Prison psychologist to take over Chicago’s jail

A prison psychologist will take the reins of Chicago’s Cook County Jail on Tuesday with a mandate to help reduce the number of mentally ill inmates who find themselves behind bars because of nonviolent criminal behavior. It is the first appointment of a psychologist as a jail director anywhere in the United States, county officials say.

Nneka Jones Tapia’s appointment as executive director comes as Cook County and Illinois are experiencing deep cuts to mental health services. The first round of cuts came in 2012 under Democratic Mayor Rahm Emanuel, who closed six of the city's free mental health clinics. Now Republican Gov. Bruce Rauner, who took office in January, has targeted social services for cuts to help fix a budget shortfall. Those potential trims include $82 million to the state's Division of Mental Health and the elimination of programs for homeless youth, The Chicago Sun-Times reports.

Emanuel's cuts have coincided with an increase in mentally ill inmates at the Cook County Jail, often for crimes like trespassing and disorderly conduct. Jones Tapia said there's evidence of a link between the two. 

In the last five years, "the number of mentally ill inmates in our custody has doubled,” she said in an email. “During that same time period, the number of psychiatric hospital beds and community mental health centers were greatly reduced. So we can infer with reasonable certainty that the two factors are related."

She argues that the mentally ill inmates require care, not punishment.

That concept was highlighted in disturbing detail earlier this month when Human Rights Watch issued a report on rampant abuse of the mentally ill in U.S. prisons and jails. The report detailed hundreds of cases of abuse by untrained staff — misconduct that resulted in scores of injuries and ever death for mentally ill prisoners.

And the problem is worsening, said Jones Tapia. She said the Cook County Jail, which houses about 9,000 inmates, does its best to offer treatment to the mentally ill. But resources are stretched, and treatment time depends on judges’ decisions and bail payments.

She said 2,000 to 3,000 prisoners at Cook County report or display signs of mental illness. In a press release announcing her appointment, county officials said the jail is the "largest mental health institution in the country."

“Detention in jails should be reserved for violent and dangerous offenders, not poor, sick and nonviolent individuals who need treatment,” Jones Tapia said in a statement.

Last August the Cook County Jail opened the Mental Health Transition Center, a counseling center for the mentally ill. It provides job training and counseling services to mentally ill inmates under conditions that are not restricting or punitive.

In April a similar a center opened at the Markham Courthouse, also in Cook County. Markham, on the far south side of the county, has few mental health clinics but many mentally ill inmates.

“Thus far, our focus has been on offering services to individuals released from our custody and returning to the Markham community and those that are currently monitored electronically by the Sheriff's Office and living in the Markham area,” Jones Tapia said.

She said Markham center psychiatrists and counselors connect with law enforcement officials, who work together to ensure that the mentally ill get the care they need, inside and outside jail, long enough to improve their conditions.

Judges now can make attending counseling sessions at Markham a condition of release from pretrial detention, where many mentally ill inmates languish.

Jones Tapia envisions setting up a Markham-like outpatient facility at the Cook County Jail for the mentally ill accused of crimes — a center that would function in parallel with the criminal justice system.

“Instead of lockup in county jail, the police can take them to crisis unit, then they can receive outpatient treatment,” she told Al Jazeera. “They can be monitored on a weekly basis to help them navigate the obstacles they may be having getting treatment.”

Ed Yohnka, a spokesman for the American Civil Liberties Union in Illinois, said he felt Jones Tapia's appointment was a step in the right direction. Reform will be a challenge, he said, adding that it is possible to successfully treat people with chronic mental illness, including the cases of mood disorders, psychosis and schizophrenia that have been found among Cook County inmates.

“Virtually every family across America has had their family lives touched in some ways by mental illness,” he said. “When there are resources and care, people are able to function.”