Mentally ill inmates drain Benton County budget
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BENTON COUNTY, Wash. -- KEPR learned mentally ill inmates are racking up huge medical bills for the Benton County Jail.
The costs are staggering. In the last few years, medical expenses at the Benton County Jail have surged by hundreds of thousands of dollars, largely because of inmates who are mentally ill and down on their luck.
"If you talk about mental problems in general, you will have a higher ration (in jail) than you would in the general community," says Kathy Daniel, Director of Health Services at the Benton County Jail.
It doesn't matter if it's bi-polar disorder or sheer depression; in the end, mental disorders have caused the jail's budget to surge by more than $300,000 since 2009.
It's not a case of which pill works the best, but which treatment plan is able to get an inmate back on track. Jail workers tell KEPR diagnosis is often the hardest and costliest part.
"A lot of times people are not identified as someone with a mental illness until they're actually in jail," Daniel tells Action News.
To stem the tide of mentally ill inmates coming through the jail, workers will enroll them in programs to get inmates the help they need.
"We try to get them reconnected, so when they get out, they continue their services and don't have gaps when they're released and cycle back through the system," Daniel says.
Jail workers estimate more than half of the inmates at the Benton County Jail are mentally ill. They hope to rehabilitate prisoners as soon as they get released, all in an effort to make society better as a whole.
The costs are staggering. In the last few years, medical expenses at the Benton County Jail have surged by hundreds of thousands of dollars, largely because of inmates who are mentally ill and down on their luck.
"If you talk about mental problems in general, you will have a higher ration (in jail) than you would in the general community," says Kathy Daniel, Director of Health Services at the Benton County Jail.
It doesn't matter if it's bi-polar disorder or sheer depression; in the end, mental disorders have caused the jail's budget to surge by more than $300,000 since 2009.
It's not a case of which pill works the best, but which treatment plan is able to get an inmate back on track. Jail workers tell KEPR diagnosis is often the hardest and costliest part.
"A lot of times people are not identified as someone with a mental illness until they're actually in jail," Daniel tells Action News.
To stem the tide of mentally ill inmates coming through the jail, workers will enroll them in programs to get inmates the help they need.
"We try to get them reconnected, so when they get out, they continue their services and don't have gaps when they're released and cycle back through the system," Daniel says.
Jail workers estimate more than half of the inmates at the Benton County Jail are mentally ill. They hope to rehabilitate prisoners as soon as they get released, all in an effort to make society better as a whole.
