Annapolis? Jennifer Road Detention Center will likely add a 20-bed psychiatric unit to its complex, based on a key proposal in County Executive Janet Owens? fiscal 2007 budget that is garnering broad support from other county officials.
The proposed budget for the Jennifer Road facility is about $21 million, with money earmarked for increased medical services and social workers.
Owens said she “couldn?t stomach” the lack of complete resources for psychiatric patients in the county?s detention facilities.
“I thought it [was] a travesty,” Owens said.
According to Richard Baker, Anne Arundel County?s detention center administrator, Jennifer Road Detention Center already has services for the mentally ill, they just aren?t “comprehensive” enough.
A steadily increasing population of inmates requires better services, better training and more expensive medication for patients, Baker said. Baker also said that the center needs to have the capacity to care for inmates from when they are diagnosed with a mental illness to when they are released. He said increased funding would allow this.
“The services need to be provided in a comprehensive and systemic way,” Baker said, “What we were doing wasn?t working well.”
The beds in the proposed unit would be used for short-term stay, Baker said. But the increased manpower and money for medication will be used for mentally ill patients throughout their stay at the detention center.
County officials agreed the psychiatric unit was a “responsible” initiative.
“The concept is a dollar spent on prevention is better than $10 spent on incarceration and the law process,” said Council Member Ed Reilly.
State?s Attorney Frank Weathersbee said he thinks providing drug treatment for people convicted is the most important step in reducing crime, but that psychiatric treatment is also imperative.
Weathersbee said drug programs are successful all across the country and that “mental health goes hand in hand with it.”
