the agency’s research agenda. Dr. Kiminori Nakamura will be funded to serve as a regular part-time DOC employee for the period of the grant.

“The benefit to the DOC will be to have easy, onsite and regular access to an expert in the field of criminal justice research,” said Bret Bucklen, director of the DOC’s Office of Planning, Research and Statistics.  “The benefit to the researcher is that he will be able to apply academic work to real world policy issues, will have ready access to data and will be able to seek publication of the results of the joint research endeavors.”

“University of Maryland’s Criminology & Criminal Justice department consistently ranks as the top criminal justice program nationwide, so we’re getting a good resource in Dr. Nakamura,” Wetzel said.

The purpose of the research is to determine at what point after release from prison a parolee has no greater statistical likelihood of getting arrested as the average citizen. While this will be Nakamura’s primary interest, the main point of the grant is to use his expertise to provide assistance with research on DOC interests.

The grant also will fund two graduate students to assist the DOC and Nakamura. It also will provide funds for the DOC to purchase software needed by DOC research staff for mapping and population projections.

The DOC’s Office of Planning, Research and Statistics will coordinate this grant, which is currently slated to start Jan. 1, 2012.

Tammy Grants, Mental Health Issues, Pennsylvania

Diverting mentally ill inmates out of the Johnson County Jail is saving the county almost half a million dollars a year and helping with overcrowding.

The jail-alternative program, established under the Mental Health Department in 2005, helps inmates who are mentally disabled by making sure they get the treatment they need and help to get them out of incarceration, because their mental-health symptoms could worsen the longer they’re locked up, said Pat Harney, the chairman of the Johnson County Board of Supervisors. Report by The Daily Iowan.

Jessica Peckover, team leader of the jail-alternative program, told the supervisors Thursday the most recent cost of a jail-bed day — when an inmate occupies a holding space — for the jail is reported as being $64.60 per day. The number of jail-bed days used by the 660 inmates prior to the jail-alternative program was 30,308 beds used in a year. After one year of the jail-alternative program, only 10,296 jail-bed days were used. The difference saved roughly $1.3 million in additional costs, Peckover said.

“Even taking into account the cost of the program since inception, there is still about $450,000 of cost savings,” she said.

Peckover said there are a number of unquantifiable cost-savings that include preventing repeat offenses, lawsuits, psychiatric hospitalizations, and committals of the mentally disabled inmates. Other savings include promoting community wellness, public safety, and the enhancement of inmates’ quality of life.

Supervisor Sally Stutsman, a strong supporter of the program, said it focuses most of its time helping these individuals at the Health and Human Services Building, but they also spend time at the jail or other communities.

“Not only does this help alleviate the crowding, but it’s also diverting people who shouldn’t be in jails,” she said. “It’s better for the individual because there’s a number of people related to criminal activity that have mental issues, and this really becomes a preventative program for those in need.”

Stutsman said that, without a doubt, the jail would be more overcrowded without this program.

“The community wanted us to create some alternative to putting people out of jail, and this is the best alternative that we came up with,” she said.

Harney also supports the program and said it’s helpful for Johnson County.

“The idea is to keep them out of jails and institutions, and I’m really glad we have this jail-alternative program in place,” he said.

admin IA Johnson County, Iowa, Mental Health Issues, Overcrowding

State officials working to keep Floridians with mental illnesses out of the criminal justice system moved one step closer to winning a legislative boost for their blueprint when a key committee approved a bill Tuesday backing their plan.  Report by NewsJacksonville.com.

The measure, approved by the Criminal and Civil Justice Policy Committee, authorizes three pilot sites that supporters hope will serve as a model for how to deal with tens of thousands of state residents who are in jail or under state supervision despite their condition. It follows a 2007 report by the Florida Supreme Court that found lacking the state’s methods for dealing with mentally ill offenders.

More than 30,000 Floridians with mental illnesses are in jail and another 40,000 are under supervision, according to the Supreme Court’s report, while an overwhelming majority of the 150,000 juvenile offenders are also believed to have a mental illness.   The state also maintains 1,700 beds, at a cost of $250 million a year, for defendants who are being treated so they can be fit to stand trial. In most cases, those individuals are convicted and then sentenced to time served.  Within 10 years, the cost of those beds is expected to double. “It is the worst money the state spends. … It is the true definition of insanity,” said Department of Children and Families Secretary George Sheldon …

By encouraging more community-based care for the inmates, Sheldon and other supporters say, the state can actually save money by reducing the number of times mentally ill inmates shuffle in and out of the criminal justice system and by treating the individuals before they end up in the emergency room … Miami-Dade County Judge Steven Leifman, tapped by the Supreme Court to work on mental health issues, said only nonviolent criminals would be eligible for the community services instead of jail.   “This is not a bill to get people out of the system that should be in the system,” Leifman said. “This is to keep people out that shouldn’t’ be there and get them the kind of treatment so they don’t come back.”

vericatrajkova Florida, Mental Health Issues

Michigan Department of Corrections Director Patricia Caruso has approved a plan to relocate some 275 higher-security-level, mentally ill adult males to the W.J. Maxey Boys Training School, with the transition to be completed by May 1.

The MDOC will relocate the adult males to the Maxey campus from the Huron Valley Complex in Ypsilanti … The decision was made about three weeks after a public hearing in Green Oak Township, where some 20 residents vehemently opposed the plan. The hearing was essentially a courtesy because the state isn’t beholden to local laws … MDOC spokesman John Cordell said the department took the public’s concerns into consideration, but that the state couldn’t ignore related cost savings and an opportunity to make greater use of the facility …

Cordell said the MDOC will consider taking measures requested by residents, which could include a community call list in case of a security breach or escape from the campus. Plans are already in place to contact area schools and day-care centers in the event of an escape.”We need to assure the citizens feel a sense of security once we’re there. So we’ll work with the citizen groups if they’re interested,” he said.

