COLUMBIA, S.C. - A coalition of law enforcement officers, judges and mental health advocates have asked the state Legislature to set aside about $10 million to help reduce the number mentally ill people waiting in jails for state treatment.

The call for crisis stabilization units comes after a mentally ill inmate in Richland County died Jan. 22, about a week after he was found in his cell suffering from profound hypothermia. And the state Department of Mental Health has had to eliminate nearly 250 treatment beds and close two facilities because of severe budget cuts.

The 24-hour crisis units would give law enforcement officers an additional option when they are called to deal with mentally ill people who are causing disturbances, said Dave Almeida, co-founder of the coalition South Carolina Partners in Crisis.

Mark Fitzgibbons, director of the Beaufort County Detention Center and vice president of the state Jail Administrators Association said the deterioration of services in the Department of Mental Health "has had a devastating effect on our operations."

"I have served as a jail administrator for over fourteen years, and I can honestly say that never have our state's local detention facilities faced such a situation as we do today," Fitzgibbons wrote in a letter to state legislators. "The crisis stabilization program represents a lifeline for those of us who deal with the mentally ill."

Almeida said people with psychiatric disorders are filling up jails, the worst place to be with a mental illness.

"Often, officers know something is wrong with a person and that the person needs help, but if they take them to the hospital the officers have to sit for hours, even days, waiting for a treatment bed, so they end up taking the person to jail instead," said Almeida, who is also the executive director of the state National Alliance for the Mentally Ill.

The crisis stabilization units would provide quick cost-effective psychiatric intervention for people who are a potential threat to themselves or others, Almeida said. Once the person is stabilized, they could either be returned home for follow-up care or sent to a hospital.

The units would be housed at the 17 Department of Mental Health community treatment centers statewide.

Jeff Moore, executive director of the state Sheriff's Association, said law enforcement officers see the need for drastic improvements in the mental health-care system.

"Sheriffs tend to be the mental health taxi system because they are the only 24-7 agency at the local level," Moore said. "Picking people up after a probate judge has signed a commitment order used to take five and six hours between picking up the order, transporting the person to the hospital for an exam, then transporting them on to the state hospital. Now, the lack of beds at state hospitals have turned it into a four-, five-, six-, even 10-day process."

Fitzgibbons said a pilot program in Charleston has saved more than $2,000 per admission over standard psychiatric hospitalization costs.

Rep. Rick Quinn, R-Columbia, said chances are good the House will approve funding for the crisis stabilization units but he did not say where the money would come from.

Information from: The Herald