11:15 PM PDT on Thursday, May 19, 2011
By DUANE W. GANG
The Press-Enterprise
Budget cuts are taking a toll on the mental health care provided to inmates in Riverside County's jails, a new grand jury report concludes.
The 14-page report found that the cutbacks have caused delays for inmates who need to see mental health specialists and receive medication.
The Sheriff's Department runs the county's five jails, but mental health care is overseen by the Department of Mental Health. More than a fourth of the county's nearly 3,700 inmates receive some type of mental health care, according to the report, made public late last week.
Like other county agencies, the mental health department has had to deal with significant budget cuts in recent years. According to the grand jury report, the department had the equivalent of 62 full-time staff members for the jails in fiscal 2007-2008. That is down to 35, according to the report.
Among its conclusions, the grand jury found:
Because of budget cuts, mental health personnel are not available to screen inmates when they are booked into jail. Correctional officers may not recognize mental health problems.
After booking, some inmates must wait two weeks or more to receive a mental health evaluation. In addition, jail inmates have no confidential way to request care.
Some inmates need medication several times during the day and at bedtime. "However, medications are distributed only once or twice in a 24-hour period," the report found.
When a psychiatrist prescribes medication over the phone, county policy requires that a jail psychiatrist evaluate the inmate in person in a timely fashion. But the Blythe jail has no psychiatrist, and those at the other four jails are not full time.
The report did not cite any specific cases in which an inmate's care or safety was compromised because of the budget cuts.
The grand jury recommended that mental health professionals be on hand when inmates are booked into county jails to provide initial assessments. In addition, staffing should be available at each jail on a 24-hour basis to provide adequate care, the grand jury advised.
Mental Health Director Jerry Wengerd said Thursday that he could not comment on the grand jury report until the county prepares its formal reply. The official response is required by Aug. 12.
But in a March interview, Wengerd said his department took a 19 percent budget cut last year. That has had an effect, he said.
"There are times when people have to wait," Wengerd said. "Before we started cutting back, waiting times to see a psychiatrist was probably one day. Now, it is over two weeks."
In March, Sheriff Stan Sniff told supervisors the cutbacks in mental health care could increase his department's liability. Sniff, who ordered an independent review, asked supervisors to increase funding.
On Thursday, Sniff released a department statement on the report. The statement agreed with the report's findings and stated that the grand jury provided a "fair and balanced assessment" on mental health services in the jails.
"We share in the deep concerns reported and believe that it underscores the critical situation that our jail system is facing through insufficient staffing and service levels being provided by County Mental Health Detention Services," the statement read.
Reach Duane W. Gang at 951-368-9547 or dgang@PE.com
PDF: Read the full grand jury report here
http://www.pe.com/localnews/politics/stories/PE_News_Local_D_jails20.3bae70a.html
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