Fremont County Sheriff calls on state legislature to address mental health in jails and community

FREMONT COUNTY, Colo. (KRDO) - Fremont County Sheriff Alan Cooper is calling for mental health reform, not only within his jail but out in the public as well. He tells KRDO13 that those efforts would help not only with reducing repeat offenders but also free up law enforcement from more calls for service.

Sheriff Cooper says mental health is tossed around a lot in law enforcement, but he argues it's a very real issue, with real impacts, and wants more focus from the state to address it.

"60 to 70 percent of the people housed in my facility right now have some sort of mental health issue." explained the sheriff.

He says he wishes he could do more for those coming through his jail who are dealing with mental health struggles.

"If all we do is treat them, and hold them here, that will never be successful," explained Sheriff Cooper. "People get out. They go back to what they were doing before and they come back."

Currently, Cooper has someone coming in 30 hours per week to provide in-person supportive services to his inmates. He hopes by the year's end that number can be 40 hours, and have someone in-house who can write prescriptions.

It's a program he says still takes about 6 interventions on average to really get someone to buy in. Meaning, they complete the suggested courses and activities, roughly six times before it sets in.

"They have to want to change. We can't force them to change," said Sheriff Cooper.

The sheriff also believes the state should be focusing outside his jail walls.

"I think the bigger problem is those folks that don't get incarcerated, that are out in the community are committing what I would call 'quality of life issues,'" he explains.

Mental health episodes that aren't criminal activities, but perhaps create disturbances to neighborhoods, lead to calls for service and occupy his deputies.

"There has to be something out in the community to provide them with a foundation, a safety net somewhere to go to continue this treatment," he explained, speaking about what needs to happen when people leave his detention center.

There was a new bill introduced this legislative session-- one that Cooper is keeping his eye on-- that would implement behavioral health services for jail staff, and usher training for those at detention centers around the state.

However, having attended the recent legislative session for law enforcement, he believes the state's budgeting will not allocate funding for that bill, even if it passes.