Alexandria officials met with members of the city’s police and sheriff’s department to figure out how to improve services for adults suffering from mental illness and drug addiction in Alexandria’s criminal justice system.
Mayor Bill Euille, Police Chief Earl Cook, Sheriff Dana Lawhorne, and other criminal justice and health officials discussed the issue over the course of a day-and-a-half work session. Officials tried to identify gaps in the city’s criminal justice service and existing resources that could help fill those voids.
Forty-five percent of the non-Federal inmates in Alexandria’s Detention Center have been diagnosed with some mental condition, the city reported, and half those diagnosed were determined to have a serious mental illness.
