The Republican chairman and vice chairman of a Mississippi House committee say they will introduce bills in this legislative session to set stricter limits on holding people in jails until they can receive mental health treatment.
It sounds like a no-brainer. Anyone with a shred of decency would object to putting someone who has not committed a crime in a county jail. It still happens in many counties because there’s no place else to keep them.
But this occurs far more often than it should. Last year, the Mississippi Today website and ProPublica reported that hundreds of people in the state each year are held in a jail while they await mental health treatment through the civil commitment process.
A recent Mississippi Today story added, “At least 14 Mississippians have died following incarceration during commitment proceedings since 2006, and no other state routinely jails people for days or weeks without charges during the commitment process.”
Rep. Sam Creekmore, R-New Albany, chairman of the House Public Health Committee, and his vice chairman, Rep. Kevin Felsher, R-Biloxi, say they plan bills that would address many aspects of the civil commitment process, including limits on jailing people who are waiting for treatment but are not accused of a crime.
State law currently says people detained by a judge before their commitment hearing can only be held in a jail if the court finds “no reasonable alternative.” The two legislators say the standard needs to be even higher than that.
The problem, of course, is money. Mississippi Today quoted the Lee County chancery clerk, who said it costs about $40 a day to keep someone in jail. But it can cost up to $500 a day to keep a person in a hospital before their mental health commitment hearing.
That math is easy. Using Lee County’s numbers, if it takes two weeks before a person gets a court hearing, it costs a county $560 to hold him in jail. But keeping him in a hospital costs up to $7,000. It may be that judges in rural counties with limited budgets decide that the more expensive option is not a reasonable alternative.
Wendy Bailey, the Department of Mental Health director, said the agency has reviewed mental health commitment laws in five states. Alabama, Tennessee and Virginia prohibit jailing people without criminal charges during the commitment process. Minnesota and South Dakota strictly limit the practice.
Many counties are certain to oppose this legislation if they believe it will increase their costs substantially. Lawmakers would be wise to set a limit on a county’s costs for these situations.
Still, there is something disturbing about putting a non-criminal mentally ill person in jail just because there’s nowhere else to hold him. If Alabama, Tennessee and Virginia figured out how to prevent this from happening, Mississippi can do it too.
