Not long after entering the Clark County Jail for a tour on Thursday, U.S. Rep. Jaime Herrera Beutler, R-Camas, peered through a small window and into a room with eight men, several sleeping on makeshift beds on the floor, in the jail’s detox room.
This is where you go if you come in “hot off the street,” Ric Bishop, the chief corrections deputy with the sheriff’s office, told the congresswoman.
The tour wound past the room once used to take mug shots and now used as a nurse’s station. Next, there was the intake area, where on Friday and Saturday nights patrol cars often line up waiting for those ahead of them to be entered into the system and clearing the way for the next group to drive into a secured area. Later, it was on to the H-pod, where the jail offers re-entry services and tries to juggle the space to accommodate myriad services, from offering guidance on where to receive alcohol and drug treatments to connecting with resources such as food stamps and workforce training.
Each stop reinforced that the Clark County Jail is outdated and overcrowded.
“I needed to see the situation as it is,” Herrera Beutler said. “And there are more needs and more resources than they actually have here currently. And so, we need to do better.”
Herrera Beutler is hoping legislation she introduced could ease the overcrowding while focusing on those with mental health issues. The measure, if passed, would allow the Department of Health and Human Services to offer loans and loan guarantees to help build new substance abuse treatment facilities and psychiatric hospitals.
Bishop said nationally it’s estimated about 16 percent of people held in jails are mentally ill.
“That’s not just someone who is having a bad day or a little depressed,” he said. “Those are people who are seriously mentally ill.”
A recent study commissioned by the county found the jail needs to have 366,564 square feet of space to meet industry standards. It currently has 124,318 square feet. The study also found the jail needs to add beds with a goal of 1,109 to 1,260 total beds by 2036. The jail currently has a 793-bed capacity.
The price tag attached with expanding the jail varies drastically but could soar as high as $284 million to modernize the jail to meet current industry standards.
Herrera Beutler said she believes the need for short-term inpatient treatment for those suffering from substance abuse or psychiatric disorders is a nationwide problem, exacerbated by the opioid crisis. The legislation Herrera Beutler has introduced, along with U.S. Rep. Derek Kilmer, a Democrat, would be a loan program with the funds repaid and therefore self-sustaining.
While speaking about mental health care, the conversation at the jail briefly turned to the Affordable Care Act. Herrera Beutler was one of the Republicans in the House who was not in favor of the GOP’s American Health Care Act. She’s still hopeful Congress will repeal the Affordable Care Act, or Obamacare. But the American Health Care Act wasn’t the right legislation, she said.
“My big concern was it wasn’t going to bring costs down,” she said of the recent health care bill. “And it was going to leave vulnerable populations without care. I’m hopeful we’re going to get there.”
