Stepping up summit bannerFOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE
Written by Laura Cleland
April 27, 2016

 

 

WASHINGTON, D.C. — Teams of criminal justice and behavioral health professionals representing Hood River County and the Association of Oregon Counties (AOC) attended a two-day summit last week that brought together select teams from U.S. communities of all sizes as part of a national initiative to address the mental health crisis in our nation’s jails.

The Stepping Up Summit, which convened jail administrators, law enforcement officials, county elected officials, psychiatrists and other stakeholders from 50 jurisdictions across the country, was designed to give attendees a clear understanding of what constitutes a comprehensive, system-level plan that, when implemented, will reduce the number of people with mental illnesses in jail.

The team from Hood River County consisted of Hood River County Commissioner Karen Joplin, Hood River County Sheriff Matt English, Hood River County Sheriff’s Office Commander Jamie Heppner, Northern Oregon Regional Correctional Facilities Administrator Bryan Brandenberg, and Mid-Columbia Center for Living Executive Director Barb Seatter. The AOC team consisted of Lincoln County Commissioner Bill Hall (AOC first vice president), Marion County Sheriff Jason Myers (Oregon State Sheriffs Association president), Stephanie Lopez MD (American Psychiatric Association – Oregon District Branch president), AOC Executive Director Mike McArthur, and AOC Public Safety Policy Manager Patrick Sieng.

“Many of our local communities in Oregon are already on the cutting edge of strong mental health and public safety coordination,” said Joplin. “This summit allowed us to continue leading those discussions by sharing best practices with other communities around the nation.”

The 50 jurisdictions selected to attend consisted of a cross-section of urban, suburban and rural counties representing 37 states. Each team included local policymakers and stakeholders prepared to enhance efforts and take action to address this national crisis.

At the two-day summit, county teams took stock of work already underway in their counties and chart a path forward. To that end, attendees considered six questions related to the commitment of local leadership, use of screening and assessments, the level of baseline data that currently exists, tracking progress and other items.

Stepping Up was launched in May 2015 as a partnership of The Council of State Governments Justice Center, The National Association of Counties, and The American Psychiatric Association Foundation. The initiative is designed to rally national, state, and local leaders around the goal of achieving an actual reduction in the number of people with mental illnesses and substance use disorders in jail. Over the past year, more than 250 counties, representing nearly 30 percent of the U.S. population, have passed resolutions to advance the goals of Stepping Up.

The progression of Stepping Up reflects a new agreement among county leaders across the country on one central truth: Jails should no longer serve as de facto psychiatric facilities. Many communities have already taken action to address the crisis locally, and many in the medical community have put its weight behind collaborating to effect change.

Despite the passionate commitments and efforts of many communities to make an impact, county leaders report there are more people with mental illnesses in jails than ever before, and the majority are not a public safety risk. The number of people with mental illnesses in jails is three to six times higher than that of the general public.i

As a result, local budgets are strained by jails spending two to three times more on people with mental illnesses than they do on people without those needs. The exorbitant cost to taxpayers to arrest, adjudicate, segregate and supervise these individuals is having little-to-no impact in terms of public safety or public health.

Hood River County, AOC and other county teams engaged with criminal justice and behavioral health experts, along with fellow county representatives from across the country, to consider the latest research and strategies and learn from the challenges and approaches other jurisdictions have experienced.

Hood River County and AOC team members worked onsite to develop and evaluate plans to reduce mental illness in the local jail and walked away with a concrete set of priorities on which to take action and measure progress on their plans.

“Not only were we able to develop plans at the summit, we were also able to take our message to Capitol Hill where we spoke to Senator Ron Wyden, Senator Jeff Merkley, and Congressman Kurt Schrader about these important issues,” said Joplin.

The Stepping Up Summit is made possible through the support of the American Psychiatric Association Foundation, which acknowledges the generous funding from Janssen Pharmaceutical Companies of Johnson and Johnson, the Elizabeth K. Dollard Charitable Trust, Alkermes, and Otsuka America Pharmaceutical, Inc. The Stepping Up Initiative is also grateful for the support of the John D. and Catherine T. MacArthur Foundation’s Safety and Justice Challenge.

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i Steadman, Henry, et al., “Prevalence of Serious Mental Illness among Jail Inmates.” Psychiatric Services 60, no. 6 (2009): 761–765. These numbers refer to jail admissions. Even greater numbers of individuals have mental illnesses that are not “serious” mental illnesses, but still require resource-intensive responses.

AOC Contact: Laura Cleland 503-585-8351