Senate Leader Darrell Steinberg Seeks to Restore Mental Health Fund for Inmates

Senate leader Darrell Steinberg of Sacramento said he wishes to allocate $50 million to a mental health funding program which ended in 2008, because of budget cuts.  However, the restoration of the program will depend on whether the United States grants a delay on reducing prison overcrowding. 

After nearly ten years of state funding, the Mentally Ill Offender Crime ReductionGrants ended in 2008, due to budget cuts.  Steinberg wants to restart funding of the program, beginning with $50 million in the budget next year.  However, that money being granted is contingent upon Governor Jerry Brown receiving a delay in a federal court order to reduce crowding in state prisons.

Gov. Brown had agreed to special legislation which sets aside a portion of the state’s savings for use in mental health and other services which are aimed at reducing crime, if the courts limit on the prison population is postponed.  Without such a delay, Brown intends to use those funds to send state prisoners to private facilities outside the state of California.

Steinberg stated if Brown did not succeed in convincing federal judges to extend the deadline, he would try to add the grant program to the 2014 state budget.  The judge’s cutoff date for the prison crowding settlement issue is the same day Brown must submit his yearly spending plan to the Legislature.

Many of the former state prisoners who must now be supervised by the county are mentally ill. The LA department is setting up special squads of probation officers who are specially trained to handle their needs.  It is hard to get an exact fix on just how many prisoners suffer from mental illness, but these same inmates may also come into the prison system with substance abuse issues which require comprehensive treatment and psychological services in order to treat.

Steinberg stated his proposal, which has yet to be drafted into legislation, would offer grants to fund programs such as mental health courts, where judges could send those with mental illness or addiction issues into treatment, instead of the prison system.  He said he would like to dedicate half of the grants to services for mentally ill or drug addicted juvenile offenders.

Nine counties used grants to fund mental health courts and 13 counties also targeted mentally ill offenders who had drug abuse problems too.  The report stated 53% of those in these types of programs returned to jail within two years, but 56% of those who received aid reoffended.

Large changes were noted in the drug and alcohol abuse and homeless rates. Approximately 32% of those enrolled in the state funded programs were able to become economically self-sufficient, in contrast to 24% of those who were not enrolled in the program.

These programs are life changing and it is the hope of Steinberg to change the way mental illness and addiction are addressed in the prison system.  With proper treatment and access to mental health services, it has been proven people can be treated and get better and inmates are no different than anyone else.