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07-06-2004, 03:06 PM
Justice gaps for mentally ill closed
Tuesday, July 06, 2004
By Denise
Before the death of a mentally-ill inmate in the Gloucester County jail last year, Elaine Goodman saw a frightening gap between the criminal justice system and the mental health community.
Meager police training in mental illness was landing mentally-ill people behind bars.
Then, inmates who lost their Medicaid benefits while in jail couldn't access their medication and wound up back behind bars within days of their release.
Jail staff, barred by law from accessing medical records, had difficulty determining what care inmates needed.
"This should make people ashamed," said Goodman, a Wenonah resident and local coordinator for the National Alliance for the Mentally Ill. "It's like I tell the police -- arresting someone for behavior that is a result of mental illness is like arresting somebody who has a heart attack for obstructing traffic."
With an estimated 15 percent of Gloucester County's jail population suffering from some type of mental illness, authorities are now trying to focus on strengthening the relationships among agencies that regularly deal with the mentally ill, from the mental health system to the county jail.
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Across the country, Goodman said, three times as many mentally ill persons are behind bars than in public psychiatric hospitals.
"The jails were never intended to be psychiatric hospitals, and that's what they're ending up being," said Goodman, who approached Gloucester County Prosecutor Sean Dalton last year about creating a committee to work on mental health issues in the county's justice system.
While the vast majority of the mentally ill -- from those that suffer from schizophrenia to people with bipolar disorder -- cope with their illnesses through medication, Dalton said problems can arise when they lose access to or stop taking prescriptions.
"Because their illness is manifest through behaviors, they are ending up in jail and it's really a disgrace," Goodman said.
And once they land they land in jail, the risks get even greater.
"The fact is, it's a problem throughout the country," said Goodman. "It's not just that people get killed or die in jail. They get maimed. They get raped. They're very vulnerable."
At the end of last year, Dalton brought together the Gloucester County Mental Illness and Intervention Committee to address the area's criminal justice service for the mentally ill.
While the idea for the committee was proposed before King died, the group may help reduce future crises in the jail.
Last month, the committee put out its first publication, a 16-page booklet titled "Dealing with Mental Illness Crisis" -- distributed by the Gloucester County Prosecutor's Office to teach the county's police officers about the mentally ill.
"We've made great progress just since we started," said Goodman, a member of the committee. "These are major steps forward. Most counties don't have stuff like this."
n
The committee brought together some of Gloucester County's key players in criminal justice and mental health to address gaps between the two communities.
The idea, Dalton said, is to eventually divert offenders with serious mental health problems to a system that can address their problems and, hopefully, keep them out of jail.
"If their conduct stems solely from a manifestation of their mental illness, we want to deal with the mental illness aspects," Dalton said.
Besides the booklet, which outlines state laws concerning the screening of mentally ill citizens, the committee helped put mental health training back into the county's officer re-certification program.
The focus on education, Goodman hopes, will address gaps between mental health laws and the people charged with enforcing them.
Although New Jersey has one of the best mental health screening laws -- officers acting in good faith who take reasonable steps to get someone to a mental health assessment cannot be sued for false arrest -- few officers knew of the state statute before training was improved, Goodman said.
The committee is also working to improve offenders' access to medication.
Because Medicaid benefits of inmates are often cut off when they enter jail, mentally-ill offenders can leave with a six-week wait to get back into the system.
"That's a huge gap of time when the individual off medication can start manifesting the behavior that ended him in jail in the first place," Dalton said.
While the committee has already provided social services applications to new inmates, it is also working to set up a non-profit organization that would use donations from area pharmaceutical companies to help supply mentally ill inmates with money for medication when they leave jail.
"I'm very enthused about the whole aspect of it, because we do need it badly," Prabhaer Patel, a psychiatrist who works for the Gloucester County jail, said about the committee's work. "In reality, not only will we be able to provide better services to our mentally handicapped patients, but in the long run, I think, it will become more cost effective also."
n
Ultimately, the committee would like to build a regional forensic hospital that could house mentally ill offenders and better deal with their needs.
While Goodman and Patel praised Gloucester County's psychiatric screening process and good working relationship between the Department of Corrections and mental health professionals, they both said the region would benefit from a separate facility to house mentally ill offenders.
"If a person has a mental illness and he's in jail, and the judge wants to put him in psychiatric care ... there is no where to put him," Goodman said.
Patel believes that better relationships among the agencies that work with the mentally ill might enable the county to divert patients before they enter a correction facility as well as reduce the number of repeat offenders, lessen the need for crisis centers, and improve the health and physical condition of mental health patients.
"I think people really should be aware of the efforts law enforcement is undergoing -- not just to lock people up but ... to get the necessary help in order to address their needs," Dalton said.
