PANAMA CITY — Jails and prisons essentially have become modern-day asylums since mental health treatment was deinstitutionalized in the 1950s.
Places of incarceration are treating and housing some of the most mentally ill citizens, usually intercepting them in crisis mode on the heels of an incident that lands them in jail.
“Our folks do a great job of addressing mental health issues, but county jail is not the real place to be doing that,” said Rick Anglin, warden at Bay County Jail. “Those should be addressed in a mental health facility, but because of the situation, we are forced to.”
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With one in three inmates at the Bay County Jail on some type of psychiatric medication, the mental health team strives to make jail a place for inmates to gain new perspectives that will help them get unstuck from self-destructive patterns.
The hardship is even greater when criminal behavior is exacerbated by mental illness.
“We see a lot of conditions that are very prevalent because of the population we’re dealing with,” said Jerold Derkaz, medical director at the jail. “We have a large percentage that don’t get medical care because they’re indigent or transient or they’re poor. The only health care they get oftentimes is when they come into jail.”
Each inmate gets a full physical within 14 days of entering the jail with priority treatment going to those with a significant medical or mental health history.
Derkaz said the jail sees so many of the same people over and over for medical screenings that these inmates have come to think of the jail’s medical team as their primary care providers.
The jail is staffed to handle emergency and routine mental health care, and an important component is making sure medication gets distributed.
“We don’t want them to go without their medications to where they decompensate to where they hurt themselves or someone else,” Derkaz said.
Inmates on psychiatric meds usually are released with at least a couple week’s worth of their prescription and a list of mental health providers in the community in an effort to extend the care.
But not all mental health care in jail is for those with a disorder. Average people benefit from services, too.
Tanner Michael, a mental health specialist who works with the 20 percent of the jail’s population that are female, said inmates often need help rebuilding a life resilient to depression and domestic violence. Much of the legwork goes into teaching coping skills and instilling a sense of self-worth so they can find meaningful employment.
“Since many of them have never worked or got involved with substance abuse then committed crimes that got them here, they’re afraid no one will give them a chance,” Michael said.
For others, jail time can be a place of refuge to regroup.
“This is just a temporary stay for most of them and they’re getting right back out into the environment that got them here in the first place,” said Joe Jennings, a mental health specialist who works with the male population.
Mentally ill or not, Jennings said once inmates learn about resources they didn’t previously know existed, they become more motivated to turn their lives around on the outside.
“We see people that have so many talents and abilities,” Jennings said. “With the right resources and support, we’ll never see them again.”
Michael and Jennings hope society will become more tolerant and helpful to felons during reintegration.
“Everyone has the potential to fulfill their dreams and their hopes; sometimes, a second chance is what people need,” Jennings said.
Michael encourages skeptical employers to hire felons at lower-level positions to give them a chance to prove they have what it takes to be an asset.
“If someone is willing to give them a second chance, that might be all they need to build their self-esteem and really change their life to be productive members of society,” she said.
Self-esteem is a big component to making better choices after release. Some have a pretty long way to go if they enter the jail confined to the mental health unit.
The mental health ward in the jail doesn’t have the feel of a therapeutic environment.
Inmates on watch for suicidal behavior are under recorded and direct surveillance in cells with bare concrete walls and floors. Each cell has a stainless steel commode and a thin mat on the floor for a bed.
Though most inmates are not on a mental health regimen, there are numerous signs of other more common mental disorders in the general population.
Michael said inmates in on misdemeanor charges tend to stay incarcerated longer; they are unable to earn gain time because they can’t hold employment or are prone to fight other inmates.
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“Their mental illness doesn’t allow them to deal with the day-to-day stressors, so they end up spending more time in jail than someone without a mental health disorder,” Michael said.
Anglin said it’s hard to end the cycle of legal trouble for people with mental health problems when the go-to response is to call law enforcement and take them to jail to await a court date for being disorderly.
“It’s a vicious cycle,” Jennings added.
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