Mental health court would be frugal, kind

The paint was barely dry on the $12-million new wing of the Hernando County Jail in 2005 before speculation began about the need for another expansion. The prison population was increasing at a compounded rate of almost 2 percent monthly, which meant every one of the 867 beds would be occupied by April 2009.

Fortunately, that growth rate has leveled off some, but it is only a respite from the inevitable. It still won't be too long - perhaps late 2010 - until more beds and cells will be needed at the jail. An architect already has submitted plans for a 240-bed vertical addition that would cost about $8-million and take seven months to construct.

That means the County Commission cannot put off much longer the decisions it must make to address that certain need.

Given that the County Commission will collect significantly less revenue from property taxes as the result of mandates from the state Legislature and voters, and that other projects are vying for available capital improvement funds, it is likely the commission will have to borrow the money for such an expansion, just as it did for the previous add-on. Going further into debt is an unappealing prospect, but the commission has no choice if the prison population continues to increase; locking up lawbreakers is an essential public safety function.

However, the commission does have options when it comes to controlling the number of prisoners in the jail, and it must be willing to invest the resources, including cash, now to avoid greater expense to taxpayers and to serve the long-term interests of the community.

Some commissioners have expressed interest in that approach, which is both socially and fiscally progressive. Earlier this month, there was a confab of law enforcement, judicial and legislative officials to explore the possibilities of using ankle bracelets to digitally monitor nonviolent prisoners. That is a sensible pursuit that would set aside prison space for inmates who pose a greater risk to the public. At $15 per prisoner per day, ankle bracelets also would save taxpayers about $40 of the daily cost of $55 to jail a prisoner.

But perhaps the most levelheaded alternative for reducing the inmate population was discussed at a roundtable meeting Friday afternoon in Brooksville. Mental health court, so called because of the defendants it adjudicates, combats the shortsighted and expensive practice of warehousing inmates who have a diagnosed and treatable mental illness. Done properly, it offers eligible arrestees the opportunity to maintain their regimen of medications and to receive the counseling they need.

Patterned after "drug court," a successful program instituted a few years ago to take first-time drug offenders out of jail and put them into rehabilitation, mental health court would divert some prisoners to treatment centers and social service agencies. There, with proper care and medication, they should learn how to function within the law without being merely "stabilized" and lumped into the general prison population to await evaluations, court hearings or trial.

This effort can be accomplished only with buy-in from the community, specifically the agencies and institutions that are directly involved. Those include local hospitals, behavioral health providers, prosecutors, public defenders, corrections officials and advocates for the mentally ill. If they can commit to act cohesively they can rebuild lives and save tax expenditures in the process. The start-up costs of such a mental health program are minimal and there is grant money, private as well as public, available.

In a community like Hernando, where mental health care facilities and providers are quite limited, punishment too often prevails over treatment. People who have committed a crime, but who pose no threat to themselves or others, sometimes wind up in jail because that is the only option.

At the Hernando County Jail, that category of patients is above average. Ten days ago, about 25 percent of the inmates were taking psychotropic medication, according to Don Stewart, warden at the jail that is operated by Corrections Corporation of America. But "the number of people who require mental health care has been consistent, between 32 and 41 percent, which is very high," he recently told the Times.

Mental health court is a compassionate and intelligent approach that ultimately saves taxpayers money while maintaining public safety. Its value has been recognized nationally and is a new priority in Florida, thanks to the interest of Gov. Charlie Crist and the Florida Supreme Court justices, who are working with involved agencies to solve this neglected problem.

The Hernando County Commission would serve its constituents well by doing all it can to advance this initiative. It is better to spend a few dollars on a mental health court or other sentencing alternatives than to spend millions more expanding the county jail for use as a mental institution.

[Last modified February 16, 2008, 20:33:09]