County to Release 50 Mentally Ill Jail Inmates : Treatment: The new program is aimed at getting help for those who commit minor crimes and will include monitoring by a psychiatrist, psychologist and social workers.

As many as 50 inmates will soon be released from the Ventura County Jail under a new program aimed at treating mentally ill people who commit minor crimes.

“Jails have become a dumping ground for social and mental problems,” said Dr. Robert Benedetto of the county Department of Mental Health Services. “We’re trying . . . to get those people who are not going to be public safety risks out of jail and into treatment.”

The agency’s outline of the program acknowledges that “mentally ill offenders are at high risk to re-offend,” but mental health and jail officials said the program will not pose a risk to the public.

“Nobody with a violent background or who is any danger to the community would be released,” Sheriff’s Sgt. Gary Cook said. “We’re trying to catch people who are in the system only because of a mental health problem.”

Cook said crimes committed by the mentally ill typically include malicious mischief, public intoxication, trespassing, defrauding an innkeeper and petty theft.

The program is aimed at getting medical and psychiatric treatment for inmates with the most common forms of mental illness: manic depression, depression and schizophrenia. It will not include people whose primary problem is drug or alcohol addiction.

After release, participants will be monitored by a team that includes a psychiatrist, a psychologist, two social workers and other professionals, Benedetto said.

“We’re going to keep track of them,” he said. “They’ll be reporting to us one or two times a week, and we’ll be making unannounced visits and random urine tests to make sure they are taking their medication. If they do anything to disrupt public safety, we would report back to the court.”

The district attorney’s office, the public defender’s office and a judge will have to approve every candidate for the program, Benedetto said, and each inmate will have to sign a contract agreeing to stick with the treatment.

Lack of supervised treatment facilities or other housing for released inmates will be the biggest problem facing the new program, Benedetto said. “It’s great if they have a family or there’s a board-and-care home that can take them,” he said. “If there’s no housing available, the court probably will not approve a person for the program.”

Most mentally ill inmates will not enter the program until their arraignment, after they have spent at least several days in jail, and undergone a psychiatric examination, officials said. Inmates who plead guilty could enter outpatient treatment as part of their sentence or probation. Inmates with cases pending could also be diverted to the program and have their cases settled after undergoing treatment.

The program will start next month with a few cases and is expected to reach its 50-inmate capacity by January, Benedetto said.

Los Angeles County has a program for mentally ill inmates, but they are diverted to residential facilities, said Grant Lee of the Los Angeles program.

Many mentally ill people end up in jail because the state has not provided enough money for residential facilities and other methods of treatment, Benedetto said.

“Mental patients basically wander the streets and exhibit symptoms of their illness. It results in bizarre acts and police are summoned,” he said.

Estimates put the number of homeless mentally ill in Ventura County at 600 to 1,000, said Vikki Smith, coordinator of a county program to provide emergency shelter for the mentally ill.

Police and sheriff’s departments have become, as the Journal of Psychiatry & Law reported in 1987, “the most utilized agencies for psychiatric referral in our society.” Because of time constraints and the absence of treatment facilities, taking mentally ill people to jail is often the fastest and most effective way to get them off the street, the journal said.

The estimated $300,000 cost of Ventura County’s program will come from a $16-million, four-year grant that the county received to develop a new system for treating the mentally ill.

Don Richardson, a former national president of the Alliance for the Mentally Ill, applauded the county’s effort.

“From my point of view, this is certainly a step in the right direction,” said Richardson, a Los Angeles resident who is head of a 60-member committee assigned by the Legislature to propose a new statewide mental health treatment program for consideration next year.

He said experts estimate that 11% to 14% of jail inmates nationwide are “seriously mentally ill, and their crimes are related to their illness.”