“We can estimate we have 40 to 60 percent of the inmates coming into the facility have a form of mental health issue,” Adams said. “Those are mostly the people who are in a critical mental health crisis when they are coming in. So it’s very obvious and we have to deal with it immediately. It’s probably closer to 80 percent.”
The Butler County commissioners on Monday joined the national movement called The Stepping Up Initiative. Part of the responsibility as part of that group will be to keep track of these people and with the help of the courts, ensure they continue with treatment for their issues once released, to help reduce the recidivism rate.
“That’s part of this initiative is that we do a good discharge plan, which jails typically don’t do discharge planning, the courts tell us they are going to go to this program or they are released to the street,” Adams said.
“But because mental illness is being forced on the jails we’re now finding ourselves in the business of doing discharge planning. That’s part of this initiative is to make sure when someone walks out that door, there is a plan for them to get that continuity of care.”
Currently the county utilizes contracts with Sojourner Recovery Services and Transitional Living, Inc. (TLI) to serve the needs of inmates with mental health and substance abuse issues. Scott Gehring, CEO at Sojourner, said this initiative should not only reduce the recidivism rate but lower crime in general.
He said from a criminal justice standpoint there is a very small percentage of people who are committing the majority of the crimes.
“That’s a statistical fact,” he said. “So if you are better able to treat the needs of those individuals — because the majority of those individuals are suffering with mental health and addiction needs — if you are able to provide services to those individuals directly you’re going to reduce the number of crimes committed which means you’ll ultimately reduce the cost of operating criminal justice services.”
Scott Rasmus, executive director of the county’s mental health and addiction services board, who presented the commissioners with the initiative said there might be grant funds available to help with this effort but for now it will be in-kind services of the people who have been chosen to lead this movement — the sheriff’s office, mental health and addiction board, court of common pleas, commissioners, the Opiate Task Force, Sojourner and TLI — that will push things ahead.
“There is no money locally involved in this, it’s all grant funds and it would allow us to consult with other counties and even nationally to see what’s working in jails, to treat those with mental illness and addictions,” he said.
Adams said the ability to share best practices with others in the business is an invaluable tool this coalition provides.
“I think talking to other counties, what have they done, what are the resources they have found,” the warden said. “If I can have some other jailer that’s been through this, that’s the experience, that’s the tool kit that they offer in this Stepping Up Initiative.”
The National Alliance on Mental Illness (NAMI) will also have a hand in this effort, according to Rhonda Benson, executive director of the local NAMI. She said their role is as yet a little undefined but she believes they will be working to get family members, who may have washed their hands of an individual, back on the support side.
“We just have to find a way to engage family members so that they realize they are not alone,” she said. “And they can be part of the solution for their loved one who is involved in the system.”
The commissioners were unanimous in support of the program, which should save taxpayer money, because there is no downside. The county has had no reason to track the inmates or the cost of care they have been given — that will be an aspect of the initiative — but information from the national movement notes jails spend two to three times more money on inmates with these needs than the rest of the general jail population with no mental illness or addiction issues.
“If the reason for the recurrence of the same people going to jail can be attributed to mental illness, and if we can in some way stop it, it’s better for them and ultimately the county,” Commissioner T.C. Rogers said.
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