The Andrews Center administrative offices on Front Street in Tyler.

Local officials are seeking more than $500,000 in funding from the state of Texas to help Smith County reduce the incarceration of people with mental health issues.

About $374,000 would go to a jail diversion program to divert people with mental health issues who have committed crimes into treatment instead of incarceration.

Another $168,000 would go to creating a competency restoration program within the Smith County Jail to help incarcerated people in psychiatric crisis regain their mental capacity.

The one-year grant is the latest effort by the Andrews Center, the Smith County government and the Smith County Sheriff’s Office, which runs the Smith County Jail, to prevent people with mental health issues from being incarcerated unnecessarily.

Smith County runs a mental health court in which a local judge works with people accused of low-level crimes to get them treatment. The Sheriff’s Office also has four deputies dedicated to mental health, including two who respond to mental health-related 911 calls.

“We’ve seen our population grow in Smith County of people that have various sorts of mental illness issues, whether it’s from depression through the whole spectrum of mental illness,” said Darrell Coslin, the spokesman for the sheriff.

“It’s an ongoing problem where a lot of times their mental illness leads to the behavior and they wind up in the criminal side of the business versus trying to get help through the medical and psychological side,” Coslin said.

The entities are seeking the money from the Texas Health and Human Services Commission under S.B. 292, a bill the Legislature passed in 2017 to reduce incarceration, recidivism and arrests of people with mental health issues and reduce the wait times for inpatient psychiatric care.

The bill provides $37.5 million in state funding in 2018 and 2019 for projects across the state, according to the Texas Health and Human Services Commission website. The Andrews Center, Smith County and the Smith County Sheriff’s Office are applying as part of the second round of funding.

Kathy Wakefield, the director of forensic services for the Andrews Center, specializes in working with forensic mental health patients, who are people with mental health needs who are involved in the criminal justice system.

The mental health jail diversion program would augment the current mental health court because it would provide the judge an additional program to use to encourage defendants to keep up with mental health treatment, Wakefield said.

“We have had a jail diversion program in the past, and money for that program went away, and so this is an opportunity to restart the program only to do it a little differently,” she said.

Wakefield said the program would also allow the law enforcement to work with Judge Jason Ellis, who runs the mental health court, to get charges dismissed in some cases. Examples of crimes could be criminal trespass or disorderly conduct, she said.

“With the jail diversion the monies that can go toward food, shelter, clothing and mental health support to help stabilize and get them in an environment where they can regain their abilities to function,” she said.

The competency program will be similar to current programs in place that help inmates restore their mental state. Competency is a legal term that refers to whether or not a person charged with a crime understands and can effectively participate in court proceedings.

Wakefield said inmates in the Smith County Jail have been able to participate in outpatient treatment to regain their competency, and those programs have been successful. She said the new program would allow inmates to be in these programs while in jail.

“Through jail-based competency, typically we can process them from four to six months faster,” Wakefield said. Once the inmates go through the program, they can begin court proceedings to achieve resolution in their case or get released on bond.

Wakefield said it costs an average of $137 per day to house an inmate with mental health issues, versus $65 per day for other inmates. She said housing some inmates costs well over $137 per day because of the price of their antipsychotic medications.

“If we’re successful in getting individuals back on their feet and mentally stable, then that’s someone that’s not going back to jail,” she said. “That’s someone who’s not tying up law enforcement’s time, someone who’s able to get a job and contribute to the community.”

Wakefield said she would know whether the grant is approved in August, and, if approved, it will last for a year. 

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