Fayette Prison Board adds two hours weekly for inmate psychiatric care
Members of the Fayette County Prison Board have amended a contract with the prison’s health care service provider to help address the needs of patients with mental illnesses.
During Tuesday’s rescheduled regular meeting, Deputy Court Administrator Tammy Lambie made a motion to amend the board’s contract with PrimeCare Medical to increase tele-psychiatric care for an additional two hours a week at a cost of $1,701 per month beginning Aug. 1.
Currently, the prison has two hours of tele-psychiatric care a week, but will now have four hours per week.
Tele-psychiatric service is the process of providing healthcare from a distance through technology like video through Skype.
“I think it’s very-well needed,” said Warden Jeffrey Myers. Board members unanimously passed the measure.
Lambie said the task force based on the Stepping Up Initiative to reduce the number of mentally ill people in prisons, made the recommendation for increased hours. She said the additional time will help get mental health evaluations done in a quicker manner.
In May, the board discussed the burden many prisons have with inmates who have mental health issues.
Prison board member Judge Steve P. Leskinen said there have been times where prisoners are incarcerated for six months before an attorney requests a mental health evaluation on their behalf. He asked if a mental health professional could be put on retainer to do evaluations in the prison to speed up the process.
On Tuesday, Leskinen said another important issue within the issue of inmates’ mental health is finding a place to house those individuals.
He said statistics presented at a recent conference he attended were that 31 percent of female inmates and 14 percent of male inmates at county prisons have a form of mental illness.
“County prisons are the number one institution that holds the mentally ill,” Leskinen said.
While that’s a nationwide problem, Leskinen said counties like Fayette are left using their own resources in dealing with the issue without assistance from the state. He said the closest state hospital has an eight-month backlog.
“This is a step we have to take, but it should be something that the state helps with,” Leskinen said.
In other business, board member Sheriff James Custer commended the courts, the district attorney’s office and the jail staff for a month of low population figures. Myers reported as of Tuesday morning, the prison housed 148 men and 31 women. Five inmates were being housed in Greene County, he said.
Myers said 134 inmates were committed, and 151 inmates released in the past month.
“It’s been a long time since we’ve been at these numbers,” Custer said. “It really helps out a lot.”
Myers also reported that they’ve made major upgrades to the prison including the entire kitchen area being replaced with stainless steel to eliminate growth of bacteria, germs, mold and mildew. New flooring was also added he said.
Officials are currently working on the shower areas, replacing the metal with stainless steel, too.
“There’s still a lot to be done,” Myers said.
During the public comment, resident Jeri Lowe of Indian Head brought up the lawsuit against the prison board from the ACLU in June over alleged inhumane conditions and asked for some follow up from the board.
Solicitor Jack Purcell said since the litigation is ongoing, it would be inappropriate to comment on the issue.
When Lowe asked if the lawsuit affected the new prison, Custer said the board planned to have the new prison placed at the former U.S. Army Reserve Center even before the lawsuit was filed.
In other business, the board accepted the resignation of Jeff Spiker, hired Chase Rutherford as a full-time correctional officer and hired Eric Miller, Duaine Sullenberger, Shaun Halfhill, Brandon Williams and Melissa Albright as part-time correction officers.
Absent from Tuesday’s meeting were Commissioners Vince Vicites and Dave Lohr and District Attorney Rich Bower.