Jail official pushing for stronger focus on treating mentally ill inmates
This is the second article in an occasional series on the Butler County Prison. Ten years after Butler County Prison was built, officials continue to look for ways to deal with inmates suffering from mental health issues, a task that isn’t inherent to a system tasked with punishment, not therapy.One of the biggest challenges facing the jail is the number of inmates suffering from mental health issues, according to jail officials.There are anywhere from 75 to 100 inmates who are on Ashley Adams’ health “radar.”Adams, a health services administrator and registered nurse with the jail, said that these people could be suffering from a variety of conditions, from a mild anxiety disorder to a serious mental health diagnosis, such as bipolar disorder or schizophrenia.In Butler, if an inmate suffering from a mental health issue becomes disruptive or aggressive, the most immediate way to deal with them is to put them in cells specially designed for high visibility so that inmates can’t hurt themselves, said Beau Sneddon, the jail’s deputy warden of operations.“We have a lot of people here with mental health problems so that’s something we deal with regularly,” Sneddon said. “We’ve learned so much about what their need are and we’ve educated our correction’s officers.“Most importantly, they have the will to do it. It helps lower incidents.”But this does little for an inmate’s long-term recovery and once they are no longer causing trouble, Adams said they have little choice other than putting them back in the jail’s general population or keeping them in the special cells.
This is an excerpt — read our deep dive about mental health at Butler County Prison in Monday’s Butler Eagle or subscribe to butlereagle.com.
