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Mentally ill languish in Bexar jail awaiting assessment, competency restoration

Several notable stories out of San Antonio this week related to mental illness in county jails deserve Grits readers attention:Bexar breaks law on menally ill inmates, Aug. 1County cannot decide not to comply with the law, Aug. 5 Jail is not answer for mentally ill, Aug. 6 Nelson Wolff: Political will in Austin needed to help mentally ill, Aug. 7Texas is 49th in mental health funding, Aug. 7Last Sunday's story identified a problem that is likely also an issue at most other Texas county jails. It opened:Bexar County is breaking a state law requiring the swift examination of every mentally ill prisoner in jail, leaving an untold number of inmates languishing without proper psychiatric care.Local courts are supposed to order psychiatric exams and use the results to route many of the mentally ill offenders toward treatment and away from the jail, where only one part-time and two full-time psychiatrists are employed to treat about 900 inmates a day suffering from some form of mental illness...continue to full post

Full post as published by Grits for Breakfast on August 08, 2010 (boomark / email).