Pubdate: Mon, 15 Aug 2005 Source: Daytona Beach News-Journal (FL) Copyright: 2005 News-Journal Corporation Contact: http://www.news-journalonline.com/ Details: http://www.mapinc.org/media/700 Note: gives priority to local writers Bookmark: http://www.mapinc.org/prison.htm (Incarceration) Bookmark: http://www.mapinc.org/rehab.htm (Treatment) JAIL ALTERNATIVE Treatment Center Could Ease Pain, Costs Volusia County officials know the connections between mental illness, poverty and incarceration all too well. The homeless man begging on the sidewalk today might be in the branch jail tomorrow on a petty offense. Health officials in the jail do their best to minister to the needs of inmates, but in a week or a month, the jail term is over and their former patients are back on the street. It's a cruel progression, and an expensive one. It costs money just to make an arrest and book an inmate into the county jail. Once a person is behind bars, the county must pay for food, clothing and other necessities. Mentally ill or addicted patients -- who often need extra medical attention or supervision -- are among the most expensive to house. Multiply those costs by the dozen or more arrests per year that the county's "frequent fliers" average, and the financial burden grows rapidly. The County Council apparently understands the dilemma these prisoners represent. In their January goal-setting session, they made jail alternatives a top priority. Council members made it clear, during Wednesday's budget workshop, that their concern hasn't waned. The council reviewed a preliminary proposal by the Community Services Department to construct a $4 million, 125-bed center with treatment room for inmates with mental illnesses and addictions, as well as chronically homeless people and veterans with mental illness. It would probably be similar to a facility operated in Duval County, which houses and treats mentally ill people for at least 120 days, giving them time to become stabilized before they're released. It's hard to underestimate the impact such a facility could have on this county's jail system, and on the community. Nobody wins when non- violent and homeless people are caught in the hopeless circuit that leads from the street to the cell and back again. The only obstacle seems to be a concern that the county lacks budgetary elbow room for such a project in the fiscal year starting in October. That cost should be considered in light of the number of people the county pays to keep in jail now -- people who indisputably don't belong there. Leaders should consider the savings if some of these offenders -- arrested repeatedly for crimes like loitering, public drunkenness and trespassing -- could be helped to reclaim their lives. If council members have doubts, they should talk to the experts: local criminal-court judges, who see the same faces repeatedly at arraignment; law enforcement officers, who see the tension between the community and these outcasts; and workers at agencies like the Homeless Assistance Center, who struggle to help people rebuild their shattered lives in between jail stints. Whenever it is built, the jail-alternative facility will be welcomed as a step toward more humane and cost-effective treatment. But the sooner the facility opens, the better. - --- MAP posted-by: Beth