TIFFIN, Ohio (WTVG) – Officials in Seneca County are taking a closer look at a possible mental health and substance use treatment regional Jail.
“Whether you’re intoxicated, mentally ill, you’re a criminal, you just end up in the jail, and then it’s up to the sheriff and the system to process it from there,” Seneca County Commissioner Tony Paradiso said.
Paradiso said that the system needs to change.
“They need help, it’s draining our resources, often times we don’t have the resources to help them,” Paradiso added.
A recent $500,000 Ohio Department of Rehabilitation and Corrections grant awarded to Seneca, Sandusky and Ottawa counties will take a closer look at the possibility of building a mental health jail for the region.
“we’re researching everything from the beginning to the end, and a lot of times people end up in jail that really don’t need to be there,” Paradiso said. “And if we could figure out a way to deflect them, that also would take a burden off the system whether it’s in a mental health jail or a regular jail.”
According to a stat from the Bureau of Justice Statistics, there are three times more people with serious mental illness in jails and prisons in the United States than in hospitals.
“By law we are required to make sure any inmate that’s processed in our facility, booked into our facility, has the health and safety welfare of their time here, taking care of,” Seneca County Sheriff Fredrick Stevens said. “And mental health has been chewing up more and more of those resources since the late 90s.”
The project is still in the early information-gathering stage. Sheriff Stevens said the mental health study is a step in the right direction.
“Wasting resources and time, if we could get them those type of programs in-house, either here or at a regional facility, then I think we are attacking the problem at the root while they’re here, they’re a captive audience when they are in custody, you can’t leave it on them to get the help once they get out,” Stevens said.
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