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| Bill would treat mentally ill prisoners |
| By The Courier-Journal |
| Published: 01/26/2004 |
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A bill to identify and treat mentally ill jail inmates cleared a Ky. Senate committee last week and the sponsor, Senate Majority Leader Dan Kelly, said he believes the state will fund the $3.2million project. "I feel confident we will be able to do this," said Kelly, R-Springfield, who said he has discussed the measure with Gov. Ernie Fletcher. Kelly said Senate Bill 64 ties in with the Fletcher administration's goal of getting more drug and alcohol offenders into treatment, rather than incarceration. He said he thinks the state will find the money despite the budget crisis. The Kentucky Jailers Association has endorsed the bill, the latest effort to better manage mentally ill people in jails and reduce suicides following a 2002 series by The Courier-Journal called "Locked in Suffering." The series reported 17 suicides and two deaths in restraints in Kentucky's 85 county jails during a 30-month period, along with other shortcomings in how jails handle mentally ill people. Soon after the series, Kelly successfully sponsored legislation to provide $550,000 over two years to train employees on how to better handle mentally ill inmates. While that training has been "excellent," jail officials have discovered they aren't able to properly assess a mentally ill patient or provide treatment once they are identified, Grant County jailer Steve Kellam told the judiciary committee. A pilot project already has helped jails in five counties, said Connie Milligan, who oversees a crisis line for the Bluegrass Regional Mental Health-Mental Retardation Board, the regional community mental health care service in Lexington. Her agency has worked with jails in Boyle, Grant, Hopkins, Jessamine and Woodford counties since July, providing mental health professionals who can assess inmates by telephone and provide recommendations on care. SB64 would provide $750,000 a year to fund a 24-hour, statewide hotline staffed by licensed mental health professionals that jail employees could call for help assessing and deciding how to handle an inmate suspected of being mentally ill. It also would provide an additional $2.5million to the state's 14 regional community mental health centers to treat inmates referred to them. The effort has the support of the National Alliance for the Mentally Ill of Kentucky, and advocate Jim Dailey testified on behalf of the bill. Afterward, Dailey, who serves on the alliance's national board, said Kentucky has a chance to take the lead. |
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