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Tuesday, March 19, 2024
March 19, 2024

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In Our View: New Sheriff’s Challenge

Antiquated county jail must find lasting solutions in dealing with mentally ill

The Columbian
Published:

Transitions inevitably are bumpy, particularly when somebody who has been in office for 24 years is being replaced by a political newcomer. And while incoming Sheriff Chuck Atkins has the experience and the leadership skills to ease the evolution from longtime office-holder Garry Lucas, changes are inevitable for the Clark County Sheriff’s Office. Among the most pressing of those will be the county jail.

Consider: The Clark County Jail houses roughly 700 inmates in a facility that opened in 1984 and is designed to hold 306. Consider: The jail is antiquated in its design, with blind spots making it impossible to directly monitor inmates at all times. And consider: Mentally ill inmates do not receive the services they require, exacerbating the pressure placed upon jail workers and officials. Those are the findings of a recent report from a representative of the National Institute of Corrections, a report that was undertaken at the urging of Lucas and Chief Jail Deputy Ric Bishop, who said, “You have people’s safety at stake — everyone’s safety. So you have to move quickly.”

Officials have made vast improvements in recent years. After a spate of inmate suicides from 2007 through 2012, changes were made to improve services and oversight at the facility, resulting in a sharp reduction in suicides. For example, this year, officials opened a renovated section known as A-Pod, painting it a calming blue and removing hooks, cords and other devices that could be used in a suicide attempt. For another example, deputies and staff have undergone intensive training to glean a better understanding of mental illness. And early next year, officials plan to dedicate a renovated area know as H-Pod for inmates who are mentally ill, with that space becoming available when 144 new beds are opened at the Jail Work Center. Administrators identified a problem and have worked to correct it, and the results have been noticeable.

Yet the antiquated state of the county jail suggests that there are limitations to the measures that can be taken. As the report by Margaret Severson of the National Institute of Corrections noted following her visit to the Clark County Jail, “Three housing units undergoing renovations in the Main Jail are not currently used, which contributes to a logjam of people — particularly those who are assessed as being at risk for suicide and who have mental illness.”

In this regard, Clark County is not alone. Increasing instances of mental illness — or at least increasing societal awareness of it — have been problematic for jails throughout the state and throughout the country. According to the Washington State Hospital Association, state funding for mental health services has been cut by more than $90 million in the past three years, often leaving jails as a de facto boarding house for those who should be receiving treatment elsewhere. Peggy McCarthy, executive director of the local branch of the National Alliance on Mental Illness, said that eventually, “we’ll need to stop playing games and stop calling jails ‘jails’ and start calling them what they are: Mental hospitals.”

That leaves county officials in a difficult situation. The problems inherent with an overcrowded jail are magnified by a lack of services elsewhere for those suffering from mental illness. Bishop has done a laudable job of addressing the problem with limited resources at the Clark County Jail, but there is a need for long-term funding and long-term plans in order to forge a lasting solution.

That will be one of the initial challenges facing Atkins as he moves into the sheriff’s office. We’re confident he can make the transition a smooth one.

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