State hospitals look at Monterey County Jail to help treat incompetent inmates

UPDATE 4/24/2018 6:15 p.m.:

The Monterey County Jail is being looked at as a spot to bring state mental health services to inmates. It’s called “Jail Based Competency Treatment Program,” and is already in use in San Bernardino, Riverside, Sacramento and Sonoma Counties.

On Tuesday, the Monterey County Board of Supervisors approved a motion to move forward with contract negotiations with the California Forensic Medical Group with the proposal to implement the JBCT program.

According to Sheriff Steve Bernal, county jails house a large number of offenders that have been deemed incompetent to stand trial. That’s because state hospitals are running out of beds to house these inmates and give them treatment quickly.

Santa Cruz County Sheriff Jim Hart told supervisors sometimes these inmates end up spending more time behind bars than counterparts without mental health issues.

“Right now there’s roughly a 6-9 month wait for people who have been deemed incompetent to stand trial by the courts so they languish in our jail system for many, many months,” Hart said. “When a hospital bed finally opens up for them, they go there, they get restored, they come back to us, generally they’ve done so much jail time, that they plead guilty and then they are released with credit time served.”

The Department of State Hospitals is working with different counties to add bed space in the jails to get the inmate treatment faster, in a matter of weeks. They believe the Monterey County Jail is adequate enough to house 12 inmates between the three counties.

“So we have space inside of the existing main jail, and we had some treatment professionals come and take a tour and we also the Department of State Hospitals,” said Monterey County Undersheriff John Mineau. “We hosted the Department of State Hospitals last month and had them come and look at our available space because we want to make sure it’s the right kind of space for the people we’re going to try and take care of. And they’ve signed off on it, they think the space we have is adequate and yes obviously as the expansion project continues on, we expect that’s going to free up additional space in the main jail and so there’s a potential that tis the 12 bed program is successful and there is still a pressing need, that we could talk about expanding in the future.”

Between Monterey, Santa Cruz and San Benito Counties, there are at least 19 inmates deemed incompetent to stand trial.

KION had a chance to look at the unit where the inmates would be housed. There are 15 cells with the capacity to hold 19 inmates but only a dozen would be there. Mineau said there are safety improvements that need to be made to the unit before inmates moved in. Those include raising the railing all the way to the ceiling to reduce the risk of someone falling or jumping from the second tier.

We also saw the area where they would get their treatment. There’s a classroom setting with desks for group therapy. There’s also nearby access to medical and dental services.

The proposal calls for the state to pay for everything like the custody of the inmates and the mental health personnel. Jail officials say they don’t want to burden Monterey County taxpayers with any additional costs.

Santa Cruz County Sheriff Jim Hart said the benefit of the program would be two-pronged.

“1. It would be good for the incarcerated people because they’ll get treatment much quicker and 2. It would free up some jail beds that are badly needed by people who really need to be in custody,” Hart said.

ORIGINAL POST: State hospitals are running out of beds to house inmates considered “incompetent to stand trial.” They’re turning to the county jails to help give inmates treatment. Monterey County is now being eyed as a possible location.

Monterey County Jail officials are working with the department of state hospitals to create a jail-based competency treatment program for up to a dozen inmates.

Right now if an inmate is deemed incompetent, they normally wait months to get a bed at a state hospital for treatment. Jail officials said in that time frame they can grow weak.

By offering state hospital services in the jail inmates get treatment faster than can go on to trial sooner. State hospital officials found that the Monterey County Jail would be an adequate location to house up to 12 inmates between Monterey, Santa Cruz and San Benito counties.

There are at least 19 inmates considered ‘incompetent.”

Monterey County undersheriff, John Mineau said, “This is a wonderful partnership because if State Hospitals is willing to put this together with us, it will be something that will help all three counties and right now I’ll expect you’ll hear from the other two sheriffs, we’re all facing the same struggles with mentally ill offenders and waiting on those beds.”

“Jail is not a good place for people who are already in mental health crisis. And so we do the best we can with our mental health crisis teams and our medical unit to stabilize them but the best place for those people is a state hospital,” said Santa Cruz County Sheriff Jim Hart.

The plan calls for the state to pay for everything the custody of the inmates and the personnel.

Jail officials don’t want to burden the county with any additional costs. Now once the program is up and running if it’s considered “successful,” there’s more space at the Monterey County Jail for more inmates considered “incompetent.”

Other counties that have these kind of programs include San Bernardino, Riverside, Sacramento and Sonoma.

KION’s Mariana Hicks has the full story at 6 p.m.