Letter to the Editor, RE: Jail Bookings – Karen Dolan

RE: Jail Bookings
Mr. Sun Advocate
Editor,
I fully support your decision to  remove the “jail bookings” section from our local paper.
In America we are assumed “innocent until proven guilty.” Putting a list of arrests simply creates an assumption that these folks are “guilty as charged,” long before they’re allowed to defend themselves in a court of law.
I know there are some dangerous criminals booked into our jails and I am very grateful we have such competent local law enforcement to protect our public safety.
The sad reality is that  a high percentage of individuals being booked into jail have a serious mental illness or a substance use disorder—and often have both of these afflictions.
For 40 years we have locked up folks struggling with addiction because of the “War on Drugs.”
Recent changes in our laws have encouraged non-violent persons with drug addiction or mental illness to be channeled into treatment programs as an alternative to prison.
Posting the “Jail Bookings” doesn’t tell the whole story.
It neglects to tell the story of individuals directed into treatment programs or given a plea in abeyance and time to seek the treatment and support they need to create a more stable life in recovery.
Mental illnesses and addiction are chronic, relapsing brain diseases that need ongoing treatment, care and support to regain a functioning life.
People with serious mental illness and addiction are often the most vulnerable, disabled and most disenfranchised in our society.
I believe we have a responsibility to help these folks any way we can and  assist them in being as fully functional as possible. 
Judge Steven Leifman  wrote a scholarly article entitled, “Ending the Criminalization of Mental Illness.” He writes: “In 1965 we had 560,000 beds in state hospitals around the country. Today we have only 35,000 available treatment beds. Where did all of these people go?”
To the streets, in homeless camps and to our local jails.
A person with mental illness is nine times more likely to be jailed than hospitalized because there simply are not enough state hospital beds any longer to accommodate these folks.
A person with serious and persistent mental illness spends eight times  longer in jail than a non-mentally ill inmate and the cost is eight times higher to house them.
In 1955 we had 5,000 seriously mentally ill inmates nationwide waiting for his competency to be restored so he could understand the charges against him and stand trial.
We now have two million nationwide mentally ill, languishing in jails awaiting competency restoration. In America, our jails and prisons have largely taken the place of our State Hospitals.
In years past, I worked as a therapist in our local Carbon County Jail and as a crisis worker with the Sheriffs office and Price PD.
I witnessed first hand the careful attention to safety; I saw the compassion and the professionalism of our local law enforcement. We are very lucky to have such respectful, dedicated officers who work daily with some of our community’s most disabled and marginalized. Our local officers understand how disabled many of these folks are and consistently treat them with dignity and kindness while at the same time ensuring public safety. 
 We live in small towns where everyone knows everyone. Most people who struggle with addiction and/or mental illness, with the right kind of treatment and supports, eventually get into long-term recovery.
An important component  of long-term recovery is obtaining meaningful work and community support. If we stigmatize folks by publicly shaming or emotionally “flogging” them, we could be damaging their ability to engage in healthy recovery activities.
Thanks for being  willing to stop this practice of public shaming and labeling folks.
Thank you for being willing to remove this section of the paper!
Maybe we can re-write Dostoevsky a tiny bit.
“The degree of civilization in a society can be judged by entering its prisons.”
rather …
“The degree of civilization in a society can be judged by how we treat the most disenfranchised in our society.”
—Karen Dolan LCSW,
Executive Director,  
Four Corners Community Behavioral Health