COLUMBIA — Legislators could send the state Department of Mental Health an additional $3 million in the wake of Jamal Sutherland's death in the Charleston County jail to improve treatment of the mentally ill who wind up arrested.
The spending proposal to be debated on the House floor the week of June 7 includes $843,000 to create a tele-psychiatry team, $1 million to help cover medication costs, and $1.2 million to pilot a crisis stabilization unit in the Columbia area to divert the mentally ill away from jail cells.
"This is not just a step in the right direction, but a huge step," state Rep. Bill Herbkersman, R-Bluffton, told The Post and Courier on June 4.Â
The chairman of House Ways and Means' health care subcommittee said video released last month of Sutherland's death "showed the immediate need for it."
Sutherland died in the jail in January after being jolted by Tasers six or more times, doused twice with pepper spray and pinned to the floor by deputies after he refused to leave his cell for a bond hearing. The 31-year-old Black man, diagnosed as a teenager with bipolar disorder and schizophrenia, was taken to jail after a fight at the North Charleston mental health facility his parents took him to days earlier for help.
Herbkersman said his team met with Department of Mental Health leaders after Sutherland's death to "figure out how we can work to prevent any more psychiatric patients from mistreatment in detention centers."
His panel's spending recommendations, adopted June 2 by the full Ways and Means Committee, were "not a kneejerk reaction," he said. "But the work we're doing now needed to be in the pipeline years ago."
House Minority Leader Todd Rutherford, who sits on the subcommittee, said he was impressed by Mental Health Director Kenneth Rogers' answers when questioned about the Sutherland case and what should be done.Â
"He didn't hesitate," said the Columbia Democrat, noting Rogers also assured him the $3 million would pay for his plans.Â
The tele-health psychiatric consultation team would consist of several part-time psychiatrists and six full-time mental health professionals available around the clock through online connections to evaluate inmates with known or suspected mental illness. The hope is to expand on the program later with mental health professionals at the jails, Herbkersman said.Â
It's not possible to do that all at once, he said, adding "we don't have the workers. To imbed mental health care workers in detention centers, it would take us three years to even find them."Â
The medication money will help cover jails' cost of expensive psychiatric drugs, including long-acting injectables, that get around the problem of the mentally ill not wanting to take a daily pill and secretly throwing them away.Â
"They stick them under their tongue and don't use them. The worse they get, the more they don't use it," Herbkersman said.
The crisis stabilization unit for nonviolent arrests will involve partnering with community hospitals. The Columbia area was chosen for this year's funding because the mental health agency is headquartered there, Herbkersman said.
Other new funding for mental health is not directly related to detention centers.
The proposal includes $2 million to increase the number of patients who can be treated at mental health centers. It also spends $1 million toward shifting the transportation of mentally ill patients away from law enforcement.Â
In September 2018, two mental health patients drowned when the Horry County deputies transporting them for evaluations drove through floodwaters from Hurricane Florence and the van got swept off the road. The deputies climbed out, but the two women were trapped in the back.Â
The tragedy prompted a review of how the mentally ill are transferred, but the need for change extends far beyond the headlines, Herbkersman said.
"For the first time in a long time, I feel good about this," he said. Not only is mental health a focus, he said, but "everyone's really trying to work together. This whole mental illness thing is a huge growing problem, and it's got to be all hands on deck."Â
Votes in the House this week will return the entire $10.7 billion spending package for 2021-22 to the Senate, which didn't include those mental health pieces in its version. But Sen. Thomas Alexander, R-Walhalla, who leads the Senate's health care budget-writing panel, said mental health will be a priority in negotiations between the chambers.
"I embrace what the House is trying to do," he said. "We'll come up with a plan not just for this year but going forward."Â Â Â
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