Crisis team for mentally ill gets grant

BANGOR – Penobscot County Sheriff Glen Ross, Chief Donald Winslow and Carol Carothers, executive director of NAMI Maine, announced the receipt of a $21,000 grant from the Maine Department of Public Safety to be used to train two crisis intervention teams – one at the Penobscot County Jail and one at the Bangor Police Department.

The crisis intervention team is a nationally recognized model and, once implemented in Bangor, is expected to reduce the number of people with mental illness entering Penobscot County jail.

The grant will fund overtime training costs for seven members of the Bangor Police Department and seven members of the corrections division of the Penobscot County jail, and the formation of two crisis intervention teams. Officers from both organizations will receive specialized training in how to determine if an inmate is suicidal. The training will improve management and care of such individuals who are incarcerated at the jail.

Crisis intervention programs exist in seven other Maine communities and have been shown to reduce arrests and divert people to treatment. Officers will learn skills to help them respond successfully to crisis situations, and in many cases prevent hospitalization or arrest of the mentally ill.

The Penobscot County jail will be the second in the nation to have an in-jail crisis intervention team. The presence of the team is expected to reduce the need for crisis intervention, suicide watch and hospitalization of jail inmates.

After a call for help last spring by Sheriff Ross, NAMI Maine, the Bangor Police Department, Acadia Hospital, Wellspring, St. Joseph Hospital, Rape Response Services, Maine Mental Health Connections, Region 3 Office of the Maine Department of Health and Human Services, Bangor Area Homeless Shelter, Penquis CAP, NAMI Bangor, Penobscot County Commissioners, Maine Superior Court, Bangor Mental Health Institute and Community Health and Counseling Services formed the Bangor Jail Diversion Coalition. The coalition wrote the grant and will oversee and participate in grant activities.

“Jail diversion is an important part of helping the sheriff reduce the number inmates who have serious mental illness,” said Carol Carothers of NAMI Maine. “This grant represents a first – an integrated approach between law enforcement and correctional officers. While NAMI Maine has been successful in the establishment of seven police-based CIT programs and one in-jail program, this is our first effort to link in-jail and community-based CIT officers.”

Bangor Police Chief Don Winslow said, “It has become more and more common for Bangor police officers to encounter individuals with mental health issues. Police officers understand that jail is not the best alternative for them. Unfortunately, it often is the only choice open to the officer when dealing with people who commit minor crimes as a result of a mental health condition. We look forward to this new partnership and commend members of the collaborative who have joined us in responding to the pressing problems in the jail.”

Sheriff Glenn Ross said that he was pleased that the Penobscot County Jail was chosen as a site for the collaborative effort.

“A year ago, I spoke openly about the increasing numbers of and the difficulty of managing inmates with mental health problems in our custody,” Ross said. “The National Alliance for the Mentally Ill has been there to support our agency in a time of critical need. Joined by most of Bangor’s service providers, we’re working on concrete solutions regarding our shared concerns. Because of the lack of other options, our jails have become default residences for inmates with mental illness – at alarming rates. While this new initiative is extremely welcome, it does not eliminate the continuing dire need for state forensic beds for our most actively suicidal inmates. CIT will divert low risk offenders from the facility while teaching corrections officers new skills and, hopefully, preventing suicides. During the past year, our agency has experienced one death as the result of inmate suicide and 16 other very serious attempts, all of which likely would have been successful if not for the diligence of alert correctional officers and other inmates.”