Many of Georgia’s mental health problems left to jailers
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Glynn County. Sheriff Neal Jump
Sen. Mike Hodges
By Pamela Permar-Shierling
“Many of Georgia’s mentally ill persons don’t start out as criminals but become criminals because they are arrested usually for bothering people,” Glynn County Sheriff Neal Jump told the Golden Isles Republican Women’s group on Monday (July 13).
Because there are so few mental health facilities in Georgia, the jails, especially the Glynn County Detention Center, have become the caretakers for many of the mentally ill.
According to Mental Health America, Georgia ranks 37th in the U.S. in higher prevalence of mental illness and lower rates of access to care.
Sheriff Jump said of the 526 inmates currently housed in Glynn’s detention center, 145 are under mental health treatment.
“10 of these persons are in and out of jail every seven days. They have no place to go,” he said.
“20 of the 145 belong in a psychiatric facility. They need professional help,” Jump said.
“We are limited in what we can do for these individuals,” he continued.”Plus we must watch them constantly.”
Jump said his staff was short 25 officers. “It’s hard to find people who will deal with fights, medical emergencies and mental health issues.”
Persons with mental health problems can act unexpectedly, Jump said. This causes them to be arrested and the recidivism rate is high among those with mental health problems.
Nora Lott Haynes, a conservative educator and mental health reform advocate, spoke to the group as well.
“Those with mental health problems do not belong in jail,” Haynes said. “They need treatment not jail.”
In Glynn the Probate Court exercises jurisdiction over the examination and treatment of persons with mental illness. Probate can issue an order to apprehend a person and have them examined.
Haynes said 13 Glynn County sheriff’s officers have been trained in crisis intervention and how to de-escalate a situation.
Sen. Mike Hodges (R-3) was the final speaker. “Mental health is one of the things our state has allowed to slip away,” he said.
In the 1960s there were almost 13,000 persons housed in the mental health facility in Milledgeville, he said.
It was known as Central State Hospital and at one time was the largest of its kind in the world. History reveals it as an overcrowded and extremely neglectful facility.
Justice Department investigations brought the facility to a close in 2010.
According to a Feb. 2026 article in Georgians for a Healthy Future: “The national de-institutionalization movement, combined with decades of advocacy, ultimately resulted in more community-based mental health care.
“However, Georgia only adopted the model when it was forced to in 2010, when the US Department of Justice and the State of Georgia entered into the Olmstead settlement agreement.
“That agreement resolved allegations that people with mental illness and developmental disabilities were being unnecessarily institutionalized in state hospitals in violation of the Americans with Disabilities Act, and it required the state to invest in community-based alternatives such as housing vouchers, crisis stabilization centers, and assertive community treatment teams rather than congregate facilities.
“In the years since, Georgia invested over $256 million into expanding its community-based crisis system.”
Hodges brought up House Bill 1013 sponsored by then-Glynn Rep. Don Hogan. It requires, among other things, insurance companies to pay for mental health treatment the same as is paid for physical health treatment.
Georgia’s Dept. of Insurance handed out almost $25 million in fines to insurance companies last year for breaking laws that require them to cover mental health treatments the exact same way they cover physical health.
This year Georgia appropriated $409 million to build a 300-bed state forensic mental health hospital. It will most likely be built in the Augusta or Atlanta area, Hodges said, due to the medical infrastructure in those areas.
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