Society needs a jailbreak

Nice article in Friday’s paper about the new playground in Spokane Valley. The secondary headline says it all: “New Discovery Playground offers education through play.” Sure beats this headline from April 15 in the New York Daily News: “City paints over Brooklyn ‘jail’ playground with space-age replacement.”

Yes, a Brooklyn playground had a jail-themed jungle gym in the middle of a housing project. And just in case the kids didn’t get the message, the word “Jail” was helpfully included. Neighbors complained for years to no avail, but when the jail finally made the headlines, the city acted. While the bureaucratic culprits might not have wanted to send the message that some children are set up to fail, it is still true that society is following this path.

We spend exorbitant amounts on jails and prisons in our incarceration nation, but then scrape and scrimp on promising preventive measures, such as the widespread adoption of high-quality preschools. The space-age replacement for the playground’s jail tells kids to shoot for the stars, but who are we kidding. This isn’t going to happen in meaningful numbers for at-risk children if we continue to spend huge sums to contain failure rather than unleash success. Many kids will continue to show up at kindergarten without knowing how to behave in a classroom or even hold a pencil. Some will never catch up to their peers and instead will land in jail.

As several long-term studies show, early learning can set these children on a productive path.

Ill-advised. Many people showed up at Wednesday’s hearing on the proposed jail expansion for Spokane County. Most seemed interested in avoiding the need, rather than discussing construction. It’s too late for that. The projections for a new jail already include the diversionary programs and alternative forms of punishment some of them were proposing.

True, we should expand their use, but that will take time. In the meantime, the clock is running out on the Geiger Corrections Center lease, and the county’s population will continue to grow. Had this concern for jail avoidance been voiced earlier, we might’ve avoided some now-inevitable costs. The best course now is to stay vigilant about alternatives and to look for opportunities to reduce jail and prison populations.

To that end, we should take a long look at the intersection of mental health and incarceration. Last week, USA Today reported on a study that shows that states, on average, place three times as many seriously mentally ill people behind bars as in hospitals. Washington state is right at the national average, but Idaho is worse, with a 4.6-to-1 ratio.

The study, directed by the National Sheriffs’ Association and the Treatment Advocacy Center, draws on previously unpublished 2004-’05 federal data. It shows that at least 16 percent of jail and prison inmates have a serious mental illness. A similar study in 1983 put the figure at 6.4 percent. In 1955, there was one psychiatric bed for every 300 Americans. In 2005, it was one bed per 3,000 people.

We keep the mentally ill in jail because they’ve committed crimes. But we also keep them there because there is nowhere else to place them. Releasing them typically leads to a re-arrest because they aren’t getting supervised treatment. Jailers call them “frequent fliers.” Spokane County Sheriff Ozzie Knezovich says his jail is the second biggest mental health institution in the state. These inmates are more costly to incarcerate because they can be difficult to control.

The study offers some solutions: Expand the use of mental health courts, which should funnel people into appropriate treatment. Use supervised outpatient treatment to cut down on the frequent fliers. Allow the use of Medicaid to cover treatment of eligible patients with severe mental illnesses, regardless of age or where they are being treated.

Upfront spending costs on these solutions would be more humane and should satisfy the late-breaking concern about the price of jails.