Public Defender Ardena Garth said she is introducing a new program aimed at helping the courts deal with those with severe mental illness.

The said the Bridge Project "is a collaborative effort in Hamilton County between mental health service providers and the criminal justice system. It is a non-specialty
court post-booking program, modeled after the successful Jericho Project in Shelby County that relies on conditional release strategies.

"It is designed to help persons with severe and persistent mental illness with Axis I mental health diagnoses who are involved in the criminal justice system."

Ms. Garth said it is a voluntary program and applicants must be stable on medication before being considered for the program.

Once approved by the court, the client will enter the Bridge Project for 120 days. During this time the Bridge Project will provide layered supervision and link the participant to community services and support. Upon completion of the 120-day period., Bridge Project clients are linked into services to continue their recovery in the community as stable and productive members of society.

She said the Bridge Project aims to stop the “revolving door” of the mentally ill going in and out of jail without accessing long-term treatment.

Ms. Garth said it is also designed to decrease the number of days inmates with mental illness are incarcerated, rereduce the cost to already over-stretched jail resources, and increase public safety.

She stated, "Jails and prisons have become the largest mental health care providers in the United States, with 800,000 persons identified as having a serious mental illness booked into them each year. The incidence of mental illness in state prisons and local jails is from 3 to 8 times that in the general population. Inmates with severe mental illness tend to stay in jail 2 to 5 times longer than other inmates.

"These figures show those suffering from mental illness to be greatly overrepresented in the criminal justice system compared to the general population. These individuals tend to cycle in and out of the mental health, substance abuse and criminal justice systems with costly implications for law enforcement, the jail and workhouse, and the general public."