Tackling mental illness to reduce crime

June 11--Yuba County officials are looking to improve mental health treatment for jail inmates in an effort to reduce crime.

"We have the biggest mental health facility in the county," Undersheriff Jerry Read said of the jail.

In a grant application, Read wrote, "Our current model of services for incarcerated individuals with mental illness, particularly those who suffer from (co-occurring mental health disorders and substance abuse issues) is inadequate."

In response to a state grant opportunity, a coalition of agencies and community organizations developed a plan to address gaps in services to the most severe cases, which they say would reduce crime.

The county learned Wednesday it was not awarded the $630,000 grant from the Board of State and Community Corrections, but agency leaders are looking to piece together parts of the plan this year and try for the grant again next year to address the problem.

"The problem was obvious. What to do about the problem was what we spent most of our time on," Read said of the steering committee.

The problem is that while the county jail -- like others across the state -- often serves as a mental health facility, it does not have the staff or resources to provide health care and services to treat underlying issues that often lead to criminal behavior.

Sometimes someone is booked into jail for criminal behavior, when their actions are "more of a symptom of their mental illness than an attempt to commit a crime," Read said.

Once released, those inmates struggle to transition back into society, because they don't have temporary housing or their federal entitlements, such as Social Security, have been suspended.

"It just continues a cycle of recidivism. That's what we're trying to stop, people coming back to jail," Read said.

On average in 2014, the Yuba County Jail had 123 open mental health cases per month, representing nearly 60 percent of the inmate population. But, due to limited capability to address mental health issues, only the most severe cases were referred to a psychiatrist, Read said in the grant application. Staffing levels at that time included crisis counseling staffed at 44 hours a week and one psychiatrist available one day a week.

The steering committee came up with a $1 million plan to enhance in-custody mental health care, hire a full-time therapist, develop case-management plans for inmates, provide post-incarceration care, including intervention counseling, case management and peer support follow-up.

"A lot of that has to do with letting (inmates) know how to get mental health services," Read said. And, "a transition plan will help."

In February, the sheriff's department received Public Safety Realignment funding to add a full-time mental health therapist, and in May the jail began using video conferencing to provide psychiatric services to inmates, Read said.

"A big part is identifying people in jail and coming up with a case management plan," he said.

A grant application was submitted for $630,000 in state funds for the plan. The lack of grant funding leaves big parts of the plan unfunded.

"That part that's missing is somebody to assist when (inmates) leave jail," Read said. "Transitioning from jail back to the community, that's generally where things start to go bad.

"The grant could have kept them in the community and stopped them from committing future crime."

He said he hopes the steering committee will continue to meet. Involved is the sheriff, district attorney, public defender, chief probation officer, mental health director, a judge, a local client, a police officer, the jail commander, a Salvation Army representative, the jail medical services coordinator, director of victim witness services and a data analyst.

"I think everybody came away from steering committee meetings recognizing that this is everybody's issue, it doesn't belong to one agency, and the only way to attack it is as a group."

CONTACT reporter Monica Vaughan at 749-4783 and on Twitter @MonicaLVaughan.

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