Roughly 200 people were jailed in DeSoto County annually during the civil commitment process between 2021 and 2023. About 20% of them were picked up from local hospitals, and the majority of those patients came from Baptist Memorial Hospital-DeSoto, according to an analysis of county Sheriff’s Department records.
The practice of jailing patients to await mental health treatment is unusual. In Mississippi, most sheriff’s departments said involuntary commitments occurred only once or twice a month. However, in DeSoto County, hospital patients were jailed about 50 times a year from 2021 to 2023.
Hospital officials said some patients are taken to jail because those patients need dedicated treatment the hospital cannot provide, and nearby inpatient facilities are full. Those patients tend to be deemed dangerous to themselves or others and do not agree to treatment, so they are committed.
“We discharge mental health patients with the hope they will be transferred to a mental health facility that can provide the specialized care they need,” Kim Alexander, director of public relations for Baptist Memorial Health Care Corp., told ProPublica. The practice is “not the ideal option,” she said. “Our hearts go out to anyone who cannot access the mental healthcare they need because behavioral health services are not available in the area.”
Once in jail, many patients wait days or weeks to be evaluated, see a judge and be taken elsewhere for treatment. One man waited in jail for nearly two months in 2021. At least two patients died after being transferred from Baptist-DeSoto to a county jail. The first died of multiple organ failure in 2011 and the second died by suicide in 2021.
The jail offers minimal psychiatric treatment, the report said. Staff members from a local nonprofit community mental health center visit to evaluate people going through the commitment process, to check on people on suicide watch and ensure inmates have access to their prescription drugs.
DeSoto County officials have expressed frustration with the number of patients being jailed during the commitment process but said they have made little progress in finding an alternative, according to the report.
