Jail Houses Largest Psychiatric Facility In Sonoma County
In other news related to prison health care, the federal Bureau of Prisons issued a policy last week requiring prisons to provide free tampons and maxi-pads to female inmates.
Santa Rosa Press Democrat:
Jail Is Largest Psychiatric Facility In Sonoma County
The largest psychiatric facility in Sonoma County is not a hospital. It’s the jail. If not by design then by default, jail cells have essentially replaced psychiatric hospital beds for many of Sonoma County’s most severely mentally ill residents. It is a trend that began before the closure of Santa Rosa’s two secured mental health hospitals a decade ago, and has continued since. Now, nearly 40 percent of the 1,100 inmates held at the county’s main jail and its lower-security North County Detention Facility near the Charles M. Schulz-Sonoma County Airport have some form of mental health issue, from mild depression to bipolar schizoaffective disorder. (Espinoza, 8/12)
Santa Rosa Press Democrat:
New Sonoma County Jail Wing Seeks To Improve Care For Mentally Ill Inmates
When Sonoma County sheriff’s officials publicly revealed their plans last spring to build a $48 million jail wing for the mentally ill, a common question quickly emerged. Why not build a psychiatric hospital instead in Sonoma County? After all, the only local hospital beds for mental health patients are operated by a for-profit company, while many low-income residents suffering a psychiatric crisis often wait for hours in an emergency room, waiting for a bed to free up in a psychiatric hospital in another county. (Espinoza, 8/12)
Mercury News:
Bureau Of Prisons Requires Free Tampons For Female Inmates
The federal Bureau of Prisons quietly issued a new policy last week requiring prisons to provide free tampons and maxi-pads to female inmates. The new operations memorandum was released less than a month after Sen. Kamala Harris, D-CA, and three other Democratic senators introduced a bill that would have made the same policy change. (Tolan, 8/11)