LOUISVILLE, Ky. (WDRB) -- For nearly three days earlier this month in Louisville, more than 1,000 people attended the first Kentucky Judicial Commission on Mental Health Summit, a new initiative created by the state Supreme Court focused on supporting people with mental health, substance abuse and intellectual disabilities.
The commission was tasked with looking at ways to address mental health issues for people involved with the court system, improving the practice, quality and timeliness of judicial response to cases requiring those needs.
"We've always acknowledged we have an issue," said Larry Thompson, chief judge of the Kentucky Court of Appeals and vice chair of the commission. "We just didn't know what to do with it."Â
Thompson, who's been a judge 28 years, said jail, fines and probation used to be their only options.
"We've slowly evolved to the point — now, I think, in the judiciary — most of us accept the fact that we need to be finding answers to the problem," he said.
Kentucky has some of the highest incarceration rates in the nation. According to 2021 data from the U.S. Department of Justice's Bureau of Justice Statistics, Kentucky has a prison rate of 411 per 100,000 people, the ninth-highest in the U.S. and higher than the national average, which is 350. A 2016 DOJ survey said about 43% of state inmates and 23% of federal inmates had a history of a mental health problem.
"Jail is not necessarily the place for those individuals to be," Thompson said. "If someone may create a violation, no matter how minor it is, and they're brought to court with mental health issues, often that can lead to a conviction. That conviction can carry across and impact people's lives to such a great deal down the road. It can create problems if they're trying to get housing, get into the job market."Â
Since August, Thompson and other members of the state's new commission have been working on possible solutions, hosting hundreds of professionals in law, education and health care for the commission's first summit this month.
Representing California, Florida and everywhere between, more than 100 speakers at the summit addressed a wide range of topics, such as aging with serious mental illness, adolescent substance use trends, behavioral health issues among veterans the the right to mental health treatment for trafficking survivors.
More than 100 speakers at the summit addressed a wide range of topics, such as aging with serious mental illness and adolescent substance use trends. (WDRB Photo)
"The fact that all these people are coming together to work on that as a collaborative unit, as a summit, is fantastic," said Gerrimy Keiffer, with RiverValley Behavioral Health in Owensboro.
Keiffer said members of his own family have become "justice involved" due to mental illness. Now, working in mental health care, he argues there's often not enough resources or funds available to get people the help they need.
"Then, we criminalize those people for not having access and we blame them," he said. "And it's not right."
Commission members want to use their discussions take action, potentially through new programs or even legislation.
"Now's the time for us to address it," Thompson said. "It's going to take us all coming together."
The commission meets quarterly, divided into three committees focused on criminal justice, civil and family justice, and treatment and access.
The public is invited to get involved by providing feedback or joining one of the commission's workgroups. For more information, click here.
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