By Roddie A. Burris
The State
COLUMBIA, S.C. — The number of inmates in S.C. jails waiting for a mental evaluation has dropped sharply, averaging just two to three a week, mental health officials say.
In late 2002, nearly 70 criminal defendants needing evaluations to determine if they were competent to stand trial or inmates found not guilty by reason of insanity were being warehoused in county jails for nine to 10 months at a time.
Consequently, a Circuit Court judge charged the state Department of Mental Health and its executive director with contempt for failure to provide the beds needed to treat mentally ill inmates.
“South Carolina is one of few (states) where we have gotten into trouble and gotten out again,” said Mark Binkley, general counsel for the state Department of Mental Health.
But the state still pays less than the market rate to hire nurses, psychiatrists and other personnel needed for mental evaluations, Binkley said, adding projected state revenue dips could put the system in a similar situation again in the next couple of years.
Psychiatric patients can pose unique challenges to local jails, officials said, in part because they legally can refuse medications needed to address their sicknesses.
Neighboring North Carolina and Georgia are dealing with similar problems.
For example, some 150 mentally ill inmates are in local jails in Georgia even though the state reportedly spent $33 million on a new facility to treat the sick prisoners. That facility has yet to open.
S.C. law enforcement officials say handling mentally ill inmates today is much different from five years ago.
“From our perspective, there are no problems,” said Capt. John Allard, spokesman for the Lexington County Sheriff’s Department. “Mental competency evaluations have been able to be carried out as required by the various court orders that we receive.”
In the past, Pickens County jail administrator Phil Sargent said inmates sometimes would languish “for months.” But Friday his facility had only one mentally ill inmate waiting for services, with initial evaluations already complete.
In addition to the contempt charges, then-S.C. Circuit Court Judge Henry Floyd threatened Mental Health officials with fines and jail time if they did not fix the problems, which the department blamed on state budget cuts.
From 2001 to 2003, the Department of Mental Health said it lost $40 million in funding and had to eliminate more than 800 positions.
Floyd, now a U.S. District Court judge, withdrew his contempt order in January 2003. He acted after Mental Health met his September 2002 deadline to submit a plan for eliminating inmate waiting lists for treatment.
The department culled $2.1 million from its 2003 operating budget to infuse its program for court-ordered patients, Binkley said, transferring psychiatric employees from other areas and moving its court-ordered operations from Bull Street to the department’s 175-bed Crafts-Farrow treatment facility at Farrow Road and I-20.
The agency converted a building at the campus into a “step-down” facility, designed for inmates who have been treated and are ready for discharge, which added 32 beds, Binkley said.
Department of Mental Health then hired a new psychiatrist in 2006 and another earlier this year. The Legislature also appropriated money to add 20 more beds.
“We shifted resources to make this possible,” said Alison Evans, chairwoman of the state Mental Health Commission, which oversees the Department of Mental Health.
“We walk a tightrope in the department, but we’re hoping to see more such successes as these across the board.”
Copyright 2007 The State