{"id":779343,"date":"2026-05-07T09:39:35","date_gmt":"2026-05-07T09:39:35","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/779343\/"},"modified":"2026-05-07T09:39:35","modified_gmt":"2026-05-07T09:39:35","slug":"in-sc-lack-of-mental-health-care-funnels-people-into-jails","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/779343\/","title":{"rendered":"In SC, lack of mental health care funnels people into jails"},"content":{"rendered":"<p><a href=\"https:\/\/www.postandcourier.com\" rel=\"nofollow noopener\" target=\"_blank\"><img decoding=\"async\" class=\"mh-full-logo\" src=\"https:\/\/www.postandcourier.com\/app\/html\/images\/branding\/pclogo-full-white.svg\" alt=\"Logo\"\/><\/a><br \/>\n <a href=\"https:\/\/www.postandcourier.com\" rel=\"nofollow noopener\" target=\"_blank\"><img decoding=\"async\" class=\"mh-icon-logo\" src=\"https:\/\/www.postandcourier.com\/app\/html\/images\/branding\/pclogo-icon-white.svg\" alt=\"Logo\"\/><\/a><\/p>\n<p>\u00a0Caught in the cycle<\/p>\n<p><img decoding=\"async\" id=\"hero-image\" src=\"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-content\/uploads\/2026\/05\/69a2107705624.image.jpg\" alt=\"Hero Image\"\/><\/p>\n<p>PART 4<\/p>\n<p>SC\u2019s history of failures, missed chances leaves mentally ill<br \/>\ndesperate for care. How\u2019d\u00a0we get here?<br \/>\nBy <b>Jocelyn\u00a0Grzeszczak,<br \/>\nAlan\u00a0Hovorka<\/b> and\u00a0<b>Glenn\u00a0Smith<\/b><br \/>\nApril 26, 2026<\/p>\n<p class=\"cutline\">An inmate stands at the door of a secure unit at<br \/>\nthe Aiken County jail on July 21, 2025.<\/p>\n<p class=\"credit\">GRACE BEAHM ALFORD\/STAFF<\/p>\n<p class=\"cutline\">An inmate stands at the door of a secure unit at<br \/>\nthe Aiken County jail on July 21, 2025.<\/p>\n<p class=\"credit\">GRACE BEAHM ALFORD\/STAFF<\/p>\n<p>South Carolina lawmakers thought they had a solution.<\/p>\n<p>Mentally ill inmates needed treatment to help them stand trial, but a state hospital lacked room. Wait times stretched for months, so legislators signed off on a fix:<\/p>\n<p>They would bring that treatment straight to the jails.<\/p>\n<p><a href=\"https:\/\/www.law.georgetown.edu\/legal-ethics-journal\/wp-content\/uploads\/sites\/24\/2019\/10\/GT-GJLE190027.pdf\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"nofollow noopener\">Other states<\/a> have long used this approach to save time \u2014 and money. But four years later, the Palmetto State\u2019s effort has stalled due to a lack of funding and buy-in.<\/p>\n<p>Only one program is fully up and running. Another shuttered when it ran out of cash. And a specialized unit that cost $180,000 to redesign has been collecting dust on the third floor of Charleston County\u2019s jail.<\/p>\n<p>If you or someone you know is experiencing a mental health<br \/>\ncrisis, contact the South Carolina Office of Mental Health\u2019s<br \/>\nstatewide Mobile Crisis Team, available 24\/7\/365: 833-364-2274.<\/p>\n<p>South Carolina has a network of 16 community mental health<br \/>\ncenters and dozens more local clinics that provide emergency and<br \/>\noutpatient services. To find a location nearest you, <a href=\"https:\/\/www.scdmh.org\/centers-and-hospitals\/community-centers\" rel=\"nofollow noopener\" target=\"_blank\">here.<\/a><\/p>\n<p>National Suicide Prevention Hotline: Call or text 988.<\/p>\n<p>This failure is emblematic of the state\u2019s approach to mental health care from its inception.<\/p>\n<p><a href=\"https:\/\/www.documentcloud.org\/documents\/28072823-news-article-charleston-news-and-courier-published-as-the-sunday-news-january-10-1897-p2\/#document\/p1\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"nofollow noopener\">Investigations<\/a> in the 20th century exposed <a href=\"https:\/\/www.documentcloud.org\/documents\/28072811-news-article-charleston-news-and-courier-published-as-the-news-and-courier-january-21-1910-p1\/#document\/p1\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"nofollow noopener\">dismal conditions inside<\/a> South Carolina\u2019s poorly funded psychiatric hospitals, where patients were subjected to abuse, neglect and worse. Shifting them from institutions to the community <a href=\"https:\/\/www.documentcloud.org\/documents\/28072824-news-article-charleston-news-and-courier-published-as-the-news-and-courier-january-27-1965-p18\/#document\/p1\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"nofollow noopener\">beginning in the 1960s<\/a> changed their setting but did little to improve their fate. That\u2019s because state lawmakers <a href=\"https:\/\/www.documentcloud.org\/documents\/28072820-news-article-charleston-news-and-courier-published-as-the-news-and-courier-october-12-1976-p11\/#document\/p1\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"nofollow noopener\">consistently shortchanged<\/a> programs to help them live at home.