By Kevin Haas
Rock River Current
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ROCKFORD — The Winnebago County Jail introduced new group counseling programs this week as part of a multifaceted effort to connect inmates with more support for managing mental health and substance abuse issues.
The group counseling is one of several initiatives funded by the half-cent mental health sales tax voters approved in March 2020, and at the jail that money is being used to add mental health specialists staff and keep inmates connected to services once they’re released.
The end goal is to help inmates better manage their mental health and avoid situations that would lead to another arrest after their release. Right now, inmates at the jail can reenter anywhere from two to 68 times, according to Sgt. Anthony Ponte, who oversees the jail mental health program.
“It’s baby steps,” said Megan Johnson, the jail’s site mental health manager. “When you have someone coming to jail who’s been coming to jail for over 20 years, we can’t just change it overnight.”
“It’s going to take time and it’s going to take a lot of resources, but I do think that eventually we’re going to see those numbers come down of the people coming back.”
Related: Winnebago County Mental Health Board allocates $6.6M to 21 new programs
The Winnebago County Mental Health Board, which manages how revenue from the half-cent sales tax is allocated, awarded the jail $1,029,000 last year to hire more mental health specialists and add mental health services, including suicide risk assessment and prevention services.
Then, earlier this year, it extended the jail’s funding with an additional $1,123,203 from June 1 through May 30, 2023.
So far, the money has been used to hire one advanced psychiatric nurse practitioner and four behavioral health specialists who have dual licenses for handling mental health and substance abuse issues. They also added cameras to the facility to create more suicide watch holding cells.
Then, in late January, it started a new screening process for all people booked into the jail. Those screenings can help connect inmates with mental health services and streamline access to specialty courts such as Drug Court or TIP Court for adults with serious mental health issues.
“These programs are much-needed here in the community,” Ponte said. “If we can get everything in line from the criminal justice side, to the court side, and with the community, and get everyone linked and everyone on the same page, the citizens are going to be the ones who benefit from it.”
Related: ‘Doing what we set out to do’: How the mental health sales tax has been put to use so far
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‘Trying to bridge that gap’
The jail’s next step is adding a discharge planning process that will align inmates with community service providers who can help them keep up their treatment after leaving jail. That will help make sure that inmates who begin a psychiatric medication treatment while in jail have a link to continue their medication after leaving.
“One thing we’ve noticed for years now: We can have the programs in the jail, but the link that’s missing is the person inbetween here and the community,” Ponte said. “We’re trying to bridge that gap.”
The new screening process, counseling sessions and discharge planning is meant to keep inmates connected to treatment throughout their time in the jail and after their release.
“We want a cohesive flow from the time they come into the facility to the time they leave,” Ponte said.
Related: ‘We really wanted people to have a voice’: Exhibit showcases artists with mental health disorders
The group counseling sessions started on Monday and are eight week programs that anyone in the jail can participate in. The programs are:
- Thinking for Good: A 10-unit program that focuses on confronting anti-social and criminal thinking.
- Houses of Healing: A research-driven approach for behavioral changes meant to help inmates rehabilitate and reenter society. It also encourages inmates and provides them a path for change.
- Seeking Safety: An evidence-based counseling program meant to help people navigate issues with mental health and substance abuse.
“We want to make sure that when we’re building these that they’re evidence-based, they’re evidence driven and it aligns with the Mental Health Board’s philosophies,” Ponte said. “So these are coming up from scratch.”
The jail previously had group classes but they were halted when the coronavirus pandemic took hold and tighter restrictions were put on the jail.
The new classes are “more focused. It’s more counseling orientated, where the other ones were more educational: different ways to cope while you’re in here, how to recognize the emotions that you’re having,” Johnson said.
She said that the coronavirus pandemic may have forced some people to lose touch with their mental health service providers, leading to new issues with law enforcement.
“I’m seeing inmates I haven’t seen in over 10 years that are now coming back to jail,” Johnson said. “Now that there’s more mental health providers here, we can do a better job of making sure that when they are here that we stay connected with the community providers.”
The jail will measure its recidivism levels to measure the effectiveness of the programs.
“In time we want to see the number of incarcerations reduced,” Johnson said. “What we hope to see is even if they do come back to jail in the beginning, that they still are linked with that community provider and they’re still seeking that help while they’re working through their core issues.”
Ponte said the goal is for the Winnebago County Jail to “be the model for other facilities.”
“A lot of the stuff we do mental health wise for the inmates here are not typically seen in county jails throughout the country,” Ponte said. “So we want to be the gold standard that everyone else uses.”
Mental Health Awareness Month
May is Mental Health Awareness Month, which has been observed in the United States since 1949. Throughout the month, the Rock River Current will publish several stories looking at use of the mental health sales tax in Winnebago County and other local initiatives centered around mental health.
This article is by Kevin Haas. Email him at khaas@rockrivercurrent.com or follow him on Twitter at @KevinMHaas or Instagram @thekevinhaas.