The previous blog related information about the relationship between mental illness and substance abuse.
Re-read that information and then consider this about those "frequent flyer" shoplifters, trespassers, public disorderly conduct perpetrators who end up in the Gila County jail:
When a person is in custody, AHCCCS is cut off. The full cost of medical care of an inmate is borne by the County – no insurance adjustments for emergency room visits or medical tests/procedures.
When an inmate’s mental illness is so severe that (s)he cannot understand the legal process, the cost of restoration to competency to the taxpayers of Gila County is between $7,600 (Yavapai County facility) to $24,000 (Arizona State Hospital) per month.
This is not a rare event in Gila County -- during one week last year there were twelve (12) inmates in the Gila County jail with such severe mental problems that they had to be watched and segregated from the other inmates.
Substance abusers tend to have networks of friends/co-users; not so for mentally ill persons. If a person is in need of a place to stay, it is better to be identified as a “user” because other “users” will let a “user” (but not a mentally ill person) crash with them.
There are alternatives to jail to deal with persons who have a combination of mental illness and a substance abuse problem. Unfortunately, the solution requires experience, willingness to focus on help rather than arrest stats, and co-operation between the branches of government that does not seem likely in the next three years.
Re-read that information and then consider this about those "frequent flyer" shoplifters, trespassers, public disorderly conduct perpetrators who end up in the Gila County jail:
When a person is in custody, AHCCCS is cut off. The full cost of medical care of an inmate is borne by the County – no insurance adjustments for emergency room visits or medical tests/procedures.
When an inmate’s mental illness is so severe that (s)he cannot understand the legal process, the cost of restoration to competency to the taxpayers of Gila County is between $7,600 (Yavapai County facility) to $24,000 (Arizona State Hospital) per month.
This is not a rare event in Gila County -- during one week last year there were twelve (12) inmates in the Gila County jail with such severe mental problems that they had to be watched and segregated from the other inmates.
Substance abusers tend to have networks of friends/co-users; not so for mentally ill persons. If a person is in need of a place to stay, it is better to be identified as a “user” because other “users” will let a “user” (but not a mentally ill person) crash with them.
There are alternatives to jail to deal with persons who have a combination of mental illness and a substance abuse problem. Unfortunately, the solution requires experience, willingness to focus on help rather than arrest stats, and co-operation between the branches of government that does not seem likely in the next three years.