The Tulsa County Sheriff’s Office believes its new mental health wing at the jail is the only one of its kind in the U.S.
Sheriff Vic Regalado said from paint colors to fixtures, the wing was designed with mentally ill inmates’ well being in mind. Regalado said the area will have specially trained detention officers, a psychiatrist and a nurse on duty at all times.
"We believe that the system we have in place will truly provide the necessary mental health needs of our inmates," Regalado said.
Mental Health Association Oklahoma Director Mike Brose praised a decision to give detention officers specialized training before housing inmates in the new space.
"That's where the rubber meets the road," Brose said. "That's the difference between a good outcome and maybe, potentially a not-so-good outcome."
"At the end of the day, if it's just the bricks and mortar, they're just — they are jail pods," Brose said.
The mental health wing of the jail may not be in use until March because of the need to train detention officers. That will leave roughly two dozen inmates currently suffering from mental illness segregated from the jail's general population.
The new area is divided into four tiers: suicidal inmates, those not able to be outside a cell because of behavior problems, those following a program of medication but not ready for general population, and those that seem to be ready to join other jail inmates.
Chief Deputy Michelle Robinette said the jail’s medical provider contract includes a discharge planner to work with inmates leaving the mental health wing.
"That involves linking them with the necessary resources on the outside, making the phone calls, making the appointments and ensuring that they get where they need to go once they leave here," Robinette said.
Brose said the new space must complement ongoing efforts to help those with mental illness or addiction charged with nonviolent crimes.
"We want to divert those people so they're never in the jail, never on these pods, and have them connected up with services, to treatment," Brose said.
The mental health wing is part of a $15 million jail expansion.
