Jail no place for those with mental illness

The Winston-Salem Journal

The last place a person with mental illness needs to be is in jail. A national initiative being honed in Forsyth County should make a difference.

We’ve known for some time that our jails receive far too many inmates who suffer from mental illness or problems related to their mental illness, which may actually be contributing factors to their incarceration — and where they’re less likely to receive the resources they need to recover and return to productive lives.

In 2015, about 18 percent of new jail intakes were found to have mental-health issues, the Journal’s Jordan Howse reported last week.

So we’re grateful for the assistance of Forsyth County’s Stepping Up Initiative. The initiative has received a generous $36,363 grant from The Winston-Salem Foundation to provide programming and operation assistance to Forsyth County jail inmates who suffer from mental illness, the Journal reported. This will be combined with $50,000 approved by the county commissioners.

The first beneficiaries of the programming will be female inmates who have had chronic mental illness linked with substance abuse problems. Many of them have had past experiences with hospitalization or rehab. The group’s relatively small size, under 100, makes it more manageable, Commissioner Gloria Whisenhunt, who is working with the initiative, told the Journal.

The program is voluntary. “Once we’ve identified women, they’ll be given counseling while they’re serving their sentence and we’ll be their helping hand,” Whisenhunt told the Journal. “Once they get out, we will help schedule their doctor appointments and get them medications they need.”

Program administrators will be developing practices and strategies to reduce the numbers of inmates with mental illness. As they calibrate the program, it can be adapted for more inmates.

Participation won’t shorten any sentence, but it’s likely to help curtail repeat offenses and help repair damaged lives. It’s especially noteworthy that the assistance doesn’t end with a prisoner’s release, but will continue as she integrates back into life.

Such an effort is long overdue. Jails are often ill-prepared to deal with people with mental illnesses — and those people are often ill-prepared for jail. It’s simply not an effective route for addressing their major difficulties.

The Stepping Up Initiative is a national program that aims to raise awareness of the factors that contribute to the problem and help reduce them. It’s led by the National Association of Counties, the Council of State Governments Justice Center and the American Psychiatric Association Foundation. Hundreds of counties across the country have realized its value, including 25 in North Carolina that have passed resolutions to support the initiative.

Keeping people with mental illness out of jail not only helps them to have productive lives, but it reduces the amount we spend on their confinement, allowing these resources to be used more productively elsewhere.