The Twin Falls Sheriff’s Office explains how they treat mental health crises in the jail

TWIN FALLS, Idaho (KMVT/KSVT) — Mental illness continues to be a growing topic in the community and it can affect anyone. One question posed to KMVT was how are those in the Twin Falls County jail treated when they are in a mental health crisis?

Captain Doug Hughes told KMVT the county jail does have mental health professionals on staff as part of their medical team. If an inmate of the jail starts having mental health issues, they can go meet with the jail’s medical staff to determine what steps need to be taken.

If sheriff’s deputies are responding to a criminal call and it’s determined they are also in mental crisis, the sheriff’s office will work to address the crisis along with the arrest.

“When those people come in, our medical staff see them to start the assessment process of what they feel needs to happen, whether it’s medical, drug-induced, so on and so forth. And then they’re put on to see our medical health professionals.”

He added if someone is brought into custody with a mental crisis while on drugs or alcohol, they will go through the detox process before they can address the mental health crisis. This can take up to several days or a week.

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