County initiative seeks mental health answers

Minnehaha County is joining the discussion about how to keep people with mental illness out of jail.

The county commission voted unanimously Tuesday to support Stepping Up, a national initiative aimed at identifying and filling gaps in services for people with mental illness.

“We all talk about not locking up people who have mental illness, but no one has developed the outside programs to keep that from happening,” County Commissioner Jeff Barth said.

The action follows an Argus Leader Media investigation that found people with mental illness routinely wait in jail for months without trial because of delays scheduling court-ordered competency evaluations. The chief justices of the South Dakota Supreme Court announced a state task force on mental illness last week.

Chief Justice: 'We can do better' with mental health evaluations

The Stepping Up Initiative is led by the National Association of Counties (NACO), the Council of State Government Justice Center and the American Psychiatric Foundation. So far, 152 counties nationwide have implemented the program.

Commissioners Cindy Heiberger and Jean Bender attended Stepping Up Initiative workshops in July at a NACO conference.

“We want to reduce the number of mentally ill people in jail,” Heiberger said. “We have reasons to be moving forward.”

A contributing factor in the delays is an unexplained uptick in the number of people with mental illness being thrown into the criminal justice system.

Minnehaha County Sheriff Mike Milstead wants to prevent the mentally ill from ending up in jail.

Milstead, who has strongly advocated for the Stepping Up initiative, said it's common knowledge that jails aren’t the best place for people with mental illness. He said he hopes the coalition can find and fix gaps in services that could reduce the number of mentally ill people behind bars.

“We don’t want to become the largest mental health care facility,” Milstead said.

Argus Leader investigation: Locked in Limbo

Sioux Falls Police Chief Matt Burns said he supported the adoption of the Stepping Up Initiative because the police department has a stake in the county’s mental health services.

“It’s just the right thing to do,” Burns said. “We acknowledge that the system is not a one-size fits all.”

The supreme court’s Chief Justice David Gilbertson said it was Argus Leader Media’s investigation into competency evaluations that prompted him to call for a task force, along with information from a conference.

Gilbertson agreed with Minnehaha County officials that it’s time to upgrade the legal system functions.

“All of these programs – the adult overhaul, the juvenile overhaul, the elder abuse, the rural attorneys – they’re all trying to improve the way our legal system functions,” Gilbertson.

Recent efforts to improve the state’s mental health care system have left the executive director of the National Alliance on Mental Illness optimistic change will come.

Phyllis Arends said for far too long, too many people with serious mental health program have received poor treatment – or none at all – and end up the criminal justice system.

Now, with state and local efforts focusing on addressing mental health services, changes could come.

“(The effort) will include people who live with mental illness because they are at the heart of the problem, now they will get to be part of the solution,” Arends said.