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EDITORIAL: Planning, hard work needed to address mental illness in Sebastian County justice system

Times Record (Fort Smith, AR) - 5/29/2016

May 29--The problem of overcrowding in our county jails and state prisons continues. To be sure, the governor and Legislature last year took some good-faith actions that reduced the backlog of state prisoners being held in county jails, but that was no panacea.

Why should you care? Why waste a thought on the inconveniences of those incarcerated? Don't they deserve what they get?

There are plenty of reasons for us all to care. First, jails gobble tax money. Those who think overcrowded jails aren't any more expensive to run than jails at appropriate census levels have failed to consider added costs for food, clothing, bedding (no matter how spartan), medical supplies and added staffing. Items that can't be stretched -- programs like mental counseling or job training -- just don't get to the people who need them for a successful re-entry to society.

Overcrowding puts both prisoners and corrections officers at risk. Under the best circumstances, jails are not designed to afford personal space and privacy, but when there are four prisoners in a two-prisoner cell, the chances for trouble grow. That means officers are going to be less likely to tolerate small infractions, which means prisoners are going to be more resentful and more likely to commit an infraction, and you can see where it goes from there. There will be more lockdowns, which means fewer of whatever stress-relieving activities may ordinarily be available for inmates, which means more stress. Again, you can see where it goes.

Of course, there is no silver-bullet, single-step cure for this statewide challenge, but officials in Sebastian County have taken aim at one of the most egregious challenges to the concept of justice in our judicial system, the jailing of mentally ill people simply because we have no better way to deal with them.

A local team of Circuit Judge Anne Hendricks, County Judge David Hudson, Sheriff Bill Hollenbeck, Prosecuting Attorney Daniel Shue and Western Arkansas Counseling and Guidance Center CEO Jim West has begun to take stock of how issues are being handled in other parts of the country, often with great success.

Last week in Fort Smith, Judge Hudson gathered the Sebastian County people together with others statewide who are concerned about our justice system and the appropriate treatment of those with mental illness to share what they had learned and to try to piece together a way forward, capitalizing on what they learned and identifying what must happen to make change possible in Arkansas.

The path ahead is not easy. It will take money, legislation and cooperation on the front end, but if it works, the payoff is going to be terrific: Police officers with skills to de-escalate conflicts with people in a mental health crisis instead of forcing a standoff neither side wants. A short-term care center where patients are stabilized rather than warehoused. A quick return to society for the now-stabilized and connected person who faced the crisis. Less crowded jails with more room for bad guys. Money to spend on constructive state facilities, not correctional state facilities.

We hope you saw the report in Friday's edition about the Fort Smith summit. We've addressed the issue in newsreports and editorials before, and we will again. These changes, however they are lined out in the upcoming weeks and months, are crucial to our future as a compassionate, humane and safe community.

A hat tip to the local officials who have made a robust start on this issue. We appreciate the leadership in action, and we are committed to covering the next steps.

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(c)2016 Times Record (Fort Smith, Ark.)

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