County looks for strategies to deal with growing number of inmates with mental health issues

As the state has cut mental health services, counties have become increasingly burdened with dealing with de-institutionalized people who often wind up in trouble and in jail.

Locally, people involved in the criminal justice system would like to find ways to keep people with mental health issues out of jail, and to that end the county will apply for a grant to send five people to a summit in Washington, D.C., where local officials from across the country will discuss how they're dealing with these same issues.

"Everyone in the criminal justice community agrees this is an issue and it's an issue that is bigger than just us, so let's go talk with others in other communities and find out ways that worked in their communities and see if we can bring back some of those ideas to Genesee County," said Assistant County Manager Matt Landers.

Landers said Sue Gagne, director of the Mental Health Association, found out about the summit and grant for attendees and brought the idea to Undersheriff William Sheron, who brought it to Landers' attention.

Landers and Director of Mental Health Ellery Reeves presented a resolution authorizing an application for the grant to the Human Services Committee on Monday.

The committee unanimously recommended the full Legislature approve the application at its next meeting.

Though there are no hard numbers, it's clear there are more and more people coming into the jail who have mental health issues, Landers said.

"That number is growing and we don't think it's a coincidence that as the state is closing down institutions and these individuals leave these institutions and come back to their communities of home, that we are now finding some of these individuals using our jails," Landers said.

Mental health issues run the gamut, including depression and schizophrenia, that jail personnel are required to monitor. That adds to the expense of running the jail as well as increasing the jail population.

There's also substance abuse problems connected to these individuals, Reeves said.

"There is no separation," Reeves said. "Literally, when you're saying 'mental health,' you're saying 'mental health and substance abuse.' "

The goal of attending the conference is to find ways of linking services and strategies to either keep people out of jail or keep them in treatment once they're released from jail so they are less likely to return, Reeves said.

Landers said as much of 70 percent of the people incarcerated here at any one time might have mental health issues, which is substantially more, he said, than a few years ago.