Lincoln Star Journal
Tuesday, January 24 th, 2006

Jail diversion ‘saved my life,’ woman says
One of many who has received help from Lancaster County mental health project says its successful.

By Gwen Tietgen

LeAnne Malecha remembers the echo of the jail doors slamming.

It was there, at the Lancaster County Jail, that her life changed.

She is one of 100 who have received long-term, intensive help through the Lancaster County Mental Health Jail Diversion Project. Because of the support and services through the jail diversion program, she was properly diagnosed with bipolar disorder, she said. Before that, she only was taking medication for depression.

“I would lay around my apartment for months. I’d go for days without a shower,” she told a crowd of about 200 at The Cornhusker Marriott on Monday. “I wanted help, but I didn’t know how to ask for help.”

With a caseworker by her side, she started receiving treatment and working toward a life she now is proud to call hers.

A. Kathryn Power, a national official on mental health policy, visited with state and local mental health officials Monday and said Lancaster County’s jail diversion program is used as an example for similar programs throughout the nation. Lancaster County started the program, one of 26 like it in the country, through a federal grant in 2003.

In a nutshell, the program identifies nonviolent misdemeanor offenders who have a mental illness and often are substance abusers. A caseworker helps the clients find jobs, treatment, housing, food and transportation and to navigate the court system, among other things.

Travis Parker, director of the county’s Mental Health Jail Diversion Project, said the program also has treated six to 10 felony offenders.

Grant money for Lancaster County’s jail diversion program is expected to support the program through June 2007, Parker said.

The program is set to cost about $300,000 a year to maintain, he said.

State Sen. Jim Jensen, chairmen of the Health and Human Services Committee, said the state should fund jail diversion programs, but to what extent has ye to be brought to the Legislature.

Lancaster County’s program, along with a program set to start in Douglas County, will be searching for additional money in 2007. Other cities are looking to start jail diversion programs.

Jensen said the success of Lancaster County’s diversion program should help sell the need for state and local money for current and additional jail diversion programs throughout the state. Jail diversion is one step to reforming mental health services throughout the state, he said.

“There isn’t any question that it’s cheaper. It makes economic sense and recidivism is less,” he said.

Said Jensen: “If we don’t do something in this state, we’re going to have to build another prison like we did in Tecumseh. So anything we can do to prevent that.”

In 2001, each inmate cost Nebraskans an average of $25,321, compared to the $3,500 per-person cost of mental health treatment.

Power is director of the Center for Mental Health Services, Substance Abuse and Mental Health Services Administration, which is a division of the U.S. Department of Health and Human Services. She summed up jail diversion as an investment in human life.

“Justice cannot be applied fairly when mental illness is the crime,” she said.

Melecha said the first opportunity she had to get better was through the jail diversion program. She said she relapsed recently, but she had the courage to fight back because of the program’s support.

“It provided me with the hope and gave me the strength,” she said. “It saved my life.”