HELPING MENTALLY ILL IN JAIL COLLABORATIVE EFFORT AIMS TO LOWER CRIME RATE, INMATE POPULATION.

Byline: ERIC LEACH

Staff Writer

VENTURA -- County law enforcement and mental health agencies established a Multi-Agency Referral and Recovery Team this month to deal with mentally ill drug abusers who wind up in county jail.

The new effort funded with a $1 million state grant is aimed at encouraging those suffering from mental illness to seek treatment that will keep them out of the crowded jail system and help them recover, officials said.

"We hope to lower the crime rate and lower the jail population," said Ventura County sheriff's Cmdr. Steve DeCesari. "For people who are in jail for minor crimes related to their drug use, this might help them be more productive to society, find employment and a place to live."

In November, the Sheriff's Department, in collaboration with the Ventura County Behavioral Health Department, the District Attorney's Office, the Public Defender's Office, Ventura County Superior Court and the National Alliance of Mentally Ill, applied for the $1 million Mentally Ill Offender Crime Reduction grant from the state.

County officials got the grant in December, and started the program this month.

It involves a new Mental Health Court each Thursday that started April 5, staffed by a judge, deputy district attorney, deputy public defender, probation officers and behavioral health officials, all working to see that mental health issues are recognized in the judicial process.

A survey by the Sheriff's Department between January and June last year found that 11 percent of the 9,813 male inmates and 20 percent of the 1,443 female inmates booked into jail were diagnosed with a mental illness.

Another survey of local inmates found that about 25 percent of those considered mentally ill also had substance-abuse problems.

"The county jail has become the largest facility in the county housing the mentally ill," DeCesari said.

Deputy Public Defender Jean Farley is in charge of the homeless court and cases involving the mentally ill for the Public Defender's Office.

"The Public Defender's Office has been urging this," she said. "We're very happy about the $1 million grant, and we think this is really going to help us with the chronically mentally ill people in this revolving door."

"The jail is basically being used as an emergency room to get people stabilized, when what they really need is treatment and services to get them back in the mainstream. Jail is way too expensive to use like this. It's inhumane."

For years, the Sheriff's Department has been working to improve methods of dealing with the county's mentally ill population, not only in the jails but on the streets where some live. From the time Camarillo State Hospital closed in 1997 to December 2001, there were 12 officer- involved fatal shootings in Ventura County of people considered mentally ill, officials said.

In 2001, the Sheriff's Department established the Law Enforcement Crisis Intervention Team program, which has been credited with limiting the number of officer-involved fatal shootings involving the mentally ill to five over the past five years.

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