LUCAS COUNTY, Ohio — It's been almost two months since Jamesiha Taylor was found dead inside her jail cell at the Lucas County Jail. She allegedly stabbed her children and was on the waitlist for the Northwest Ohio Psychiatric Hospital when she was found dead.
WTOL 11 wanted to find out how inmates in need of mental health services are being helped at the jail.
"I'm one of 88 sheriffs in the state of Ohio and they're all having the same problem," said Lucas County Sheriff Mike Navarre.
Navarre says almost 75 inmates at the Lucas County jail have something in common.
"Between 25 and 28 percent of every inmate in this jail has been treated for some form of severe mental illness," said Navarre.
He says his employees are not equipped to treat those people and many need to be sent to the Northwest Ohio Psychiatric Hospital, but unfortunately, there's a waitlist and it caters to 23 counties.
"Their capacity right now is 104," said Navarre. "It's either here or NOPH, if they're not in custody, there's a lot of other options available."
Officials from NOPH wouldn't speak with WTOL 11 and referred us to the Lucas County Mental Health and Recovery Services Board.
"Covid has hit the hospital and all hospitals hard, but the state hospital particularly hard because they had to reduce the number of beds because they needed an isolation unit," said executive director of the board, Scott Sylak.
Sylak says adding more beds wouldn't help in the need now and would take a while to get beds available.
Sheriff Navarre says he's taken his concerns of lack of beds to Columbus.
Senate Bill 2, introduced in 2021 would do just that... and it was signed by Governor Mike DeWine.
But until that happens...
"If we can move people out of the state hospital who are ready and no longer represent a risk to the community or themselves, then we should be doing that to the extent we can," said Sylak.
Except that looks different for each person.
"What does that accountability look like for someone who is symptomatic with mental health and off their medication, that looks entirely different for someone who is criminogenic in nature but also has a mental illness," Sylak added.
WTOL 11 couldn't speak to the Jamesiha Taylor case since it's still under investigation but did ask how this could be prevented in the future.
"We have to recognize when someone becomes very acute and starts exhibiting serious symptoms we need to get them help right away and getting them help right away doesn't mean putting them on a waitlist and waiting for NOPH to say yeah send them over," said Navarre.
Sheriff Navarre said the hospital is doing the best that it can with what they have and they are in constant communication with officials from the hospital.
There are also plans to build a new jail in hopes to help inmates with mental illnesses.
In February, workers with Unison, a mental health services organization, stepped in to help with services at the jail. It was possible thanks to a $2M federal grant.