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Federal Priorities 2007 Pubic Safety Justice <br />concluded that if one of these forms of confinement is reduced, the other will increase. <br />Accordingly, where prison populations are extensive, mental hospital populations should be <br />small. If mental health resources are reduced, involvement with the criminal courts will increase. <br />As of May 21, 2004, Oregon's prison population consisted of 11,698 men and 917 women. <br />Approximately 19 percent of the men and 54 percent of the women, for a total of 23 percent of <br />the prison population, were classified as mentally ill. Eleven percent of incarcerated men were <br />diagnosed with severe mental illness, while 24 percent of the women were diagnosed with <br />severe mental illness. <br />Marion County conducted a study of its jail population for 2003-04 and found that approximately <br />40 percent of all inmates lodged have a diagnosable mental illness. Many mentally ill people <br />charged with crimes refuse to enter a plea of guilty but for insanity. Consequently, when found <br />guilty, many are sent to prison. Many mentally ill people do not represent a sufficient enough <br />danger to self or others to warrant civil commitment. The crimes they commit are often not <br />serious enough to warrant incarceration. However, they sometimes commit these crimes so <br />often that a court may feel compelled to place the offender in jail <br />Finally, though not officially stated, the law enforcement community and the courts will <br />incarcerate a mentally ill person if it is the only way to get this individual the treatment they <br />need. For example, a person may trespass numerous times in a particular place and be <br />arrested each time for doing so. <br />If there were more resources dedicated to the community-based programs mentioned above, <br />we might see fewer mentally ill people entering our system, and we would be able to keep the <br />jail beds we have for the local criminal population. Jail is not the appropriate place for the <br />mentally ill. Currently, mental health in corrections is overwhelmed and is limited to suicide <br />prevention and behavior management while incarcerated. Lane County spends more than <br />$20,000 per month on psychotropic drugs for the mentally ill defendants and offenders in jail. <br />Summary <br />Lane County is looking for funding to provide acorrections-based mental health program to <br />include day reporting for the mentally ill who wind up in the Lane County Jail.. Programs need to <br />include drug and alcohol services and skill building such as behavior management classes and <br />employment assistance as well as mental health services, including medication monitoring. The <br />goal is to reduce recidivism of the mentally ill to keep the mentally ill out of the Lane County Jail, <br />where beds are needed for local offenders... <br />35 <br />