Sheriff alerts commissioners to mental-health bed backlog, asks to fund lieutenant with opioid settlement and reallocated SRO money

Cole County's Sheriff told commissioners on Dec. 3 that long waits for mental-health placements are driving jail costs and placing strain on local budgets.

"I have 6 people, waiting to go to beds. One of them has been, like, 257 days," the Sheriff said, describing difficulty in placing detainees who require mental-health treatment. He warned that prisoner-boarding expenses are volatile; staff reduced a previously budgeted $500,000 item to $400,000 but noted that $400,000 may not be sufficient.

The Sheriff also asked commissioners to approve creating a lieutenant position in the patrol division. He said removing two full-time positions (a Dallas deputy position and one SRO at Blair Oaks) frees about $44,000 that could be applied toward the lieutenant and that remaining cost could be covered in part by opioid settlement funds. He provided a proposed salary for the lieutenant of $109,637 with benefits.

Commissioners and staff discussed constraints on how opioid settlement funds may be used and noted those funds are often restricted to specific uses related to drug enforcement and treatment. The Sheriff suggested a "drug nexus" in the lieutenant's job description to satisfy allowable uses of opioid funds.

The Sheriff and commissioners agreed to further review whether the prisoner-boarding estimate is adequate and to evaluate the lieutenant request and its funding options during upcoming budget deliberations.

No formal vote was recorded in the transcript.