Some mentally ill inmates are being held in the McLean County jail booking area, a practice the county hoped to end in 2018 with the opening of a $43.5 million jail expansion project that included a unit for prisoners with a mental illness.
Sheriff Matt Lane told WGLT Thursday that an ongoing staff shortage has forced his department to house some mentally ill inmates in need of 24-hour supervision in the booking area. Several of those held in cells designed for short-term detention of new inmates have been found unfit to stand trial, said Lane.
The county “has scaled back some areas, including some areas in the new section,” because of a lack of staff, said Lane, adding inmates with less severe mental illness were transferred back to the jail addition several weeks ago.
Lane updated the McLean County Criminal Justice Coordinating Council (CJCC) on Thursday on efforts to recruit new jail officers. With eight hired and employment offers extended to an additional eight, Lane said he is making headway on filling the vacancies that led to 52 inmates recently being transferred to LaSalle County.
The housing of seriously mental ill inmates in the booking area was the catalyst for major reforms to community mental health and construction of the jail addition. Former Sheriff Mike Emery brought the issue of deficiencies in mental health services to the McLean County Board, spurring the board to oversee sweeping improvements.
Lane said he hopes to reopen the areas of the facility specifically designed to house inmates with behavioral health issues.
“We have not met our goal for the mental health section of the jail,” said Lane.
He and other Illinois sheriffs face the challenge of holding inmates found mentally unfit to stand trial for months because of a shortage of beds at state mental health facilities. McLean County currently has 10 individuals waiting on an evaluation or treatment at a state facility.
A report to the justice council indicates that 4,470 inmates with a mental health issue have been booked into the jail during the past three years. Their average length of stay was 21 days, with 806 inmates leaving within the same day and 1,641 spending one night, according to data from Frank Beck, director of the Stevenson Center for Community and Economic Development at Illinois State University.
“The jail is presently 50% persons with mental health issues and 50 percent who do not,” said Beck.
Lane said the jail population on Thursday was 208, meaning the jail is managing about 100 inmates with some form of mental illness.
Several factors have influenced the increase in the number of mentally ill people in jail, said Beck, noting that in 2002, just over 20% of the jail population had a mental health diagnosis. Individuals may self-report a mental health condition and police and jail staff use “caution codes” to identify a person’s mental health issue, Beck explained.
The short jail stays reflect work by criminal justice stakeholders to use the jail space for those charged with the most serious crimes, said Beck.
The CJCC began working toward that goal for all defendants as part of efforts to address jail overcrowding in 2009.
