Funds Sought to Divert Mentally Ill Offenders

Spurred by a round of deadly encounters with the mentally ill, the Ventura County Sheriff’s Department hopes to take advantage of $2.4 million in state money to expand services for disturbed offenders.

In a letter to the Board of Supervisors, Sheriff Bob Brooks unveiled a proposal to hire 11 additional behavioral health professionals and three probation officers to oversee cases filed against the mentally ill. A separate court calendar also would be created for those defendants, who could be diverted into a treatment program instead of jail.

The need for such services has become dire in recent years, Brooks said, noting that the closure of state hospitals across the nation has pushed more people into homelessness and into the path of law enforcement.

“We can debate whether what happened with the state hospital system has worked or not,” Brooks said. “But it created a tremendous amount of problems both for them and us. We don’t want be in this position, but we are.”

Brooks has been working on such a plan since 1998, when about half a dozen shootings by officers involved mentally ill people. All were fatal. Many of the shootings were labeled “suicide by cop,” cases in which severely depressed people provoke police into shooting them.

Cmdr. Mark Ball, who oversees the Ventura County Jail, said an average of 11% to 19% of its roughly 1,500 inmates are suffering from some mental disorder. Ball said the jail has become a revolving door for some who are clearly in need of help.

In response, authorities recently doubled the hours for counselors and psychiatrists servicing the jail.

“They get arrested on a continuous basis for minor violations: nuisance offense, trespassing, loitering, harassing a business,” Ball said. “They are the ones that every jail deputy knows by name.”

Brooks and Ball began working with representatives from probation and the district attorney’s office as well as mental health advocates to address the problem.

Officials applied for the state Board of Corrections program--the Mentally Ill Offender Crime Reduction Grant--three years ago but didn’t make the cut.

This year, the Board of Corrections allocated $50 million for programs targeting the mentally ill, and local authorities are hoping to get a piece of it.

The program would create a separate court calendar for inmates who jail psychologists identify as mentally ill. The same judge, prosecutor and public defenders would handle the caseload. Offenders could then be ordered to participate in a Multi-Agency Referral and Treatment Program.

MART would be a facility staffed by mental health professionals and probation officers. Instead of jail, offenders would get regular help with medication, counseling and placement services.

The goal, Ball said, would be to get more people into treatment, and fewer returning to jail.

“We can start discharging them to an appropriate location, instead of the street,” Ball said. “Right now, they come into jail, we dry them out, get them on the right drugs, provide three square meals. Then they leave and stop taking the appropriate drugs, and all of a sudden the cycle starts again.”

The plan will focus on nonviolent, misdemeanor offenders. But authorities would monitor the plan over a three-year period and, if it is successful, will consider expanding services.