Jails hold more of Virginia’s mentally ill population than state-run and private hospitals combined, according to a report released this week.
The study, prepared by the General Assembly’s Joint Legislative and Audit Review Commission, outlines a decades-long shift in the ratio of mentally ill inmates to patients. In 1936, there was one such person in a jail to every six in a state hospital. By 2005, that figure had almost turned upside down, with five mentally ill people in jails for every two in hospitals.
“Our prison and jail system has become the underbelly of our mental health system,” said Del. Phil Hamilton, R-Newport News, who chairs the House Health, Welfare and Institutions Committee. “In Virginia, we don’t have the community-based infrastructure to meet the needs of all the individuals that need service.”
Hamilton cited a need for greater funding, especially to open more temporary “crisis stabilization units” for agencies across the state.
He said local governments have been catching up in funding since the state transitioned from mental hospitals to community-based systems 37 years ago.
Some of the inmates were arrested because officers charged them with a crime instead of seeking out mental health services, according to the report.
It said the data was consistent with national studies that show police officers are almost twice as likely to arrest someone if they appear to have a mental illness.
Health officials say the issue is hardly confined to the commonwealth, where inadequate spending on services have pushed more and more people into the penal system.
“What we don’t want is people ending up in jail because their behavior is out of control by not having treatment,” said Tom Maynard, executive director of the Loudoun County Community Services Board.
The report cited differences in the types of illness that jails and hospitals handle. It said state hospitals are substantially more likely to serve those suffering from schizophrenia or a delusional disorder, and private hospitals house larger percentage of patients suffering from mood disorders.
Jails, the report said, held a much higher number of people with mood and anxiety disorders than either type of hospital.
