Mentally ill are helped in Franklin County jails
No one wants to be in jail, but it is an especially bad place to be for the mentally ill. Even worse is to be a mentally ill person in jail but not acknowledged as such.
That’s one reason why Franklin County’s recent national recognition for how it identifies and handles mentally ill inmates in its two county jails is a good thing.
Franklin County is one of seven urban and rural “Innovator Counties” honored by the Council of State Governments for accurately identifying and collecting data on those who enter local jails with mental health issues.
The council launched its Stepping Up initiative in May 2015 to work toward better treatment for mentally ill inmates, and Franklin County was one of the first to adopt the program. Support for the work came from Franklin County commissioners and the sheriff’s office.
As Commissioner Marilyn Brown put it, people with mental problems don’t really belong in jail but end up behind bars because “there’s no place else to put them.”
Counting those inmates accurately is a first step toward reducing their numbers in the local criminal- justice system. Once identified, they can be connected with assistance for stable housing, medication and treatment before being released. All deputies working in the county jails as well as dispatchers, civilian staff and some hospital security officers have received training to recognize and better handle mentally ill inmates.
Numbers of mentally ill Franklin County inmates continued to rise during the last half of 2017 — increasing every month from 373 in June to 636 in December, and then remaining above 600 every month this year.
The county’s two jails can hold 1,900 inmates a day, and those with mental illness tend to stay in jail longer — an average of 32 days compared with 20 days for other inmates.
Timing of Franklin County’s participation in Stepping Up is especially good, coming as the county is building a new jail to replace its two aging lockups by 2020. The $200 million new jail will have special programs and treatment space for mentally ill inmates.
A police officer who will not be recognized as a model of good practice is Robert Wells, a former part-time Franklin Township officer.
Wells was suspended and then resigned while the township reviews a May incident in which a bystander captured video of Wells kicking a restrained suspect in the head while another officer had the 18- yearold man handcuffed on the ground. The two officers had just been in a 24-minute chase stemming from a traffic stop of the suspect when the kick was delivered.
Memo to police officers everywhere: Kicking handcuffed suspects in the head is never a good idea, and it will probably be recorded on video, either from your own body-cam or a bystander’s cellphone.
Memo to Wells: Really? Again?
Wells was fired from the Pataskala Police Department in 2002 after another video showed him and a second officer, who also was fired, punching and kicking an 18- year- old they were arresting. The two pleaded guilty to misdemeanor assault charges in that case.
One such incident is bad enough. Two is inexcusable. Franklin Township is fortunate to be rid of Wells.