The largest mental-health facility in north-central Indiana isn’t a hospital or psychiatric facility – it’s the Howard County jail.
Sheriff Steve Rogers told a state legislative committee Monday that the jail has become the largest provider of mental-health services in the area. Around 20 percent of inmates are currently prescribed psychotropic medication, and 40 percent are involved in some kind of psychotherapy.
County jails across the state are being used to manage the mentally ill, but that doesn’t mean they should be.
Rogers said the jail is often the worst place for someone with a mental illness and usually aggravates their issues.
Rogers met with 12 state senators and representatives Monday who are part of a legislative study committee focusing on community corrections and criminal code to ask for help solving one of the biggest problems facing county jails.
“We in corrections are not able to deal with mental-health issues the way they need to be dealt with,” he said. “We need to have options in place to keep people with mental illnesses with no criminal record from ending up at the jail.”
Rogers recounted for legislators the story of Felicia Lewis, who in May was arrested in Kokomo for residential entry. Jail staff quickly realized she suffered from a serious mental illness, so she was transferred to Community Howard Regional Health, where she escaped and broke into a nearby residence.
Lewis was shot five times by the homeowner.
“While this case is extreme, it serves to shock the conscience of most of us in law enforcement and those working in the mental-health field,” Rogers told the committee.
Rogers said he asked the committee for more funding for mental-health facilities to bring on more staff and resources so people at the jail with an illness would have a place to go when they need help.
He also suggested creating mental-health courts that wouldn’t bring criminal charges against someone with a mental illness, instead helping find them treatment.
“This is a large, complex issue deserving of our efforts to find a better way to manage the mentally ill coming into contact with criminal justice system,” he said.
Rogers, who has been an advocate for changing the way the criminal justice system deals with the mentally ill, said Tuesday he was offered the chance to speak at the statehouse after contacting Rep. Mike Karickhoff (R-Kokomo) about creating legislation to help solve the issue.
“Everybody was talking about it, but nobody was doing much,” he said. “If I could be the tip of the spear, I was willing to do that. People in the mental-health field said if I was willing to kick down the door, they would run through it with me.”
He said the committee responded well to his presentation, and said they would continue to investigate the issue.
“My punchline during the presentation was asking that all the stakeholders be brought to the table to work on this problem,” he said. “I got the impression that the committee realizes this is an issue that local jails and mental health folks are dealing with. I think they’re genuinely looking for a reason to help us.”