County takes part in efforts to help inmates with mental illness
Imperial County along with another 436 counties in the country will take part in the national Stepping up Day of Action to highlight its efforts to reduce the number of people with mental illnesses in jail.
Stepping Up is a national initiative to reduce the number of people with mental illnesses in jails.
Today, an estimated 2 million people with serious mental illnesses are admitted to jail throughout the country.
This issue has led to jails housing more mentally ill individuals than psychiatric hospitals do.
Hoping to find an alternative, the Imperial County Sheriff’s Office recently created the Lima Recovery Pilot Program, which focuses on helping inmates with mental illness gain tools and treatment that will help them once they’re released.
As part of the pilot program, 10 inmates who were screened and diagnosed with a mental illness are currently housed in one unit of the Imperial County Jail specially modified to provide a calming environment.
County Behavioral Health Services also plays a key role in the pilot program, with a social worker Carlos Tapia assigned to the program to interact with the inmates every day. This allows the inmates to have access to a resource previously not available for them.
As part of the program, the inmates attend weekly classes together in which they learn an array of different basic skills such as hygiene, positive interaction with fellow inmates and jail officials, and skills to control reactions to emotional and difficult situations.
Inmates are also encouraged to journal their thoughts on a daily basis.
Though the program has been on a test run for a short time, the results ICSO has seen so far have been positive.
“Before (the program) inmates would just be locked up. However, now they are working together with other agencies to find better solutions to work with the inmates,” said correctional officer Art Aguilar.
The new accommodations within the jail have also been seen in a positive manner by some of the inmates.
One, Michael M., said the new experience “makes it more comfortable to face issues,” and there is a general sentiment that inmates relate better to their new cellmates than they did with the general population.
Shawn R., who has suffered from depression, said the change has given him a more hopeful perspective on the future.
Although the goal of the program is to prepare the inmates to be better equipped to handle their mental illnesses by the time they get released from jail and become productive members of their community.
Once incarcerated, individuals with mental illnesses tend to stay longer in jail, and upon release, they are at a higher risk of returning to incarceration than those without these illnesses.
The human toll of this problem and its costs to taxpayers are staggering. Jails spend two to three times more money on adults with mental illnesses that require intervention than on those without these needs.
The national initiative is led by the National Association of Counties, the American Psychiatric Association Foundation and the Council of State Governments Justice Center.
Stepping Up provides counties with a framework and tools for creating a collaborative, system-wide plan to reduce the number of people with mental illnesses in the county jail in ways that not only improve public safety but promote positive outcomes for individuals with mental illnesses, their families and their communities.