Las Vegas Sun

February 12, 2012

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Letter to the editor:

Helping inmates and protecting the public

Wednesday, July 15, 2009 | 2:02 a.m.

Regarding Timothy Pratt’s story in Sunday’s Las Vegas Sun, “Illness keeps many on cycle through jail”:

As Mr. Pratt reports, Clark County invests $4 million a year to stabilize inmates with mental illnesses in the county jail. This investment is essentially lost when offenders leave the jail and stop receiving mental health treatment. This disconnected system of care endangers the public and family members and frequently leads to new arrests, with their attendant costs. What might be done?

Hampden County, Mass., has led the country in solving this puzzle. Inmates in the Hampden jail are assigned to doctors from local community health centers who see them in the jail and after release. This arrangement has led to a high rate of kept appointments after inmates leave jail. This helps ensure management of mental illness and can reduce recidivism, public assaults and domestic violence. This in turn reduces emergency room costs, time lost from work, crowding in courts and staff overtime.

Although it may seem that the current economic crisis rules out this sort of innovation, it may instead be a strong reason to consider it.

Keith Barton, Oakland, Calif. The writer is the medical director of Community Oriented Correctional Health Services, a nonprofit group whose stated mission is to assist local correctional facilities by facilitating the creation of partnerships between jails and local community health care providers.

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