COLUMN: Unfunded mandates on county jails proposed by state lawmakers

Submitted photo.

Ellis County Sheriff Johnny Brown.

This past week, I and other members of the Jail Advisory Board for the Sheriff's Association of Texas met up with Texas Jail Commission officials where we were told about several proposals before state lawmakers that may be heading our way. A big problem with these proposals, as they're worded right now, is that they represent unfunded mandates for our local taxpayers.

It's no secret there are some jails in this state that don't meet the standards. Ours, however, isn't one of those; we're in compliance. Whether those other jails can't meet the requirements or don't want to meet them, they've got problems that need addressing. The Jail Commission needs to concentrate on those out of compliance facilities and get their issues fixed – and leave the rest of us who are running our facilities correctly to do so. The ones of us who're doing what we're supposed to be doing don't need more rules: We need the state to bring the problem facilities up to standard. They're the ones needing help.

Many of these proposed requirements deal with the handling and care of people with mental health issues. Through our contracted medical and mental health services, we have a psychiatrist here two days a week and another mental health provider available the rest of the week. The medical and mental health services we provide to inmates at our jail already cost more than a million dollars a year from local tax funds. We're in compliance with the current rules – and we do more than what we're required to do where training is concerned.

Our 21-member Civil Division handles the transport of any person with mental health issues. Your Sheriff's Office requires that every one of those deputies takes the 40-hour TCOLE mental health peace officer class that's been developed by the Dallas Police Department. This is a highly regarded weeklong class that includes classroom and skills training. Every participant also goes through intensive scenario training before the week is over. Not every law enforcement agency out there has this requirement on its transport personnel: We do.

DPD offers this mental health peace officer class every month somewhere in Texas to make it available to as many agencies as possible and, every year in December, our agency and Red Oak PD co-host this training here in Ellis County. As soon as we have a new deputy assigned to the Civil Division, we're booking him or her into the next available class wherever it's being offered because we want them to have every skill they need to work with a mental health consumer. We're also putting as many of our patrol deputies through this course that we can. The state hasn't even made this 40-hour class a requirement yet, but we have.

In 2014, our deputies handled 375 mental health transports. Through July 31 of this year, they've handled 161. These transports come about in several ways: A deputy may encounter a person with mental health issues while answering a call and has to do an emergency detention. There may have been a court-ordered commitment and sheriff's offices are required by state law to handle any transports relating to court orders involving mental health persons. We're required to transport them if they've been ordered to a facility for admission and then we're required to transport them to and from that facility for any court hearings involving their care.

Two deputies are involved in each transport of a mental health person. A transport that involves picking up someone from the nearest facility to us, Hickory Trails in DeSoto, and taking him or her to a court hearing and then back to the facility, can involve two to three hours that each of those deputies is unavailable for other service. If it involves someone admitted up at Green Oaks in North Dallas that needs transporting back here for a court appearance, you're talking possibly five to six hours per deputy. We've been responsible for transports to and from state facilities as far away as Big Springs.

If the Legislature is wanting county jails to provide even more services, have more staffing and additional training, there needs to be some serious thought as to where that money's going to come from – and it needs to be from another source than our local taxpayers. Our lawmakers also need to understand that our county jails can't continue this path of becoming substitute mental health facilities because there aren't other alternatives.

Let me be clear: Jail is NOT where our mentally ill people need to be and we're doing the best on our end to ensure people with those needs are identified and transferred to an appropriate facility. County jails are NOT mental health treatment facilities.

I've already spoken with our state Rep. John Wray and state Sen. Brian Birdwell's offices about my concerns with unfunded mandates like the ones being proposed. They've assured me they're looking at what's being discussed down in Austin and the potential impacts those would have on local taxpayers.

Please, everyone, let's keep our military and service personnel in our thoughts and prayers. We enjoy our rights and freedoms because of their service and safekeeping of our great nation. Y'all have a Blessed Week.

Johnny Brown has served as Sheriff of Ellis County since Jan. 1, 2009, and is a graduate of the National Sheriff's Institute. He has been in law enforcement for more than 20 years and holds a Master's Peace Officer's Certificate with the Texas Commission on Law Enforcement Officer Standards and Education.