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Tuesday, July 06, 2004
By Denise
Before the death of a mentally-ill inmate in the Gloucester County jail last year, Elaine Goodman saw a frightening gap between the criminal justice system and the mental health community.
Meager police training in mental illness was landing mentally-ill people behind bars.
Then, inmates who lost their Medicaid benefits while in jail couldn't access their medication and wound up back behind bars within days of their release.
Jail staff, barred by law from accessing medical records, had difficulty determining what care inmates needed.
"This should make people ashamed," said Goodman, a Wenonah resident and local coordinator for the National Alliance for the Mentally Ill. "It's like I tell the police -- arresting someone for behavior that is a result of mental illness is like arresting somebody who has a heart attack for obstructing traffic."
With an estimated 15 percent of Gloucester County's jail population suffering from some type of mental illness, authorities are now trying to focus on strengthening the relationships among agencies that regularly deal with the mentally ill, from the mental health system to the county jail.
n
Across the country, Goodman said, three times as many mentally ill persons are behind bars than in public psychiatric hospitals.
"The jails were never intended to be psychiatric hospitals, and that's what they're ending up being," said Goodman, who approached Gloucester County Prosecutor Sean Dalton last year about creating a committee to work on mental health issues in the county's justice system.
While the vast majority of the mentally ill -- from those that suffer from schizophrenia to people with bipolar disorder -- cope with their illnesses through medication, Dalton said problems can arise when they lose access to or stop taking prescriptions.
"Because their illness is manifest through behaviors, they are ending up in jail and it's really a disgrace," Goodman said.
And once they land they land in jail, the risks get even greater.
"The fact is, it's a problem throughout the country," said Goodman. "It's not just that people get killed or die in jail. They get maimed. They get raped. They're very vulnerable."
At the end of last year, Dalton brought together the Gloucester County Mental Illness and Intervention Committee to address the area's criminal justice service for the mentally ill.
While the idea for the committee was proposed before King died, the group may help reduce future crises in the jail.
Last month, the committee put out its first publication, a 16-page booklet titled "Dealing with Mental Illness Crisis" -- distributed by the Gloucester County Prosecutor's Office to teach the county's police officers about the mentally ill.
"We've made great progress just since we started," said Goodman, a member of the committee. "These are major steps forward. Most counties don't have stuff like this."
n
The committee brought together some of Gloucester County's key players in criminal justice and mental health to address gaps between the two communities.
The idea, Dalton said, is to eventually divert offenders with serious mental health problems to a system that can address their problems and, hopefully, keep them out of jail.
"If their conduct stems solely from a manifestation of their mental illness, we want to deal with the mental illness aspects," Dalton said.
Besides the booklet, which outlines state laws concerning the screening of mentally ill citizens, the committee helped put mental health training back into the county's officer re-certification program.
The focus on education, Goodman hopes, will address gaps between mental health laws and the people charged with enforcing them.
Although New Jersey has one of the best mental health screening laws -- officers acting in good faith who take reasonable steps to get someone to a mental health assessment cannot be sued for false arrest -- few officers knew of the state statute before training was improved, Goodman said.
The committee is also working to improve offenders' access to medication.
Because Medicaid benefits of inmates are often cut off when they enter jail, mentally-ill offenders can leave with a six-week wait to get back into the system.
"That's a huge gap of time when the individual off medication can start manifesting the behavior that ended him in jail in the first place," Dalton said.
While the committee has already provided social services applications to new inmates, it is also working to set up a non-profit organization that would use donations from area pharmaceutical companies to help supply mentally ill inmates with money for medication when they leave jail.
"I'm very enthused about the whole aspect of it, because we do need it badly," Prabhaer Patel, a psychiatrist who works for the Gloucester County jail, said about the committee's work. "In reality, not only will we be able to provide better services to our mentally handicapped patients, but in the long run, I think, it will become more cost effective also."
n
Ultimately, the committee would like to build a regional forensic hospital that could house mentally ill offenders and better deal with their needs.
While Goodman and Patel praised Gloucester County's psychiatric screening process and good working relationship between the Department of Corrections and mental health professionals, they both said the region would benefit from a separate facility to house mentally ill offenders.
"If a person has a mental illness and he's in jail, and the judge wants to put him in psychiatric care ... there is no where to put him," Goodman said.
Patel believes that better relationships among the agencies that work with the mentally ill might enable the county to divert patients before they enter a correction facility as well as reduce the number of repeat offenders, lessen the need for crisis centers, and improve the health and physical condition of mental health patients.
"I think people really should be aware of the efforts law enforcement is undergoing -- not just to lock people up but ... to get the necessary help in order to address their needs," Dalton said.
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