HOUSTON -- About 25 percent of the 10,000 inmates housed at the Harris County Jail each day have a history of mental illness.
In fact, the Harris County Jail is widely seen by critics as the largest mental health provider in Texas.
Mentally ill Inmates are often released with no place to go.
The creation of a Felony Mental Health Court is being hailed as a critical and necessary first step to help these inmates.
"For those of us who work in the system, we deal with it on a day-to-day basis," said Dr. Michael Seale, Medical Director of the Harris County Sheriff's Office Health Services Bureau. "We're very aware of it."
Many inmates commit more crimes after they're released and end up back in jail.
The new court will offer non-violent criminal offenders with mental health problems probation and treatment instead of jail or prison time.
"Any diversion effort that could potentially move people out of the jail to a more appropriate environment would be a good thing," Dr. Seale said.
Mental health advocates hope the program will give the inmates the help they need to keep them out of jail.
"When they get out of jail, they're often very stable," said Betsy Schwartz, president and CEO of Mental Health America of Greater Houston. "If we could maintain that stability, then we wouldn't see that revolving door that we see so often."
The new Felony Mental Health Court is the latest in a series of efforts to tackle mental health problems.
Next week, prominent Houston attorney George Parnham will present Harris County commissioners with a comprehensive plan that would add caseworkers at the jail and offer inmates with mental health problems transitional services such as employment and housing.