<\/p>\n<p>A trove of court records obtained by The Post and Courier underscores the ramifications of legislators\u2019 failures. More than 200 psychiatric examinations of defendants in Charleston County \u2014 left open to the public by court error \u2014 show how this lack of community mental health resources helped funnel people into jails ill-prepared to care for them.<\/p>\n<p>                        <img loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" src=\"data:image\/png;base64,iVBORw0KGgoAAAANSUhEUgAAAAQAAAADCAQAAAAe\/WZNAAAAEElEQVR42mM8U88ABowYDABAxQPltt5zqAAAAABJRU5ErkJggg==\" alt=\"2nd JUMP LEDE  competency unit beds.jpg\" class=\"img-responsive lazyload full default\" width=\"1759\" height=\"1178\" data- data-\/><\/p>\n<p>Extra mattresses are stored in the competency restoration unit at the Sheriff Al Cannon Detention Center in North Charleston on Sept. 10, 2025. Charleston County Sheriff Carl Ritchie said he has been working to get the staff and resources to open the unit in the state\u2019s largest jail, where 11 inmates who struggled with mental illness have died over the past decade.<\/p>\n<p>                                    Grace Beahm Alford\/Staff<\/p>\n<p>Now, criminal courts are scrambling to solve a problem they never envisioned: overseeing hundreds of people with serious mental health conditions. Feeling like they have few other options, some desperate judges and attorneys raise the question of competency to secure help for these offenders. That can ensure a trip to a state hospital, with a goal of getting them temporarily well enough to stand trial.<\/p>\n<p>\u201cIt\u2019s the easiest lever to pull in terms of getting somebody treatment,\u201d said Daniel Murrie, a psychologist and director of the University of Virginia\u2019s Institute of Law, Psychiatry and Public Policy.<\/p>\n<p>But this step comes with its own problems. In South Carolina, the <a href=\"https:\/\/www.postandcourier.com\/politics\/south-carolina-jail-mental-illness-heath\/article_f73d28ea-7b82-11ef-ba3e-a3ae54c20614.html\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"nofollow noopener\">competency restoration process clogs the court system<\/a> and blocks the most desperate people from getting care in a timely manner, a Post and Courier investigation found. The average wait time is now eight months from the moment the state Office of Mental Health receives a judge\u2019s treatment order.<\/p>\n<p><img decoding=\"async\" src=\"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-content\/uploads\/2026\/05\/pullout-top.png\" alt=\"\" class=\"pc-pullout-img\"\/><\/p>\n<p><img decoding=\"async\" src=\"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-content\/uploads\/2026\/05\/pullout-bottom.png\" alt=\"\" class=\"pc-pullout-img\"\/><\/p>\n<p>This system is under immense strain, leaving South Carolina at risk of costly federal civil rights litigation, said Kelly Gothard, the mental health agency\u2019s forensic services director.<\/p>\n<p>And the state still hasn\u2019t come up with the money or resources to fix the problem. While South Carolina&#8217;s general fund has nearly doubled over the last decade, the budget for its mental health agency has failed to keep pace, growing by just over 50 percent.<\/p>\n<p>Jail-based treatment programs fall into this pot of neglected initiatives. Lawmakers voted to allow this new approach in 2022 but left the funding for others to figure out.<\/p>\n<p>Again.<\/p>\n<p>To better understand how this cycle began, we need to step back in time.<\/p>\n<p>A pioneering state falls short in providing care<\/p>\n<p>South Carolina in 1821 became an early pioneer of caring for the mentally ill when it decided to build one of the country\u2019s first psychiatric hospitals.<\/p>\n<p>The <a href=\"https:\/\/www.postandcourier.com\/columbia\/news\/bull-street-district-asylum-mental-health-sc-columbia-history\/article_11b7c412-1843-11ef-acb2-2f2d983a4420.html\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"nofollow noopener\">South Carolina Lunatic Asylum opened on Bull Street<\/a> in Columbia seven years later with a mission to serve residents with mental illness \u2014 and any condition deemed \u201cinsane\u201d in the antebellum era. Relatives or a court typically decided someone\u2019s admittance.