And this doesn't include unknown numbers of mentally ill inmates in the jail's general population. County officials estimate that up to 10 percent of the 7,100 inmates have some form of mental illness. Sheriff Joe Arpaio, who has lobbied for more mental-health money, said he has no choice but to take the mentally ill. I would rather have them in jail than wandering on the streets. And officials say the jail system's number of mentally disturbed inmates is growing.
Advocates blame the increases on the county's chronic lack of community services.
You wouldn't expect cancer patients to be in jail or people with diabetes or liver problems, but we think nothing of putting the mentally ill in jail. The process often means that mentally ill people are arrested, jailed, then paroled to places like homeless shelters that offer little or no care. Then they're rearrested. The county plans to increase its capacity to 268 from 212 in a new jail to be completed by 2002. ValueOptions can change the rules on who it sees.