MOBILE, Ala. (WPMI) — Hundreds of corrections and detention professionals are gathering in Mobile this week for the National Institute for Prison Management's 2024 Regional Jail Convention, which also includes training on issues affecting prisons across the country, including prison suicides.
Mobile County Metro Jail Administrator Sam Houston said mental health is one of the biggest issues affecting the jail.
“Unfortunately, we have become a warehouse for the mentally ill, it is not the right place for them.
About 43% of state prison inmates had a history of mental illness, according to a 2016 Bureau of Justice Statistics study, and Houston believes this could be due to a lack of community resources and adequate funding.
“Unfortunately, we have a constant stream of people incarcerated for mental illness who could be receiving treatment elsewhere, and we should be trying to keep them out of prison,” he said. “We're now partnering and working with the justice system and community resources to try to reduce recidivism for mental illness a little bit.”
Houston said the closure of the Searcy State Psychiatric Hospital had a huge impact on the state's prison population, and while the state has created new systems to address the issue, he believes more resources are needed.
“I think there needs to be some kind of step up in some ways to address this issue. I'm not blaming the state of Alabama. This is a national issue and everybody is trying to figure out how to best address it with the resources that they have,” he said.
Houston said the jail has full-time psychiatrists and mental health professionals who work proactively to review inmates' cases and develop treatment plans.
“We're developing more resources, finding partners to work with and trying to divert as many inmates as possible to appropriate locations rather than putting them in jail. It's a disservice to the inmates to put them in jail. I think it's a disservice to the community to put them in jail,” he said.
