Local leaders join national effort to keep mentally ill out of jails

April 25--WATERLOO -- Five Black Hawk County officials attended a national summit last week to address crisis levels of mentally ill people in U.S. jails.

The Black Hawk County team was among 50 jurisdictions from across the country -- and the only county in Iowa -- chosen to participate in the Stepping Up Summit in Washington, D.C., April 18-19.

"The Stepping Up initiative is a movement, not a moment," said Tom Eachus, executive director of UnityPoint/Black Hawk-Grundy Mental Health Center. "The fact that there were people from all over the United States means that we are not alone in tackling the problem here in Black Hawk County."

Eachus was joined at the summit by Black Hawk County Jail Administrator Mark Herbst, Waterloo Director of Safety Services Dan Trelka, Black Hawk County Supervisor John Miller and Sara Carter, community services coordinator for the Department of Correctional Services.

Miller said Black Hawk County officials were able to share and receive information from other counties across the country and to attend a variety of forums related to the problem.

"Black Hawk County is doing really well in some areas but there are some other areas we really need to work on," Miller said.

"The fad across the country has been to close mental health institutions, but when you do that some of those folks are so mentally ill that there's no place for them except the jail.

"We need to put some pressure on the Legislature to provide funding," he added. "Iowa ranks very low for mental health funding out of all the states."

Stepping Up is a national initiative launched in May 2015 to stop jails from serving as de facto psychiatric facilities. Black Hawk County has a local Stepping Up organization working to that end.

The number of people with mental illnesses in jails is three to six times higher than among the general public, a situation that strains local budgets and increases costs to taxpayers.

"This national epidemic involving the convergence of the mentally ill and law enforcement is acutely real for us in Black Hawk County," Herbst said.

"Law enforcement along with many others in the community are committed to ... reducing the number of people with mental illness in our jail."

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