Rogers County an 'innovator' in approach to mental health treatment for inmates

Jun. 22—Oklahoma inmates who are mentally incompetent to stand trial often wait longer than a year in county jail for treatment.

But Rogers County has partnered with Grand Mental Health to identify and treat inmates' mental health needs before a judge declares them incompetent. That's allowing some people with minor charges to return to normal life and reducing the county's contribution to the statewide treatment backlog.

In September 2022, Rogers County received a grant of about $550,000 from the U.S. Department of Justice to combat overincarceration of mentally ill inmates. Cleveland, Grant, Oklahoma and Tulsa counties received grants for the same purpose; all five counties are affiliated with an initiative called Stepping Up, funded partly by a justice department grant.

At their Monday meeting, the Rogers County Commissioners approved a document recognizing the county as Stepping Up's first "Innovator County" in Oklahoma. Rogers County Undersheriff Jon Sappington said the designation reflects the county's data-driven effort to divert inmates with mental illnesses toward treatment instead of jail cells.

The effort includes identifying inmates with mental health concerns, tracking how long inmates stay in jail, and documenting whether they have contact with law enforcement after they leave jail.

Officers screen every county jail inmate with an eight-question mental health assessment crafted by the National Institute of Corrections, Sappington said. Grand Mental Health counselors assess inmates flagged by the screening and also see inmates later if they show signs of mental illness. Counselors come directly to the county jail to provide services and can administer prescription drugs.

Ray McNair, executive director of the Oklahoma Sheriff's Association, said jails in all of Oklahoma's 77 counties screen inmates for mental health concerns. But not all jails have the resources to bring in counselors.

Oklahoma doesn't have the resources to provide mental health treatment to everyone who needs it, especially those whom a judge declares incompetent to stand trial. McNair said all inmates deemed incompetent must receive treatment at the Oklahoma Forensic Center in Vinita.

Some inmates wait more than a year to get into the forensic center, McNair said, and the waitlist is getting longer.

"People just don't get what COVID did to people, and we have far more cases of mental health issues than we've ever had," McNair said. "We've got more people needing treatment than we have available beds in the state."

Sappington said the point of the screening is to identify people who need treatment before a judge declares them incompetent. That way, they can be treated by a provider within a week and won't have to sit around for months, waiting for a bed in Vinita to open up.

In some cases, Grand's treatment helps the county jail release people who are being held mainly due to their mental state on "pretty frivolous charges," instead of keeping them in jail where they shouldn't be, Sappington said. But he said the Department of Mental Health and Substance Abuse Services isn't equipped to deal with people who have committed serious, violent crimes. People in this group, he said, ought to stay in jail.

Sappington said before the county implemented the grant, the jail had as many as 12 people who had been found incompetent to stand trial waiting for a bed in Vinita. Now, he said, just one man — who has been waiting got a bed for about six months — is in incompetency limbo in the Rogers County jail.

Under the grant, the county sheriff's office tracks how long inmates are in jail to see whether those with mental health issues are being held longer than inmates without them.

The state's system is broken, Sappington said, which puts the burden on the jail to be "the largest mental health provider in the county."

"And the problem is we're keeping people [in the jail] who don't need to be, you know, and with this grant, we've worked to resolve a lot of that," he said.

Oklahoma's mental health system is under fire from a consent decree filed in a federal court in Tulsa. If approved, the decree would give the state 14 months to cut treatment wait times to no more than 21 days.

The Contingency Review Board — which includes Gov. Kevin Stitt, who said he would "never" agree to the "bad legal settlement" — must approve the decree for it to take effect.

After inmates are released, the county sheriff's office then tracks any future contact they have with law enforcement and first responders to see if they're reoffending or making false calls.

Rogers County will also help train other counties to track data on inmates with mental health issues as part of the Stepping Up initiative.

The Rogers County Commissioners also approved an application for $289,173 from the Oklahoma Office of Management and Enterprise Services to assist the county's efforts to treat those with substance abuse and mental health problems.

Diana Dickinson, public relations director for Rogers County, said the sum is money the state owes the county pursuant to State Questions 780 and 781, both approved by voters in 2016.

In approving these questions, voters downgraded several nonviolent, drug-related crimes from felonies to misdemeanors and mandated the money counties would save from reducing the amount and duration of incarcerations would go toward substance abuse and mental health treatment.

Dickinson said Rogers is "late to the game"; the approximately $290,000 accounts for all the county's savings since 2017.

She said the county would invest these funds in part toward connecting people to services after finishing their sentences and developing an app to assist people in mental health crises.

Also at Monday's meeting:

— District 3 Commissioner Ron Burrows said Samaritan's Purse, which is affiliated with Claremore's First Methodist Church, needs volunteers.

— The commissioners approved an interlocal agreement with Talala to help issue building permits and perform inspections. Missy Richardson, director of the Rogers County Planning Commission, said the county already assists Oologah with these services.

— The commissioners heard a report from Meshek & Associates on tracking stormwater flow into lakes and rivers from construction sites near Owasso. The county planning commission will continue monitoring stormwater outfalls to prevent any "illicit discharges" from contaminating bodies of water.