More than half of people in the Harris County Jail have mental health indicators, data shows
HARRIS COUNTY, Texas (KTRK) -- More than half of the people in the Harris County Jail have some indication of mental health issues, according to the county's jail data. But what options are there to stop a cycle of crime and protect the public?
ABC13 reported on two recent violent crimes that raise questions about how Harris County handles people with serious mental health needs.
RELATED: Family demands answers after suspect in 4 brutal attacks had prior violent charge dismissed
Surveillance video obtained by ABC13 showed 28-year-old Joshua McDaniel knock a victim to the ground, then repeatedly stomp and strike him.
McDaniel is accused of attacking four people along State Highway 249 in about 24 hours last month.
Court records showed he's been in and out of jail for more than a dozen charges over the past 10 years, many of them for violent crimes.
A previous assault charge where he was accused of assaulting an older person was dismissed after a material witness chose not to testify, according to the DA's office.
Though official court records show McDaniel was referred to a mental health program, the DA's office said he was taken there so he wasn't put out on the street. However, the DA's office said that the center wasn't intended to treat him, because he needed more serious care that the center could not provide.
According to the Harris County jail dashboard, 77% of people in the jail have a mental health indicator.
"Mental health, that could be depression, anxiety, it could be suicide attempts or it could be some kind of very serious psychosis," University of Houston Law Center Criminal Law Professor Sandra Guerra Thompson said.
The dashboard showed 17% of the jail population are unhoused as well.
Earlier this month, investigators said an unhoused man attacked a 74-year-old walking to work in the Medical Center.
The victim told police the suspect appeared to be talking to himself before threatening him and allegedly beating him.
The suspect also had a lengthy violent criminal history as well, and went in and out of jail over the years.
But while inside the criminal justice system, what does mental health treatment look like?
"Primarily we're talking about diagnosis and medication, and you really don't have an opportunity to do a whole lot of other therapeutic interventions in a carceral setting like that," Thompson said.
Thompson said there's no simple fix.
"Incarceration is probably the least therapeutic kind of setting that you can have. Just the whole notion of putting someone in custody for therapy is... there's a dissonance there. However, we do have mental health professionals," Thompson said. "Before they're even seeing a judge or anything, they're already being assessed by mental health professionals."
The DA's office ultimately stressed the importance of more funding for mental health treatment and wrote in a statement to ABC13 that read in part:
"Too many families have had to endure the horrific burden of a criminal justice system that is ill-equipped to provide meaningful mental health treatment to potential offenders until it is too late."
SEE ALSO: Harris County looks to address mental health to help with its jail population
