Another measure has been instituted by the county to reduce the number of Butler County Prison inmates with mental health issues.

The county commissioners on Wednesday voted to approve Stepping Up, a nationwide initiative to reduce incarceration for those with mental illnesses.

Commissioners Chairman Leslie Osche said 30 percent to 35 percent of those incarcerated in the county jail have been diagnosed with a mental illness.

Shawn Pugh, the county's grant writer and criminal justice planner, said on Thursday that the program educates police officers, judges and others in the criminal justice system regarding how to separate a criminal from someone with a mental illness.

“These people end up going to prison in lieu of treatment,” Pugh said.

He said police and district judges were trained when the county instituted its sequential intercept model so they can identify the mentally ill and divert them from the criminal justice system if possible.

The Stepping Up program, Pugh said, will work in conjunction with the sequential intercept model by ensuring people get timely screenings and assessments; getting baseline data on those in the criminal justice system with mental health issues; ensuring service providers are in place to provide mental health treatment; studying county policies, practices and funding; and tracking progress.

“Lots of times there is no other place for people with mental health issues and they end up in prison,” Pugh said.

He said Stepping Up not only helps those with mental illness, but the taxpayers who fund the incarceration of those lodged in the jail as well as the police and district judges.

“We are concerned with the individuals with mental health issues and also we want to make sure we are maximizing the money spent for people in the criminal justice system,” Pugh said.

Osche said housing inmates in the county jail accounts for 10 percent to 15 percent of the county budget each year.

“The biggest first effort (in the Stepping Up program) will be to understand how each department conducts risk assessment,” Osche said.

She said no one knows if the assessment taken by medical personnel at the jail is the same as the one taken by probation or other departments.

“Everyone has a different way of assessing,” Osche said.

To learn how many inmates have a mental health diagnosis, Osche said, the county's mental health director had to sift through many files and records.

“That's not really a good way to gather and understand data,” she said.

She said a main goal of Stepping Up is to prevent inmates with mental illness from returning to the criminal justice system.

“We want to learn what leads to that success and how we are connecting department to department,” Osche said.

Osche and Pugh both said Butler County has been ahead of the curve regarding mental health.

Pugh said in addition to the sequential intercept model, the county has 12 successful graduates from its two-year-old behavioral health court.

“These are people who would otherwise be in the corrections system somewhere and instead, they are in the community doing well,” Pugh said.

The county also offers drug treatment court and veterans court.

“The commissioners and judges have been instrumental in making sure this segment of the population gets the services they need,” Pugh said.

He said county officials will attend a training next week to learn how to best initiate the Stepping Up program in Butler County.