EVANSTON — “I don’t answer to the state; I answer to the people of Uinta County. If I see an unpaid bill of $700,000, I’m going to go after it,” Uinta County Sheriff …
This item is available in full to subscribers.
To continue reading, you will need to either log in to your subscriber account, below, or purchase a new subscription.
Please log in to continue |
EVANSTON — “I don’t answer to the state; I answer to the people of Uinta County. If I see an unpaid bill of $700,000, I’m going to go after it,” Uinta County Sheriff Andy Kopp recently told the Herald.
On Monday, Jan. 13, Kopp sent a letter to several Wyoming legislators on the first day of this year’s general session.
“I am writing to express my deep concern regarding the current state of mental health support in Wyoming’s county detention centers, particularly for individuals awaiting transport to the Wyoming State Hospital (WSH),” Kopp’s letter began.
“Counties must be reimbursed for the Department’s (Wyoming Department of Health) failure to take custody of individuals as ordered. Currently, this hardship falls on county detention centers, which receive no resources or support from the state despite bearing the financial and logistical burdens,” the letter continues.
The email was sent to 78 legislators representing 16 of Wyoming’s 23 counties — Albany, Big Horn, Carbon, Converse, Goshen, Hot Springs, Laramie, Lincoln, Niobrara, Park, Platte, Sublette, Teton, Uinta, Washakie and Weston — whose sheriffs co-signed Kopp’s letter.
According to Kopp, two Uinta County deputies attending in his stead at a sheriff’s meeting in December 2023 were verbally told by Wyoming Department of Health (WDH) Director Stefan Johansson to “stop sending the bills; we aren’t paying.”
Undersheriff Trevor Rasmussen said that the state owes Uinta County an outstanding bill of $765,346.96, a figure accruing since 2022.
“Our goal here is to push for legislation to have the WDH pay a daily housing fee for those who have been ordered to the WSH. We also bill them for medications,” Kopp said in a follow-up interview with the Herald. “Our overall objective is streamlining treatment and establishing a more efficient system. Let’s bring everyone to the table and hash it out.”
“They’re not doing anything at the state level,” Rasmussen said. “It all falls on the county. These costs are interfering with our county budgets.”
Uinta County Treasurer Terry Brimhall did not respond to requests for comment by press time.
Kopp and Rasmussen contend that the lack of state funding and support isn’t merely a fiscal concern, but it creates ethical and employee morale issues as well.
“This is draining on personnel,” Rasmussen said. “We don’t have the resources or training to get them the depth of help — we are not a psychiatric facility. Jails are now becoming mental health facilities.”
Two inmates at the Uinta County Jail recently nearly starved themselves to death this past November and December, Rasmussen said, due to hunger strikes related to refusal of psychiatric medication.
“Mental illness drove their medical illness,” he said.
Jail deputies are not allowed to force inmates to take prescribed, on-hand medications and the inmates wouldn’t eat because they thought their food was tampered with.
“One of them was 2-3 hours from death,” Rassmussen said.
Kopp said deputies escorted one of the inmates to the emergency room at Evanston Regional Hospital (ERH), where they were immediately Life-Flighted to Salt Lake City for intervention.
“We had to get them out of our facility because they were dying,” Kopp said.
“This is a custody issue,” Rasmussen added. “They’re deteriorating in our facility because they’re not getting the professional help they need.
Sen. Wendy Schuler (SD-15) of Evanston told the Herald last week, “[I] was not aware of the delay in getting folks into the WSH who need services. I plan to meet with the [WDH] sometime this week to see what types of solutions we can come up with... I have some ideas I would like to float... We will see what we can do to help our county sheriff’s office.”
State officials say they’re not allowed to reimburse jails for holding inmates who are waiting for evaluation or treatment at the State Hospital.
“This is about Title 7, which involves individuals who are accused of or charged with crimes,” WHD Public Information Officer Kim Deti said. Title 7, Deti said, outlines that the WSH is responsible for evaluating competency of those facing criminal charges on behalf of the judicial system.
“It’s important to know under Title 7, the WDH has no authority, ability, program or funding to pay for housing individuals who are waiting for admission to the WSH. Under Title 7, we simply can’t pay the detention centers,” she told the Herald.
Deti further explained that the limited number of beds available at the WSH, 104, directly affects the timeliness for all adult psychiatric services while acknowledging that the demand of such services has increased significantly in recent years due to a rise in judicial orders explicitly requiring mental health intervention.
“Approximately 25% of the beds are dedicated to criminal justice services,” she said. “Our capacity at any point in time is also affected by staffing availability and sometimes by the nature and needs of the patients themselves.”
“Unfortunately, there is no quick fix ... but it’s more than a reimbursement issue and that’s why we are looking at improvement to the system overall,” Deti said.
“We are committed to partnering with law enforcement and the judicial branch to try relieving some of the pressure. In fact, we have been working with stakeholders on steps to improve the situation and are grateful for those partnerships,” Deti said.
She cited new pilot programs in Campbell County focusing on jail diversion treatment as well as a new jail-based telepsych program, currently test-launched in a few counties.
“We have hopes of expanding these types of efforts in more locations over time,” she said.
On Wednesday, Jan. 15, two days after Kopp emailed his letter of grievance, five freshmen legislators on the House Judiciary Committee — including newly-elected, former longtime law enforcement officer Rep. Joe Webb (HD-19) of Lyman — killed House Bill 49 (HB-49).
The proposal, which was supported by the Wyoming Association of Sheriffs and Chiefs of Police (WASCOP), was an amendment to the court supervised treatment program which would have allowed diversion of certain offenders, namely illicit substance users, from overcrowded incarceration units to mental health treatment facilities.
Wyoming Behavioral Health Alliance Executive Director Lindsay Simineo — who said her mission is to promote statewide mental health policy through expertise, education, advocacy and voter education — released a formal statement following the failure of the bill, stating that, in addition to potentially decreasing repeat offenses and streamlining government, “this would have also saved Wyoming several thousand dollars in unneeded inpatient stays.”
Kopp declined to comment on the now-stricken HB 49, but did tell the Herald that his office “received information [that other] legislation is in the works; however, no other information is available at this time.”