(IRON MOUNTAIN, MI.)–Dickinson County Board of Commissioners on Monday night approved involvement in treatment services to the estimated 2-million peoplewith serious mental illnesses who are booked into jail each year. The rates of serious mental illnesses in jails are three to six times higher than for the general population and nearly three-quarters of adults with serious mental illnesses in jails have co-occurring substance use disorders. Adults with mental illness tend to stay incarcerated and risk recidivism than those people without any disorders. County’s spend tow to three times more on adults with mental illnesses that require interventions compared to those who do not require treatment needs. Stepping Up is the National Association of Counties, the Council of State Governments Justice Center and the American Psychiatric Association Foundation are encouraging public, private and non-profit partners to reduce the number of people with mental illnesses in jail. The Dickinson County Board of Commissioners signed on to “Call to Action” to reduce the number of people with mental illness in our county jail, commit to sharing lessons learned with other counties in the state and across the USA. Dickinson County Sheriff, Scott Rutter, in response to the board’s action said, “We will look into this program and see how much we can gain from our involvement in the Stepping Up Program, however, if we find the program is not working positively in our community, we could pursue another program which addresses mental health in jails. As a result we will create a process to track progress using data and information systems and to report on successes.
(Aaron Harper,WJNR,WOBE,WHTO)
aaronharper22@gmail.com