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Cuts to state mental hospitals would be massive unfunded mandate for county jails

Brandi Grissom at The Texas Tribune reports that "sheriffs across Texas are increasingly frustrated and worried about the ever-decreasing amount of bed space available at state mental hospitals." She writes:Too often, when mentally ill offenders come to their jails, sheriffs who are required to provide appropriate care for their inmates say they are forced to either drive hundreds of miles, wait for days in hospital emergency rooms guarding patients or try to make do in their local jails until a mental health bed becomes available. The looming budget shortfall  that legislators will be grappling with in 2011 has sheriffs concerned that the problem will mutate into a crisis. ?We?ve cut way too far, and it?s just not working,? [Van Zandt County Sheriff Pat] Burnett says...continue to full post

Full post as published by Grits for Breakfast on December 16, 2010 (boomark / email).