As Alabama cuts mental health care, sheriffs say jails overwhelmed (al.com)
By Lee Roop | lroop@al.com
Email the author | Follow on Twitter
on August 08, 2016 at 7:24 AM, updated August 15, 2016 at 10:24 AM
A months-long AL.com probe has found frustrated local law enforcement and corrections officials reeling from cuts in mental health funding.
By Lee Roop & Challen Stephens
People who set fires in cells. Take their clothes off in lobbies. Walk or run toward deputies carrying guns and knives. Try to break into sheriffs' homes at night.
Alabama sheriffs say they face a growing number of mentally ill residents and a shrinking state mental health system.
"Did I really comprehend the magnitude of it?" asks Sheriff Rick Singleton in Lauderdale County. "Probably not until I actually got into office and started dealing with it."
"The biggest problem is there are no beds, no place to put them when you get an involuntary commitment," Limestone County Sheriff Mike Blakely said. "We've had that at least three times this year."
The state has closed three psychiatric hospitals since 2012 for financial reasons, cutting the number of beds for patients from 740 to 268 -- a drop of 64 percent.
***
more: http://www.al.com/news/huntsville/index.ssf/2016/08/alabama_sheriffs_on_the_front.html
A longer than usual article. Kind of a torture to read.