Crisis unit would help mentally ill

FORT SMITH — Sebastian County officials are preparing an application, seeking to be approved to set up a crisis stabilization unit where mentally ill people who come into contact with police can be sent to keep them from ending up in jail or prison.

Sebastian County is one of four or five entities state Sen. Jeremy Hutchinson, R-Little Rock, said he’s heard may apply for one of the three units that will be established in Arkansas and operated with $5 million that Gov. Asa Hutchinson included in this year’s state budget.

A coalition in Northwest Arkansas also has been working toward becoming the location for one of the units.

The governor’s office announced June 16 the opening of the application process. The deadline is Friday.

A Criminal Justice Oversight Task Force will review all the applications and select the three entities that will establish the crisis stabilization units, according to J.R. Davis, a spokesman for the governor’s office. Davis said the task force will be formed after Act 423 of 2017, which authorized the crisis stabilization units, becomes effective July 31.

Jeremy Hutchinson, co-chairman of the Legislative Criminal Justice Oversight Task Force that recommended establishment of the units, said he sees the pilot program as a starting point from which to expand with additional units around the state over time.

David Hudson, county judge for Sebastian County, said in addition to operating the crisis stabilization units, data collection and reporting will be important to demonstrate the program’s worth when it comes to how much the units affect incarceration numbers, recidivism rates, and costs to county jails and the state prison system.

He said Sebastian County has taken a leadership role in promoting diversion of the mentally ill from jails. He and other officials have attended national and regional seminars, conducted local seminars and testified before several groups, including the task force, in support of such programs.

“Having not seen any applications, based on the amount of work, I think Sebastian County is ahead of the game,” Jeremy Hutchinson said.

Hudson said that, in filling out the stabilization-unit application documents, he has been working with Sebastian County Prosecutor Dan Shue and Jim West, president of Western Arkansas Counseling and Guidance Center.

If chosen, the county would locate the crisis stabilization unit in a building owned by the guidance center in Fort Smith. According to a resolution the Sebastian County Quorum Court approved Tuesday, the county has appropriated $140,000 toward the remodeling of the building into a 16-bed unit that would be staffed and operated by the guidance center.

“The building is important, but you have to have appropriate staffing to be there to operate on a seven-day-aweek, 24-hour-a-day basis,” Hudson said.

Hudson said the county already has an agreement with the guidance center to provide psychiatric services in the Sebastian County jail. So, it seemed natural to extend that relationship to partnering on the crisis stabilization unit pilot program, he said.

In a memorandum from Hudson to the Quorum Court, he said the application would include information on a physical site, health care staffing, financing, return on investment, collaboration, leadership and Stepping Up program engagement.

The nationwide Stepping Up Initiative was set up to help counties reduce the number of incarcerated adults who have mental illnesses and substance use disorders.

The crisis stabilization units would assist such people by providing mental health treatment for up to 72 hours, after which the person would be released back into society.

One of the reasons county jails and state prisons have been so crowded is there is no other place to put people when they have psychotic episodes or suffer from substance abuse to the point where they are a danger to themselves or others.

As with law enforcement, Hudson said, medical officials in Fort Smith have reported 80-100 instances a month when mentally ill people show up in hospital emergency rooms.

Sebastian County Sheriff Bill Hollenbeck has said county jails are the largest mental health centers in the state. County jails don’t have the means to stabilize or treat the mentally ill, Hollenbeck said, and putting them in jail instead of treating the illnesses criminalizes mental illness.

Hudson said Sebastian County has taken a leadership role in promoting diversion of the mentally ill from jails.