Sheriff enters contract for mental-health services for inmates
Athens Daily ReviewApr 20, 2018
They firm also provides services to
"The way the new (
Hillhouse said he obtained quotes from three companies, but that other than Taft, they wanted to interview inmates by teleconference after hours.
"This company does not," Hillhouse said. "They've got six individuals that will be on call who, if needed, could come to the jail to do a personal, one-on-one interview with the inmate."
The county will pay the same rate of
"An on-call psychological assessment is
The sheriff said the mental-health program instituted by the county a few years ago at the jail benefits the prisoners by giving them a mental-health professional with whom to talk. The maximum population at the
Since the county's previous contract ended, Hillhouse said the "temperature" at the jail has risen a bit, with more tension with interactions between prisoners.
In recent years, meeting the inmate's mental-health needs has been increasingly more demanding for county jails.
If the answers to questions on a screening form filled out on the prisoner at booking indicate mental- health issues, sheriff's officials must notify a magistrate within 72 hours that they are in custody.
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