Los Gatos Weekly-Times

Jail diversion proposal would expand services

By Sue Fagalde Lick

While County Executive Richard Wittenberg is proposing $2 million worth of cuts in the mental health budget, Supervisor Jim Beall is touting a new program that would expand mental health services.

Too many people who need mental-health treatment are being put in jail, Beall said last week as he announced the policy recommendations of the Mental Health Jail Diversion Steering Committee, which he heads.

The committee's recommendations include:

* Creation of a Mental Health Mobile Crisis Unit that would respond to calls for assistance by local law-enforcement officers;

* Increased education for officers about mental health problems and the resources that are available;

* Improved communication between mental health professionals and the criminal justice system;

* Expanded use of the sobering station at the old county jail;

* Improved procedures for following up mentally ill defendants who have been released from custody.

The committee, formed in January and composed of representatives from the courts, law enforcement, the jails and the Mental Health Advisory Board, made its proposals public May 28 and planned to present them to the Board of Supervisors June 4.

If approved, the program will have a one-year tryout, starting within the next few months, Beall said. The mobile crisis unit will be concentrated in the downtown and Franklin-McKinley sections of San Jose, where problems seem to be the worst. The other recommendations will be applied countywide.

Over the past four years, Beall said, the mental health budget has been cut by $23 million. Without the treatment they need, people wind up getting in trouble, often for minor misdeeds, such as loitering or public drunkenness. With no other option, law officers take them to jail. The committee estimated that 8 percent of the individuals in jail are mentally ill.

Once caught in the system, they can't seem to get out. They fail to make court appearances or pay fines and end up getting charged repeatedly. Susan Bernardini of the county public defender's office noted that she has seen mentally ill defendants with 55 or 75 prior arrests.

Services have been cut back to the point that "the safety net is tattered, and there are holes. People are falling through, and they're falling right into the jail," Beall said.

Even as Beall is decrying mental health cuts and seeking to fill in the holes from past cuts, more cuts face the county.

Supervisor Mike Honda, whose district includes Los Gatos, said proposed cuts would mean the elimination of 25 jobs, including seven positions at the Central and West Valley mental health centers. Honda said the supervisors hope to find other places to cut the budget to lessen the impact on mental health.

Local law enforcement officers are supportive of Beall's proposals but don't know if they will have much impact in the West Valley.

Capt. Jeff Miller of the Los Gatos Police Department said Los Gatos will not feel the effects of the proposed policy for at least the first year.

Miller added, "I don't think that we see significant numbers that are in need of mental help being booked for something related to their mental illness."

People who are drunk or otherwise out of control are taken to jail only as a last resort, Miller said. Officers try to find a family member or friend to take care of them.

Beall's proposal brought a chuckle from sheriff's Capt. Bob Wilson at the Westside substation, which serves Saratoga and Cupertino. Not all of Beall's proposals are new ideas, he said. Before the passage of Prop. 13, he said, Santa Clara County had a two-officer mental health unit that provided counseling, referrals and officer training and successfully diverted many people from jail.

"I support anybody who is trying to take the mentally ill out of the jail system," Wilson said. Right now, sheriff's deputies have two choices for them, Wilson added: jail or jail.

However, in the West Valley, Wilson noted, people suffering from mental illness create fewer law enforcement problems because their families often have access to health maintenance organizations or the financial means to pay for private mental health services.

Beall said the mental health mobile crisis unit will cost $375,000 to implement for one year. Diverting people from the jails will add some costs, but will more than pay for itself in law enforcement and jail savings.

Daniel Vasquez, director of the Department of Corrections, said it costs $138 per booking and an average of $28,000 per year to house someone in the Santa Clara County Jail.