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What strategies do other facilities have with diverting the mentally ill from coming into their institution? As an alternative, what strategies do other facilities have to reduce recidivism with the mentally ill population?
Debbie Boecker, Director
Cook County Sheriff's Office
Chicago, Illinois
Good afternoon Ms. Boecker:
We have a mental health team here on staff but our facility is a local Detention Center (Jail) so I'm not certain we could assist as often times the issues Jails face vs. Prisons are somewhat different challenges. However, we'd be happy to share some of our initiatives as we fight this uphill battle this is occurring all over the Nation!
We work extremely closely with our local Mental Health centers for continuity of care, reach out to Residential facilities to try to ensure "beds" aren't given away due to an arrest and we have an in-house Drug and Alcohol Treatment program that assists not only the patients struggling with Alcohol/Drug dependence, but those that are Dual Diagnosis.
I'm not sure we have any more "success" than others as we cannot control the Arresting Agencies, so I'll be following this thread as well to see if we can gain some ideas that might translate to our facility. Please let me know if we can assist!
Tracy Krein-Health Services Administrator, Greenville County Detention Center, Greenville SC
Thank you Tracy!