PNJ columnist Mark O’Brien has a good article today on mentally ill prisoners (Florida used to deport mentally ill people, but now we ignore them ) . He writes, “Today, the county jail often is the largest psychiatric facility in a community.”
Moby fails to mention how many mentally ill people have died in the Escambia County Jail in recent years. Read The Death of Robert Boggon. In 2006, we wrote about the problems with health care in the jail (Healthcare Behind Bars ). Unfortunately the deaths of Boggan and Hosea Bell got little coverage by the daily newspaper.
However after the death of Jerry Preyer, the public pressure was such that county commission and Sheriff Ron McNesby had to respond. Read McNesby: ‘I want to be voice’ for the mentally ill.
We still hear horror stories from the jail of prisoners denied their prescribed medications and proper mental health ttreatment. Running down stories is hard because of the cone silence that covers the ECSO and its flat denials of any problems on Leonard St.