Crime & Safety
Register: Jailed Mental Patients Costing County Plenty
Accused violent criminals from Napa State Hospital, as well as jail inmates with other mental health problems, are straining the county's resources, according to reports in the Napa Valley Register.
Inmates with mental health issues are burdening the resources at the , according to reports in the .
A pair of articles published Tuesday gives a troubling hint of the problem's scope.
"Grand Jury Critical of Jail's Mental Health Services" includes such revelations as:
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- The patient who at the jail last March has needed $1.6 million in medical care, $400,000 of it on the county tab;
- Troubled jail inmates may consult a therapist -- via closed-circuit TV from Monterey;
- Napa is one of only two counties in the state operating a corrections department independent of the county sheriff's office.
In "Months after being ruled incompetent, accused remained at Napa County jail," Register reporter Kerana Todorov recounts the tale of , accused of sexual assault on a Napa State Hospital worker, who wasn't transferred out of the jail until two months after he was ordered by the court to another state hospital for treatment.
One longtime jail executive told Todorov that the downtown lockup -- the county's only jail -- hosts six to nine Napa State offenders "on any given day," according to her article.
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And in Monday's article "Therapist attacked in December ‘fears’ returning to work," Todorov interviews the recreation therapist who is still recovering from his brutal beating on the hospital grounds more than half a year ago by a patient who, like Tobar, was found incompetent to stand trial and returned to the state mental hospital system.
