(From left) Jail Commander Kyle Gibbons, Chief Deputy Phil Parker and Sheriff Ruben Marté at a Monday meeting.
(Courtesy of Community Access Television Services (CATS))
The Monroe County Sheriff’s Office wants the county council to invest in staffing and treatment programs at the local jail while considering recommendations for a new one.
That meeting focused on treatment; specifically, how the county council can invest in and improve treatment within the local criminal justice system.
The committee’s discussions have largely involved what members would like to incorporate in a new jail. Marté and his staff urged members to consider making some changes immediately.
“We’re probably three years out, at best, for a new facility,” said Chief Deputy Phil Parker. “We can’t afford to sit here and go, ‘Okay, hey, when we get that new facility, we’re going to do all these great things.’ We’ve got to start right now because there are lives that are hanging in the balance.”
Marté said he wants to add four positions: an additional qualified mental health professional, a substance abuse counselor, a re-entry case manager and a jail program director.
Filling those positions was among a slew of recommendations from the sheriff’s office, including adding the following:
A transitional mental health dormitory and more space for mental health purposes
A medical dormitory and more space for medical purposes
Marté said the jail doesn't have enough space or staff to support the current programs.
“At what point do we have to turn away a program, knowing that it could be helpful because we don’t have the space?” Marté said. “Without the staff, there’s very little we can do at the rate that we’re out right now.”
Parker said a potential consequence of not making those types of investments now is less safety facility for both inmates and correctional staff. He cited an attack on a correctional officer by a man with a history of mental health and substance abuse disorders.
Parker said the suspect has repeatedly been in and out of jail, making him what’s known as a “frequent flyer.” But Parker also put some blame for the attack on law enforcement and the justice system at large.
“What (frequent flyer) really means to me, for us, it means frequent failure,” Parker said. “We’re not teaching them skills; we’re not trying to treat the root cause of the problem. We push them back out with no resources. What are their options? To go right back to where they were."
Jail Commander Kyle Gibbons said a new jail’s adjacency to treatment services is a priority for the sheriff’s office.
“What I’m really talking about is a person that comes in and has a substance abuse issue; not violent, no other outlying charges,” Gibbons said. “Sometimes exposing that person to the rest of the facility is extremely harmful to that individual.”
County commissioners have said during previous discussions on a new jail that they are considering co-locating the facility with other services. The commissioners have not explicitly said whether they prefer a location where co-location is possible, however.
The commissioners and other local government leaders are slated to discuss potential jail site locations in greater detail and gather stakeholder input at a meeting scheduled for 5:30 p.m. at the Monroe County Courthouse.
