County judge has more issues than Dome
Harris County Judge Ed Emmett has 3½ years left in his current term, and he is passionate and determined to get something done about …
Yeah, sure, the Astrodome. He still plans to turn the abandoned Dome into an indoor park. But that’s fun and games, “just part of my job,” compared to the issue that drives his heart and soul the hardest.
“I am going to push, push, push so there’s more access to mental-health care in Harris County. That’s my focus. That’s what I want to be remembered for,” Emmett said, his voice rising and eyes narrowing with intensity.
Emmett’s father suffered from panic disorder. He couldn’t cope with being alone.
He couldn’t drive alone in a car, wouldn’t get on an empty elevator, couldn’t be by himself, even for a minute, even at home.
“He grew up in East Texas, in the oil fields. One day in the 1940s, while driving home, he had a panic attack. They took him to Galveston where they performed shock therapy on him. He decided no more of that.
“So my father and mother crafted a life where somebody was always with him.”
That’s how Ed Emmett got to Houston.
“We were living in Tyler, and my father worked for Humble Oil, which is now Exxon. They transferred him to Houston, and I was told that I had to go with him. I was just finishing my junior year of high school. I didn’t understand why I couldn’t at least finish the school year in Tyler.”
That’s when Emmett learned about his father’s mental disorder.
“It made for a different life. In some ways, it was cool. Because of his disorder, I got to go to a lot of places. When my mother joined us in Houston, she would drive him every morning to the bus stop. He took the bus downtown to work. There was always somebody on the bus. His friends would meet him at the elevator and ride with him 40 floors to his office.
“After work, he’d take the bus again to Meyerland Plaza, where my mother worked at J.C. Penney. He would walk around the mall until she finished work and could drive him home.
“I think now, if my father were poorly dressed he might have been arrested for walking around the mall each day. People shouldn’t be arrested for having a mental illness.”
Emmett has all the facts and figures at hand.
“We have 4.5 million people in Harris County. The Harris County Psychiatric Center has 229 beds, and many of them are filled with people who have been arrested and are being examined to see if they’re mentally competent to stand trial.”
The single largest mental health facility in Texas is the Harris County Jail, which has, at any given time, 9,000 inmates. Emmett believes that at least one-quarter of them are in jail because of mental illness.
“Their crimes are minor. The real reason they did the crime is their mental disorder. These are people who keep getting rearrested and showing up in jail,” Emmett said.
In 2012, Emmett asked jail officials: How many people in Harris County have been arrested five or more times in the past two years?
“The number was more than 8,000. It’s not good for them. It’s not good for the county. It costs a lot more to deal with somebody in a criminal justice setting than in a mental health system.
“We need a jail-diversion program. When these people show up, and we have them identified, rather than book them and put them in jail, we need to hand them over to mental-health authorities.”
According to Emmett, it costs taxpayers $300 to house one inmate for one night in the county jail. It would cost less than $50 a night to treat that person in a mental-health facility.
“I want to get people out of the criminal justice system when their real issue is mental health.
“When I leave office, if I’ve done nothing else, I want a system where everybody who needs help has access to professional mental-health care in Harris County. This isn’t a conservative or liberal issue. It’s doing what’s right,” Emmett said.
Emmett said he wants to do everything he can to remove the stigma that surrounds mental health.
“That means engaging every group with which I have contact. Beyond that, I want the Harris County jail-diversion project to be the statewide model and have the legislature fund the program statewide. Locally, I want to establish a seamless approach to mental health featuring MHMRA, Harris Health and other providers, including funding facilities to meet the needs identified.”
Now about that empty, round sports stadium on Kirby … what’s the latest on the Astrodome?
“We’re working on it,” Emmett said. “It is still my hope and plan to convert the Astrodome into an indoor park. I think we will get everybody on board and get something finalized soon.
“And we can do it without having a bond election.
“People have to realize that the Astrodome is a building and the county routinely refurbishes and renovates buildings. We spent $70-$80 million to refurbish the 1910 courthouse in downtown Houston and nobody said a word.
“We’re in the process of redoing the exterior of the administration building downtown. We’re forever making improvements to NRG Stadium.
“In that sense, the Astrodome is another building that is completely paid for. Let’s see how we can make the best use of it.”