The school shooting has put mental health back on the public policy radar, and in Texas, it is not a pleasant image. In fact, the Harris County Jail is now a symbol of what's become the largest mental health treatment facility in nation's fourth city.
There are about 9,000 inmates at the Harris County Jail, held for everything from misdemeanors to major crimes. But of that number, a fourth are housed in the jail's mental health unit, a psychiatric center of last resort.
"When there are no available treatment resources or facilities outside of the law enforcement correctional environment, then you push the problem over to jails and prisons," Harris County Sheriff Adrian Garcia said.
The cost is huge. The state has cut mental health funding over the years, to the point it now ranks last in the nation, according to several studies. While outpatient mental health services cost less, in jail, when security, housing and medication is added in, it's estimated to have run about $70 million last year.
"We have 2,100 patients right now. We've been up to as high as 2,500 per month, for a long time," said Mona Lisa Jiles, an administrator with the MHMRA
At the county jail, the inmate patients are stabilized, put on medication, and if they aren't a danger to themselves or others, by law they are released. The problem is to what often it's to the streets.
"I think we always worry about them and often times unfortunately we see them back very soon," said Dr. Michael Seale, the jail's medical director.
With what's happened in Connecticut, there will be a call in the upcoming Texas Legislature to restore some of that mental health funding.
(Copyright ©2012 by The Associated Press. All Rights Reserved.) Get more National/World »Connecticut school shooting, national/world, deborah wrigley
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