A Better Approach

Nobody thinks that the best way to care for the mentally ill is to wait for them to break a law and then toss them in jail. Yet all too often, that’s the best response the public sector has to offer.

We appreciate the efforts of the Ventura County Sheriff’s Department to find a better approach.

Earlier this year the sheriff created a new position dedicated to helping mentally ill lawbreakers find the help they need.

As the department’s discharge coordinator, social worker Kate Robinson works one-on-one with petty offenders in the days before they are released from jail to make sure they have a place to stay and will receive treatment.

Her mission is to interrupt the cycle that shuttles the mentally ill between the streets and jail. Mental health advocates say the phenomenon has gotten worse as the state’s limited number of treatment facilities falls further behind the rising demand.

In the 1980s, many state hospitals were closed because federal lawmakers believed that care for the mentally ill could be better handled on the local level. Instead, lack of effective programs has resulted in more wandering mentally ill who continually cross paths with authorities.

Officials are not sure how many homeless mentally ill people are in Ventura County. But the county’s Behavioral Health Department provides some form of assistance to 2,500 people each year.

Sheriff’s officials estimate that as many as 15% of the jail’s inmate population, roughly 230 men and women, are under psychiatric care while behind bars, with illnesses ranging from clinical depression to schizophrenia.

The crucial link is someone to make sure inmates continue their treatment and stay on medication after they are released. That’s where Robinson can help, often by putting people in touch with the county’s outpatient program or a shelter or by reconnecting them with their families.

To pay for a discharge coordinator, Ventura County officials applied for a grant in 1998 but were turned down. Agreeing to the need, Brooks approved money from the department’s general fund to pay for a 20-hour-a-week position. Through another grant request the county hopes to fund a $2.4-million program that would pay for 11 additional behavioral health professionals and three probation officers to oversee cases filed against the mentally ill.

A separate court calendar would be created for those defendants who would be diverted into a treatment program instead of jail. The Sheriff’s Department also plans to track their programs to measure the impact.

The challenge of helping the mentally ill has many facets. No single program holds the entire answer. But this effort to break the loop between streets and jail is an important step, a far more appropriate response than SWAT teams or handcuffs.