When a representative of the National Institute of Corrections visited the Clark County Jail over the summer, she found a detox center in disarray, housing units teeming with inmates, and a facility buckling under the pressure of overcrowding and a lack of direct supervision of inmates.
Her report, released in August, highlights the growing challenges facing the jail and its roughly 700 inmates. There are a plethora of unmet needs, even as the jail has taken strides to improve services. At the center of it all, the report concludes, mentally ill inmates don’t receive the attention they should.
“Three housing units undergoing renovations in the Main Jail are not currently used,” wrote Margaret Severson, a technical resource provider for the institute of corrections, “which contributes to a logjam of people — particularly those who are assessed as being at risk for suicide and who have mental illness — in other units.”
According to the report, the jail is antiquated in its design, and measures should be taken to bring it in line with current jail trends. Among the top trends is being able to directly monitor inmates, a difficult feat to accomplish at the jail, which is replete with blind spots. The concerns raised in the report are plenty, and they echo what local mental health advocates have long said. But amid the critical look at the jail, there’s the thought that the future will be a bit brighter.
The report came at the recommendation of Chief Jail Deputy Ric Bishop and Sheriff Garry Lucas and is being used as a road map for the sorts of changes the jail staff plans to implement next year. For years, the jail has been overcrowded. What was designed to house 306 inmates in 1984 currently has twice that number.
It’s time for change, Bishop said.
“You have people’s safety at stake — everyone’s safety,” Bishop said. “So you have to move quickly.”
Bishop said the jail has taken the report’s findings to heart and he plans to revamp jail operations starting at the beginning of next year. That will include dedicating a unit of the jail, known as H-Pod, to inmates with mental illness. Space in the pod will be made available when the jail opens around 144 new beds at the Jail Work Center.
He said H-Pod will be used for the mildly mentally ill, not the chronically assaultive, who might be unsuited for a more therapeutic setting.
“We need to plan,” Bishop said. “No county has unlimited capacity. We have to start now to plan for the long-term future of this facility.”
Many local mental health advocates have urged the jail staff to make changes at the jail, to better accommodate and recognize people with mental disorders. The issue gained prominence when the jail saw nine suicides in four years, leading to this year’s rehabilitation of a wing known as A-Pod. Painted a calming light blue, the unit is free of hooks and cords and other devices that could be used in suicide attempts.
Don Greenwood, a retired Episcopalian priest and former president of National Alliance of Mental Health for Clark County, said he’d seen a change in philosophy at the jail over the past year.
It’s more open and accommodating to outside influences.
He points to the jail staff’s willingness to allow therapy dogs to visit some of the inmates, particularly the ones with mental health issues.
“This is a whole different attitude — opening up the jail,” Greenwood said. “I think it’s going to continue under (Sheriff-elect) Chuck Atkins.”
Others in the mental health field say they’re also heartened by the newfound emphasis on new services.
Peggy McCarthy is the current executive director of the local NAMI. She applauded Bishop for his job reshaping the jail into a place that’s more accommodating to people with mental illnesses.
“Bishop has done a terrific job of making simple changes, and relatively inexpensive changes to try to prevent suicides,” she said.
But more could be done, and she hopes it is. McCarthy said she would like to see the corrections staff participate in crisis intervention training, provided through the institute of corrections. Throughout Clark County, only officers at the Vancouver Police Department receive the training.
She plans to work with Southwest Behavioral Health to drum up grant dollars to make that happen.
From McCarthy’s perspective, bolstering resources for people with mental health issues will require new approaches that take into consideration a current lack of financial resources. And that places a heavier burden on jails, where by some estimations more than 50 percent of inmates are afflicted with some form of mental illness.
The state has cut mental health services by more than $90 million over the past three year, and available beds have declined by 36 percent, according to the Washington State Hospital Association. During the same time, the state’s population has grown by 14 percent.
Without recognizing the needs of the mentally ill, McCarthy said, jails will suffer. And if it reaches a certain point, “we’ll need to stop playing games and stop calling jails ‘jails’ and start calling them what they are: mental hospitals.”
