MONTGOMERY CO. — It’s a problem facing jails across the country, too many inmates requiring mental health treatment yet nowhere to send them.
Montgomery County Assistant Chief Administrative Officer, Earl Stoddard, says his county is seeing some of the longest transfer delays in the state.
“On any given day, on any given month, 15 to 20 percent of the individuals awaiting a bed are severing a sentence 90 day or less. And by the time their bed is ready, their sentence is coming to end,” said Stoddard.
He says it can be months before a bed at a psychiatric facility opens, delaying care and putting a strain on the entire system.
"And candidly they're not getting the treatment they deserve as their conditions are getting worse. That puts real pressure on our correctional facilities and staff to try to maintain what is a very unfair and frankly dangerous situation,” said Stoddard.
Montgomery County District Court had around 170 psychiatric placements in 2023, more than double in Baltimore County and City.
“I think the average number of placements across the state were between 300 and 400 in 2018-2019 before the pandemic, that number is more than double now at this point,” said Stoddard.
According to state law, detention facilities have 10 days to transfer defendants who have been ordered into a psychiatric facility.
“Those individuals decompensate in our custody, meaning they're not getting the treatment they would get in a mental health hospital. They're starting to have breaks, they're starting to become violent. We've had correctional officers become severely injured by individuals,” said Stoddard.
As discussions surrounding mental health have increased, not enough people have entered the mental health field to help tackle the issue. Staffing shortages are felt across the board. Stoddard points to the pressure this places on correctional officers.
“There's different posts that we have people stationed at to maintain security, we’ve identified the lowest risk posts and had to collapse them because we’re short on correctional officers. People having to work incredible amounts of overtime, which is straining on them and their families but also their performance begins to suffer the longer they work. These are environments where a performance slip can be incredibly dangerous,” said Stoddard.
The county is requesting money from the state to setup diversion centers to get people treatment ahead of time. Mobile crisis response teams have also been placed throughout the county.
