Jim Hammond

The Hamilton County Sheriff's Office hopes a new crisis intervention team will reduce the mentally ill population in the county jail, as well as train officers to assist mentally ill suspects.

The sheriff's office, in conjunction with the Chattanooga Police Department and various mental and social services agencies across the county, is putting together the team, whose members will respond to situations involving mentally ill people and divert them from jail to an appropriate mental health evaluation facility.

Some of the agencies assisting will be Joe Johnson Mental Health Services, Erlanger hospital, the Fortwood Mental Health Center and the county's social services department.

Currently, 10 percent to 15 percent of the jail's population, which averages near 600 each month, is mentally ill, Sheriff Jim Hammond estimated. It's a trend seen across the country, especially after mental health institutions began closing their doors in the mid-1960s, he added.

"Instead of those folks being in places like Moccasin Bend and other treatment facilities, where they can get primary treatment and counseling, we found they were all ending up in jail because they were going off their meds or their family couldn't help them," the sheriff said.

In a couple of weeks, G.A. Bennett, director of support services for the sheriff's office, will go to Washington, D.C., to persuade the U.S. Bureau of Justice Assistance to award the sheriff's office a $250,000 grant over three years to maintain the program and fund a coordinator position. The sheriff's office must match 25 percent of the grant with in-kind services, and will do so by providing office space and equipment.

Former Sheriff Billy Long tried to start a crisis intervention program, but it did not develop by the time he was arrested in February 2008 on federal charges involving extortion, money laundering, drug and gun charges. He later pleaded guilty and is serving a 14-year sentence.

Sheriff Hammond made the team a priority upon taking office last August and said the program could start officially in September or October.

Initially, eight to 10 sheriff's office deputies will be trained, as well as 15 to 20 Chattanooga police officers, Sheriff Hammond said.

The program focuses on de-escalation as a means to resolve conflict, Mr. Bennett said. Sheriff's deputies assist in 35 to 50 situations each week involving mentally ill suspects, whether they respond to a scene or help with a court transport, he said.

"(The program) is a quite unique training process that is the result of police training and mental health training," he said. "And it's very, very effective."

Mr. Bennett, Sheriff Hammond and Lt. Mike Cribbs, with the sheriff's office who will oversee the program, met with Memphis officials in April to see how the program works. Local crisis intervention team representatives recently took a 40-hour training course in Memphis, and Memphis trainers are expected to visit Chattanooga to train more personnel.

About the original crisis intervention team

Introduced in 1988, the Memphis Crisis Intervention Team is a police-based first-responder program emphasizing prearrest jail diversion for people in a mental illness crisis. The program provides law enforcement-based crisis intervention training for helping individuals with mental illness.

Source: Memphis Crisis Intervention Team