Smith County Jail. (Tyler Morning Telegraph File)

Smith County Sheriff Larry Smith, County Judge Neal Franklin and Commissioner Pam Frederick spearheaded the Community Diversion Coordinator Program leadership team to kick-start conversations about mental health issues in Smith County and to propose solutions.

“It was the first discussion like this in Smith County,” said Sandra Brazil-Hamilton, Community Diversion Coordinator and advocate for jail inmates with mental health issues.

Brazil-Hamilton gave a presentation to the Smith County Commissioners on the Texas Judicial Commission on Mental Health’s (JCMH) Community Diversion Coordinator Program at the meeting on Tuesday.

In 2022, 33 people volunteered to enter the program; 26 completed the program, and seven were rearrested, she said. Two out of the seven reentered the program and finished it successfully.

There are 17 people in the program currently; two were rearrested.

“We have helped countless others get out of jail, but many return with new charges. I saw that just getting people out of jail didn’t always work out so well,” she said. “They need that support system. They need guidance. They need someone to call and talk to to help them make that next step.”

The program enhances coordination between courts and behavioral health providers to divert defendants with mental illness who are charged with nonviolent misdemeanor offenses from the criminal justice system.

“Addressing the needs of the growing mental health problems in Texas, the Texas Supreme Court and the Criminal Court of Appeals formed JCMH,” Brazil-Hamilton said. “They awarded three counties, Denton, Greyson and Smith, grants to develop the jail diversion program for those suffering with mental health issues, addiction and intellectual developmental disabilities.”

Commissioners accepted a grant to hire an advocate to help those incarcerated with mental health issues understand what resources are available and connect them to said resources, and assist them in moving through the judicial process with consideration of their alleged crime and mental health in August 2021.

There were a few guidelines from JCMH, including Brazil-Hamilton developing the leadership team, a forensic team and a compilation of care providers.

Thomas Wilson, Smith County assistant district attorney, and John Shoemaker, Smith County Sheriff’s Office Lieutenant, led the forensic team and addressed the “famous waitlist,” she said.

The list is of people found incompetent to stand trial awaiting a spot in a state facility to undergo competency elevations at their attorney’s request.

“There are very few state beds,” she said. “All the counties of Texas are vying for these beds.”

She said the Texas Health and Human Services Commission and JCMH created guidelines to find alternative treatments for people on this list. It’s a challenging task, but the team has been successful nonetheless.

In 2022, 14 people were removed from the list, and in 2023 to date, 23 people were removed.

Community Diversion uses reconnect programs through Goodwill reentry programs or the Hand Up Network to assist previously incarcerated people with getting jobs, business mentorships, building resumes, etc.

Brazil-Hamilton creates a plan for inmates that include specific treatments like cognitive, dialectical or trauma therapy.

By working with the Andrews Center, a mental health service provider, the program offers counseling and anger management classes and ensures clients are properly medicated. Brazil-Hamilton said in her experience, an inmate is off their medications because they refuse to take them.

Jail medical provider Turn Key Health Clinics is working with the team and the Andrews Center to provide more services for inmates.

The program is also developing competency restoration within the jail.

“We decided to go ahead and do that rather than just waiting on the state because we had a lot of people who were suffering for a long time in our jail, and waiting for the restoration and refusing their meds,” Franklin said.

Some inmates who have schizophrenia are unable to speak or refuse to wear clothes. Franklin said that court-ordered medications for inmates with severe mental illness had made remarkable transformations.

“We helped them get jobs, homes, get anything they needed…Whatever is needed to get them back to functioning again,” she said. “It’s an exciting time in Smith County. I am humbly happy to do this.”