More information in the Livingston Daily.

vericatrajkova Juvenile Justice, Mental Health Issues, Michigan

Wisconsin Gov. Jim Doyle’s new budget lays out millions of dollars to help female prisoners get better mental health care and dodge a potentially costly lawsuit over their care, as reported by the Chicago Tribune.

The U.S. Justice Department in 2006 declared the lack of mental health care at Taycheedah Correctional Institution, the state’s largest women’s prison in Fond du Lac, violated inmates’ constitutional rights. The state agreed this past September to make improvements or face a U.S. Justice Department lawsuit. “These investments will help us improve the continuity of care for women who have mental illnesses in our prison system,” Corrections Department spokesman John Dipko said in a statement.  Part of the state’s plan calls for building a 45-bed women’s-only wing at the Wisconsin Resource Center, a mental health facility for male inmates in Winnebago. The $11 million project was approved as part of the state’s 2007-2009 capital budget. It’s set to open in 2011.

Doyle’s spending plan sets out $4.6 million in taxpayer dollars for the Department of Health and Human Services to hire 113 workers at the facility in 2011. The governor’s budget also devotes another $4.2 million in taxpayer dollars to hire 15 guards for the female-only wing and another 40 mental health workers at Taycheedah.  The spending proposals come despite the state’s massive $5.7 billion deficit

vericatrajkova Female Inmates, Mental Health Issues, Wisconsin

A women’s prison in England has failed to meet challenges from a “complex and growing” number of vulnerable inmates, a report by HM Inspector of Prisons says.  This from the BBC.

Staff at HMP Styal, in Cheshire, lack training and support to deal with the most “damaged” women, said Anne Owers … But the National Offender Management Service said “innovative” work at the prison had also been recognised … The announced inspection was carried out in September at the prison, which has 460 inmates – half of whom have issues with drugs.  The report said that prisoners’ level of vulnerability compared with other women’s jails was “extremely high”.  It concluded that HMP Styal “was not able to meet the scale and complexity of the needs of the women it held”.

On the Keller unit, for women with mental health issues, inspectors found the use of force by prison staff had “increased significantly”.  These inmates, some of whom had serious self-harming issues, were often forced to strip as part of the prison’s care plan.  The Keller prisoners were also locked up for most of the time …

Campaigners from Inquest, a charity which works with families of those who die in custody, have repeatedly protested outside the prison over the same issues.   Co-director Deborah Coles said: “As the report demonstrates, the response of the Prison Service does not reflect the seriousness of the failings that have been exposed both by inspection reports and inquests into the deaths of vulnerable women.  “What is needed is a fundamental rethink, not only about Styal but in the whole approach to women who offend, and the provision of alternatives to custody.”

vericatrajkova Drug Treatment & Diversion, England & Wales, Europe, Female Inmates, INTERNATIONAL, Mental Health Issues

New York State Department of Correctional Services Commissioner Brian Fischer outlined proposals aimed at improving the State’s prison system, from correctional facility closures to sentencing reforms, in an address to a Citizens Crime Commission of New York City breakfast Wednesday.

Commissioner Fischer highlighted the State’s success in reducing its crime rate and prison population over the last decade … “Our success means the time has come for major changes in the prison system,” Fischer said. “Governor Paterson has rightly recognized this as an opportunity to save taxpayers significant money by allowing me to manage the prison system more intelligently.”

Paterson’s 2009-10 Executive Budget, currently under negotiation with the State Legislature, proposes closing correctional camps and some prison annexes at a time when court and legislative mandates require enhanced and expanded treatment and services for sex offenders and inmates with mental illness. “By closing these facilities and saving taxpayers nearly $30 million a year, we can address those new priorities,” Fischer said. “And we can achieve closure with virtually no layoffs … Now more than ever, we need to bring State government’s expenses in line with its shrinking revenues.”

Fischer detailed the extensive in-prison substance abuse treatment programs the department offers in light of ongoing public debate about reforming New York’s drug laws. He noted that more than 30,000 offenders – about a third of those who spent time incarcerated – participated in Department treatment programs last year alone. And he discussed the variety of ways the State is working to reduce recidivism by better preparing offenders for their return to society – including the planned opening this year of “reentry units” at Hudson (Columbia County) and Bayview (Manhattan) Correctional Facilities, following the first two such units last year and in 2007 at Orleans Correctional Facility in Western New York.

Fischer also urged support for another Sentencing Commission proposal that would create fixed sentences for most crimes. “Determinate sentencing addresses the serious problem of disparity of sentences,” the commissioner said. “It also provides offenders with a clear understanding that to earn time off their court-imposed sentence, they must complete mandated treatment programs as well as avoid serious disciplinary problems … This fosters the concept of accepting personal responsibility, a concept often ignored by too many young offenders.”

The full speech can be found here.

vericatrajkova Drug Treatment & Diversion, Economic Issues, Mental Health Issues, New York, Re-Entry, Sentencing, Sex Offenders

Today, the Australian state of New South Wales will officially open an $86million psychiatric hospital at Long Bay jail to treat more than 100 prisoners whose psychiatric problems have made them either unfit to enter a plea or meant that they were found not guilty on the grounds of mental illness.

A recent survey indicated that mental illness affects half of all female inmates at the jail and about 35% of the male inmates.

More details can be found at ABC Local Radio.

vericatrajkova Australasia, Australia, INTERNATIONAL, Mental Health Issues, New South Wales