Troubled by years of horrific and costly incidents at the Hennepin County jail, officials are proposing a sweeping overhaul of the way people with mental illness are treated after being arrested, detained and funneled into the criminal justice system. People with psychiatric disorders — many of whom are arrested repeatedly for minor nuisance offenses — would be diverted to a one-stop “recovery center” in south Minneapolis instead of winding up in jail. Once there, they would be stabilized and provided with therapeutic services while under detention. A 2013 Star Tribune investigation found that as many as a third of the people in the county jail on any given day have a history of serious mental illness. Officials say the county spends millions of dollars annually as these people cycle through courts, cellblocks and hospital emergency rooms. In addition, the county has paid large legal settlements over incidents of maltreatment at the jail. “The system is broken... We have high costs and poor outcomes,” said Jennifer DeCubellis, the county’s assistant administrator for health, who designed a plan now being floated by senior county officials. Similar recovery centers now operate in Orlando and Houston, and have attracted the attention of Minnesota legislators and county judges. Hennepin County District Judge Jay Quam and State Sen. Barb Goodwin, DFL-Columbia Heights, recently toured the Orlando operation, and came away convinced that Minnesota could benefit from a similar system. “Most mentally ill people in jail are in a hell they don’t deserve,” said Quam, who recently presided in the county’s mental health court. “Communities like Orlando are proving there is a more effective, economical and humane way to treat mental illness and improve lives.”
Posted on: Wed, 17 Dec 2014 12:04:02 +0000
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