I was wondering if there were best practices with regard to screening and assessment of mental illness in jail? Not necessarily the tools but the process (e.g., must be assessed by mental health clinician, must be screened within the first 8 hours of booking, must be assessed within 24 hours of screening, etc.).
Any guidance would be appreciated!
From: Project Director, Criminal Justice/Mental Health
Answer:
Some helpful sources:
1) FEDERAL BUREAU OF PRISONS, CLINICAL PRACTICE GUIDELINES FOR PSYCHIATRIC EVALUATIONS-March, 2002: http://www.neurosoup.com/pdf/boppsychEval.pdf
2) WASHINGTON State DOC Policy: http://www.doc.wa.gov/information/policies/default.aspx?show=600 Screened within 24 hours; Assessed within 14 days
3) NACo – Conducting Timely Screening and Assessment of MH Disorders in Jails (with CSG): http://www.naco.org/sites/default/files/event_attachments/Stepping%20Up%20April%20Webinar%20Slides.pdf
4) Report on Mentally Ill in CA Jails: http://www.cdcr.ca.gov/COMIO/docs/MENTALLY_ILL_IN_JAILS_PAPER.pdf
While Title 15 and other regulations require screening, and everyone knows it is
critical to determine who needs to be provided specialized housing or sent for 5150
evaluation as soon as possible, this can’t always happen at the point of intake / booking.
There are several reasons screening is sometimes delayed:
• Some individuals are too agitated to be screened; jails cannot screen or assess
people who are under the influence or acting out in ways that interfere with the
booking process;
• There is no available staff person trained in mental health screening; many small
county jails do not have nursing or other mental health staff available 24/7 and
trained custody personnel may be involved in other duties;
• A large number of bookings occur at the same time; even large jails can
sometimes (often?) be overwhelmed by the volume of bookings they have to deal
with.
• In these instances, people who don’t meet the criteria for being sent to a hospital (or
those the hospital won’t take) are placed in safety or administrative segregation cells,
restraint chairs, or whatever is the safest place for the inmate and staff until a mental
health person can get to the person for assessment to enable decisions about
classification and appropriate housing. This is not ideal, but when it is the best that
facilities can do, every effort must be made for screening and, when indicated,
assessments to be conducted as soon as possible. A status assessment is required at
least every eight (8) hours for people in safety cells or restraint chairs.