Beltrami County asks for mental health center funding

Jail cells are not a proper replacement for mental health hospital beds, but that’s what’s happening in Beltrami County, according to Sheriff Phil Hodapp. He told the House Health and Human Services Finance Committee Wednesday that 70 percent of his inmates have a diagnosed mental illness.

Rep. Dave Hancock

The committee laid over HF339, which would spend $1.5 million for a new county health care center, for possible omnibus bill inclusion. The facility would treat individuals under or subject to arrest, or who are experiencing a mental health crisis.

Rep. Dave Hancock (R-Bemidji) sponsors the bill. Sen. Barb Goodwin (DFL-Columbia Heights) sponsors SF142, a companion that is being considered for possible omnibus bill inclusion by the Senate Health and Human Services Budget Division.

Of the 3,000 people booked into the Beltrami County jail last year, 2,100 had a mental illness. Wrongdoings ranged from petty crimes such as urinating in public to more serious assault and homicide offenses. When the department checks around for mental health placement services, they are told there are no beds available, Hodapp said. In addition, the department incurs unsustainable costs to transport inmates to other facilities when and if a bed is available.

“Bemidji may be the poster child for the problem,” Hancock said.

Rep. Diane Loeffler (DFL-Mpls) said the proposal more appropriately belongs in an omnibus bonding bill and that the omnibus health and human services bill should fund services once the center would open.

The county’s population is about 20 percent American Indian. However, about 50 percent of the inmates are this same population and those disparities would need to be addressed if the proposal moves forward, said Rep. Susan Allen (DFL-Mpls).