State should bolster mental health budget
Thursday, December 1, 2005 7:23 AM PST
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E-mail this articleThe large number of mentally ill inmates routinely housed in the county jail while awaiting competency evaluations at Western State Hospital, as reported by Leslie Slape in the Nov. 27 Daily News, is not Cowlitz County's problem, alone. It's a national problem, born of poorly implemented public policy and penny-wise and pound-foolish spending priorities.
Jails have become something of a dumping ground for many of the mentally ill pushed out on the streets over the past 30-plus years as part of a national movement away from institutionalizing those suffering mental illness. The idea was to emphasize community-based care, but the care made available never was sufficient to serve the numbers needing it. Rather than redirect mental health dollars, lawmakers in this state and others cut back on mental health spending.
The Washington Legislature has been cutting the state's mental-health budget steadily since the 1990s, Slape reported. Since 2001, cuts in the mental health funding have forced Western State to eliminate 150 beds. Fewer beds and a rising caseload at Western result in the long waits mentally ill inmates must endure in county jails before they can evaluated and, perhaps, be treated.
On average, inmates in the Cowlitz County jail wait two months or more for a competency evaluation. That's a very long wait for inmates struggling with a mental illness. It's a long time for corrections officers, who must give those inmates the special attention and care they require.
Terence Arakaki, a mental health counselor with Offender Services, told Slape that the entire jail population is affected. "It's difficult for the inmates, and difficult for the jail staff because we have to manage them," Arakaki said. "They can be angry, or sad, or suicidal, or just crying all the time."
Not surprisingly, local criminal justice officials express anger over the state's continuing failure to address this growing problem. Taxpayers also have cause for anger.
The cost this broken process imposes on local taxpayers is considerable --- staggering, in fact, considering how unnecessary and wasteful the expenditure is. An inmate waiting two months to enter Western for an evaluation costs taxpayers at least $4,020. That's conservative estimate. The cost usually is substantially higher for inmates who are seriously ill. Typically, the jail will have 15 inmates who are waiting for a bed at Western.
This issue may have popped up on the Legislature's radar screen in recent years. Lawmakers funded the construction of a new, 29-bed wing at Western State during the past session. But, as Slape learned from local court officials, that doesn't begin to make up for decades of neglect. Taxpayers should demand more from their legislators, when they convene in Olympia next month.
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