Since 2015, at least 100 people suffering from mental illness have died in South Carolina jails. Some died from severe dehydration and medical neglect while waiting an average of eight months to receive treatment intended to restore their mental competency. Those are some of the findings of a new five-part investigative series by The Post and Courier of Charleston examining a deadly jailhouse mental health crisis. The series is called “Caught in the Cycle.” Jocelyn Grzeszczak is one of the reporters behind the series. She joined WFAE’s Marshall Terry.
Marshall Terry: Give me a brief overview of the cycle that these defendants find themselves caught in.
Jocelyn Grzeszczak: All of them start out at some point in the community. South Carolina just lacks resources at this community level. We rank near the bottom in psychiatric facilities and in mental health care spending.
As a result, many of these people we found wind up seeing a police officer before they might encounter a doctor or a mental health professional. Then they go to jail, and that environment can really trigger a lot of symptoms of serious mental illnesses.
Their defense attorney will raise questions about their competency or ability to stand trial, which they have an ethical obligation to do, but in South Carolina, we effectively only provide that service in the state's singular state hospital. So these people are waiting an additional eight months behind bars on average just to get that treatment. They're really not being set up for success when they're ultimately returned to the community, where the vast majority of them wind back up still without any sort of long-term help, and then the cycle just repeats itself.
Terry: Is there any specific story of an individual that stood out to you that you could share?
Grzeszczak: One man had been charged with stealing two beers from a gas station, which normally would be a misdemeanor with a 30-day jail sentence. Because this person had been charged with shoplifting several times before, it was bumped up to a felony with a 10-year maximum sentence. We had obtained his psychiatric evaluation for a previous criminal case where his competency was questioned.
From that evaluation, we learned about his longtime struggles with schizophrenia and alcohol use. Back in court, my colleague listened as the judge and this man's defense attorney went back and forth about his sentence, and the judge expressed that what he really needed was stable housing and mental health treatment. I'm not sure he was ever connected with those resources, because about three weeks after his release, he was back in jail on a public drunkenness charge. I think that story really demonstrates the cyclical nature of this problem.
Terry: What are some of the other key findings of your investigation?
Grzeszczak: More than 100 inmates with mental health concerns who have died in county jails since 2015. We also discovered that South Carolina has paid out more than $25 million in the last decade in settlements to compensate the families of those people who have died, and that's taxpayer money. Another thing that struck me is the fact that competency restoration treatment is not equal to or a replacement for comprehensive mental health care, and it really was never designed to be.
Terry: North Carolina recently passed a law requiring sheriffs to hold in jail more people who have been arrested and are awaiting mental health evaluation or treatment. Are there any cautionary lessons for North Carolina you think from this?
Grzeszczak: My first concern, if I were a sheriff in North Carolina, would be the increased pressure that I think will undoubtedly come from their jail holding more inmates who have mental health concerns. We know that jails are just not good environments for the mentally ill. The longer these inmates are kept waiting, the worse it becomes for them and then by default everyone else. I think taxpayers end up paying the price in many ways.
