Judgment Day

“Better to aid mentally ill outside of jail, report says”; Here are snippets from The Denver Post story:

One of every five inmates jailed in the seven- county Denver metro area has a serious mental illness, and housing them takes a $34.4 million annual bite out of the counties' tight budgets, according to a new report by a Metro Area County Commissioners' task force.

Seriously ill inmates spend 5 1/2 times longer in jail than average inmates and cost $8.28 more per day because they receive more services and may be housed in special units, the report found.

The report, "Taking Action for Change," said cuts in mental-health programs and few available psychiatric beds mean jail cells end up as the last resort for people with depression and schizophrenic and psychotic disorders.

Money could be saved by plugging service gaps with community programs, the report said, thereby diverting the mentally ill from the criminal justice system and providing a range of help upon release. Community-based programs costs one-tenth as much as jail.

Boulder County's Partnership for Active Community Engagement, or PACE, began in 1999 and has been credited with a 72 percent decrease in overall jail use, saving more than 10,000 jail-bed days each year at a cost of $61 per bed per day, according to a University of Colorado study.

Regular readers know I’m baffled by the amount of money spent on prisons in the United States. I absolutely believe incarceration is a necessary part of our society, but the current system, to put it candidly, is out of control. Numerous studies have shown that locking-up the mentally ill and non-violent offenders for lengthy periods of time is more than a drain on the states’ budgets; it’s also ineffective at deterring crime and leads to more repeat offenders, perpetuating the cycle. These kinds of programs can be beneficial indeed, but states serious about addressing monumental prison costs should be looking at sentencing reform too.

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