Two bills will be introduced on the House and Senate floors that would impose strict limits on how long people can be jailed without criminal charges while awaiting treatment for mental illness.
Both measures would allow counties to incarcerate people during civil commitment proceedings only if alternatives such as local hospitals or crisis stabilization units are not available, and detention in such jails would be limited to no more than 24 hours. limited to. It also requires mental health screenings to be conducted before a person is detained. The proposal aims to reduce the number of detentions by connecting people to outpatient treatment options wherever possible.
“We need to get mentally ill people out of prison,” Sen. Nicole Boyd (R-Oxford) said Tuesday afternoon while introducing SB 2744 to the Judiciary A Committee.
Her bill passed the committee without opposition. Last week, HB 1640, which contained similar language, passed the House Public Health Committee without opposition.
The bill was enacted in response to reporting by Mississippi Today and ProPublica that hundreds of Mississippians are jailed each year without criminal charges while awaiting mental health evaluation and treatment. be. Since 2006, at least 17 Mississippi residents have died while incarcerated during the commitment process. Earlier this year, 48-year-old James Touch was found unresponsive in the Alcorn County Jail and died after being held without charge for 12 days.
Rep. Sam Creekmore, the House Public Health Committee chair who wrote HB 1640, appeared to reference Touch's death when explaining the part of the bill that would require a hearing within five days of a commitment test. Under current law, a hearing can be held within 10 days after the trial.
“We've had cases in our state recently, and if this had been done, some of the patients would still be alive,” Creekmore said.
As the bill moves forward, county officials could raise concerns about costs, since jail is much cheaper than paying for a hospital stay. Neither SB 2744 nor HB 1640 includes any new funding for treatment beds or facilities or money to help counties comply.
Although the state has expanded its publicly funded crisis stabilization units in recent years, the chancellor and law enforcement agencies often treat patients who are deemed “violent” or in need of a higher level of treatment. They complain that they often turn away patients. If public beds are not available, the county may have to pay for treatment at a private facility.
At Tuesday's Justice Department A conference, Boyd said the nonprofit group Disability Rights Mississippi plans to sue the state and some counties over the practice of jailing people for mental illness. -Referenced to Today's recent report.
“The state is facing lawsuits because it continues to put mentally ill people in prison, and I think this will go a long way toward making sure we solve this problem,” she said.
On Tuesday, Mississippi Disability Rights Executive Director Polly Tribble reiterated her position that jail time is too long for people who have not been charged with a crime.
She asked who will monitor whether the county meets the 24-hour deadline for releasing someone from jail, and said that currently the Department of Mental Health tracks such detentions and their length. , noted that only if someone has had a hearing and is awaiting state judgment. hospital bed.
“There are too many questions,” she said. “We have a duty to protect the rights of people with disabilities, and we will do so.”
The committee superseding HB 1640 and SB 2477 includes measures that would continue to allow detention in prisons certified as detention facilities by the Department of Mental Health. Prisons with this certification must meet health and safety standards and undergo regular inspections by authorities.
At a public health hearing earlier this year, Department of Mental Health Director Wendy Bailey told lawmakers that reforming the civil commitment process to limit prison detention is a top priority for the department this Congress.
Department of Mental Health spokesperson Adam Moore said: “We have supported changes to the commitment process included in this legislation, including restrictions on the use of prisons as detention facilities and a pre-sworn screening process.” . , on tuesday.
The Senate bill would also increase state oversight of community mental health centers, which are independent local organizations responsible for providing safety-net mental health care close to home.
Specifically, Boyd's bill would require the Department of Mental Health to develop a rating scale for centers and conduct performance evaluation audits at least every two years. After a six-month trial period, the director can act in place of the disqualified center director.
SB 2744 is a significant change that could have unintended consequences, said Dave Vann, executive director of Region 8, a community mental health center serving Madison, Rankin and other counties in central Mississippi. He said that he believed that he was adding. He said community mental health center directors and commissioners, as well as county supervisors, were not fully involved in the bill's enactment.
“I think we are completely upending the mental health system in a short period of time without any research or input from all the players who provide the services, on the ground,” he said. “Maybe we need to turn it over. I'm just not sure.”
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