NASHVILLE, Tenn. (WKRN) – It has been more than a year since the Davidson County Sheriff’s Office opened a Behavioral Care Center in an effort to address mental health issues in the criminal justice system.
“We were learning and watching for years and years how the needs of the individual coming into prison had changed dramatically over the last 25 years, where addictions were a focus for years, but mental health really became and continues to be a vital part of that. of what happens. because our country doesn’t really have an outlet for people who need it from a mental health crisis standpoint and so law enforcement gets involved in that,” said Davidson County Sheriff, Daron Hall. “Unfortunately, the criminal justice system has become the de facto mental health system.”
While the new downtown detention center was being built, they used some of those funds to build an adjacent Behavioral Care Center as an alternative to jail for those arrested with mental illness. The 60-bed facility accommodates men and women.
“I took money that was dedicated to building 60 more beds in the jail and used it. These beds cost half of what the 60 beds would have cost if you had built them in the jail that we are building because, frankly, the security nature of the jail bed is very expensive to build,” Hall said. , adding that prison staff moved into behavioral care technician roles, with 84 of them applying for 18 openings. “The only difference for me in cost, so that you can really quantify it, would be the type of care that people receive in this center. Obviously, it is through the Mental Health Cooperative. But it is a regular full-time mental health treatment program.”
The sheriff said that when someone arrives at the jail, they are first seen by a mental health doctor. If their mental health acuity qualifies, meaning they are not currently harming themselves or others and in need of treatment, the individual will be reviewed each morning with the District Attorney and Public Defender to see if they are appropriate for them. to walk straight out of the booking room and straight into the hands of mental health, thus forgoing their entire criminal justice process.
Sheriff Hall said the district attorneys’ office is one of several stakeholders in the process.
“They have [DA’s office] has been helping us in cases where maybe siblings live together and one brother stops taking his medication and may have broken something in the house and the brother who is scared can call the police. That individual is often taken to the prison system,” Hall said. “Instead we now offer to go to mental health hands and the district attorney’s office reaches out to the victim to make sure she’s okay with that.”
Since opening in the fall of 2020, they have had 105 admissions and 87 discharges, meaning those individuals have completed a mental health program of approximately 30 days. BCC workers are dressed as health professionals, and those receiving treatment are referred to as “clients” rather than inmates. The sheriff said they see a variety of mental health disorders, including schizophrenia, bipolar disorder and severe anxiety.
“What I understand about anxiety, the worst thing that could be done was to put an individual in a cell with 44 other people, with limited lighting and in a chaotic environment, such as prisons, and they were asked to reduce anxiety. Hall said. “Many of these people are dually diagnosed, self-medicating with alcohol and drugs because it makes them feel better. And you need to get that out of your system to better understand what the real needs are. And it’s almost alarming what was happening in our community.”
The sheriff says that about 12% of them have been rearrested.
“It is important to know that 80% of people who go to jail with a mental health disorder and do not receive mental health, go back to jail. So we’re at 12%, compared to 80, we’re very, very proud of that,” Hall said. “And if they are re-arrested and returned, they are not ineligible, we will bring them back into the hands of mental health and do everything we can to get them back to help get the person back on their feet.”
When people complete treatment and counseling, charges are dismissed and people are sent with a 30-day supply of medication and follow-up counseling.
“I have said many times that approximately 30% of the people who are in our country’s jails and prisons do not belong there. They belong to a mental health system, and in other countries that 30% would not be in their incarceration rates, which would mean that we would fit in much more consistently with other countries,” Hall said. “So all the reforms, I mean, there’s bail reform, there’s other kinds of things that are happening. But the most important to me is that we address the issue that people who are sick are being brought into the system and need to be handed over to the world of mental health.”
Read more about the CCB HERE.
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