Activists Seek To Help Mentally Ill Jail Inmates
Activists seek to help mentally ill jail inmates
Activists for the homeless and the mentally ill are pushing for more mental health and housing services in Santa Barbara County.
In the wake of a grand jury report to the Santa Barbara County Board of supervisors on the cost of incarcerating the mentally ill, activists held a press conference Tuesday near the entrance of the county government building on Anapamu Street.
Suzanne Riordan, executive director of mental health advocacy group Families ACT!, said people on the streets are being caught up in a cycle where they’re sent to jail for being on the streets. But they don’t get the help they need there and end up back on the streets, only to get arrested again.
“We’ve got to stop the revolving door in Santa Barbara County,” Riordan said.
Families ACT! prepared its own 60-page report on solutions to dealing with the mentally ill. It advocates increased care beds, transitional housing centers that offer treatment and education programs, an Employment Opportunity Program, more prevention and alternatives to jail for the mentally ill, and a citizen’s commission to monitor treatment in jails.
Speakers said jails don’t have the resources or the environment to help people with mental illness. Corrine Neale, who is bipolar, said she spent two weeks in jail in Kentucky. While inside she never got medication, never got treatment, and endured being pepper sprayed and sent into isolation.
“The experience of being mentally ill in jail is nothing less than terrorization,” Neale said.
Wayne Mellinger, a counselor, said the problem is going to get worse. With spring coming, warming centers will close and Casa Esperanza is eliminating 100 beds, putting more people out on the street with no place sleep. He said they then can get an illegal lodging ticket and are sent to jail.
“Their only crime is being poor and having nowhere to sleep,” Mellinger said. “This is injustice.”
Michael Cravens has been homeless off and on for the last nine years. A Coast Guard veteran, Cravens has worked as a paramedic, a firefighter, and a forest ranger. He’s suffered neurological injuries from his work as well as PTSD, alcoholism.
He said criminalizing is not the answer, jail can’t provide people with the help they need because there are too many gaps in the system. Healthcare and housing are what’s needed to break the cycle.
“These streets are hard to sleep on, they’re hard to endure,” Cravens said.
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