By Patrick Malone
The Pueblo Chieftain
PUEBLO COUNTY, Colo. — Mental illness and the demands it places on county jails topped concerns expressed by Colorado sheriffs who attended a conference in Pueblo this week.
The 2007 fall conference of the County Sheriffs of Colorado, hosted locally by the Pueblo County Sheriff’s Department, concluded Friday.
Pueblo County Sheriff Kirk Taylor said it was the consensus among those who attended the conference that coping with the challenges posed by housing mentally ill inmates is the top problem facing sheriff’s departments statewide.
“By default, we’ve become the mental health agencies for the individual counties,” Taylor said.
Deinstitutionalization of mentally ill patients by federal law more than 25 years ago started the problem. Funding cuts to the community agencies that treat the mentally ill since then added to it.
“Is there any other place for them to go?” Taylor said. “Right now, the safest place for them is in jail. We have to find another mechanism for these people.”
Innovative programs are being implemented in some Colorado counties to ease the pressures of dealing with burgeoning populations of mentally ill inmates. Taylor said he is reviewing those approaches in hopes of finding a solution locally.
Taylor said the answer to the problem overlaps into several disciplines. Agencies ranging from law enforcement and the court system to mental health service providers in the community must work together in order to find a lasting solution, Taylor said.
Safety of both inmates and officers can be compromised if mentally ill detainees are not given the treatment and medication that they need. Liability concerns for sheriff’s departments climb, too.
In addition to mental health, legislation affecting law enforcement and possible solutions on other problems that confront each department were discussed.
Copyright 2007 Pueblo Chieftain