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Troup County officials weigh hiring county mental-health liaison for jail
Summary
Chief Whitney told commissioners the jail houses roughly 625 people and that 25–26% likely have mental-health needs; he proposed a county-employed liaison modeled on Muskogee County's program to connect detainees with courts and community providers and reduce repeat bookings.
Chief Whitney told the Troup County Board of Commissioners at a work session that the county jail is serving as a de facto intake point for people with mental-health needs and proposed creating a county-employed mental-health liaison to work inside the facility and coordinate with community providers and probate court.
Whitney said the jail population totals about 625 people, including roughly 580 in the lockdown facility, and that on paper about 60 detainees are diagnosed with mental-health conditions but frontline staff estimate 100–150 people show signs of mental illness — roughly 25.8% of the population. "We're the dropping off point for a lot of people with mental health," Whitney said, arguing that the jail is not a mental-health facility and that incarceration can exacerbate symptoms.
Under the proposal, the liaison would be a certified correctional officer with behavioral-health training, able to round on inmates, flag people for evaluations, and work directly with the probate judge and local treatment facilities to arrange evaluations or alternative placements. Whitney said the county is modeling the role after Muskogee County's program and that the liaison there makes about $65,000 a year. "We gotta figure this out," he said, framing the position as both a public-safety and human-services response.
Commissioners asked how the position would affect transport responsibilities and whether it would enable pretrial diversion; Whitney said the liaison would coordinate transports (about five to seven involuntary transports per week), help identify people for mental-health evaluations, and keep tabs on frequent users of jail services to reduce recidivism. Staff told commissioners the position could have little to no net budget impact if work assignments within the jail are reorganized and some existing openings are repurposed.
The item was listed on the evening agenda for formal consideration. No formal vote on the liaison was taken during the work session.