<\/p>\n<p>The red-brick Greek Revival structure, featuring two wings and a basement, catered to a hodgepodge of patients. People with mental illnesses and developmental disabilities received care alongside epileptics, drug users, sexual deviants, heavy drinkers and the senile elderly. Indigent patients who had nowhere to go \u2014 or no one to take care of them \u2014 wound up in the building, which expanded over the years to accommodate a growing caseload.<\/p>\n<p>                        <img loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" src=\"data:image\/png;base64,iVBORw0KGgoAAAANSUhEUgAAAAQAAAADCAQAAAAe\/WZNAAAAEElEQVR42mM8U88ABowYDABAxQPltt5zqAAAAABJRU5ErkJggg==\" alt=\"FRONT SECONDARY or HISTORIC IMAGE FOR 2nd JUMP ONLY USE ONE asylum plans 2.jpg\" class=\"img-responsive lazyload full default\" width=\"1764\" height=\"1175\" data- data-\/><\/p>\n<p>A historic drawing of the South Carolina Lunatic Asylum on Bull Street at the State Archives in Columbia, March 6, 2026. South Carolina was an early pioneer of caring for the mentally ill, but has struggled to meet that need for decades.<\/p>\n<p>                                    Grace Beahm Alford\/Staff<\/p>\n<p>Conditions were dismal. An investigation in 1910 found bedbugs, lice and patients left in frigid rooms. Touring lawmakers saw people strapped to filthy beds.<\/p>\n<p>The state began rethinking its approach around the 1960s, following a national trend of shifting care into the community. Much of this had to do with changes in federal funding.<\/p>\n<p>Psychiatric institutions across the country brimmed with patients, reaching an all-time high of more than 550,000 people. South Carolina\u2019s state hospitals peaked in 1962 at nearly 6,600 patients.<\/p>\n<p>The federal government didn\u2019t want to pick up the growing tab for this institutional care \u2014 a bill that became more expensive as civil rights lawsuits prompted reforms. So Congress backed a less-costly alternative that included more community-based mental health services and expanded access to new psychiatric medications.<\/p>\n<p>                        <img loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" src=\"data:image\/png;base64,iVBORw0KGgoAAAANSUhEUgAAAAQAAAADCAQAAAAe\/WZNAAAAEElEQVR42mM8U88ABowYDABAxQPltt5zqAAAAABJRU5ErkJggg==\" alt=\"SECONDARY 1950-60 mental health display.jpg\" class=\"img-responsive lazyload full default\" width=\"1763\" height=\"1176\" data- data-\/><\/p>\n<p>A mental health display at the South Carolina State Archives in Columbia, March 6, 2026.<\/p>\n<p>                                    Grace Beahm Alford\/Staff<\/p>\n<p>South Carolina\u2019s General Assembly followed the money. Patients whose conditions could be managed at home were redirected to a statewide network of community mental health centers and clinics.<\/p>\n<p>The U.S. Supreme Court further solidified this approach in a landmark 1999 decision that barred states from locking the mentally ill away in isolated asylums far from their homes. Olmstead v. L.C. made clear the 1990 Americans with Disabilities Act required that people with psychiatric disabilities be treated in the least-restrictive setting.<\/p>\n<p>\u201cToward local care,\u201d or TLC, became a rallying cry in South Carolina for the mass emptying of hospitals.<\/p>\n<p>But the state would soon realize that the promise of this strategy had been primed for failure from the very start.<\/p>\n<p>\u2018Toward local chaos\u2019<\/p>\n<p>South Carolina\u2019s spending on mental health already lagged behind other states. As far back as 1897, the chairman of the state psychiatric hospital complained it spent less on its patients than any such facility in the world.<\/p>\n<p>More money flowed into the Department of Mental Health <a href=\"https:\/\/www.documentcloud.org\/documents\/28072817-news-article-charleston-news-and-courier-published-as-the-news-and-courier-september-29-1986-p15\/#document\/p1\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"nofollow noopener\">in the decades that followed<\/a>. But it was never enough.<\/p>\n<p>By the 1980s, <a href=\"https:\/\/www.documentcloud.org\/documents\/28072816-post-and-courier-june-18-1989\/#document\/p1\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"nofollow noopener\">only a quarter of the agency\u2019s treatment funds<\/a> went toward community mental health centers. That didn\u2019t keep pace with a swelling caseload that had more than tripled in three decades. With the exception of Mississippi, no state spent less per capita on its mentally ill than South Carolina, officials said in 1984.<\/p>\n<p>Dr. Richard Frierson worked as a psychiatrist for the state in the early 1990s. He had a front-row seat to deinstitutionalization and remembers joking with colleagues about a different kind of TLC: \u201ctoward local chaos.\u201d<\/p>\n<p>\u201cThey get out and there\u2019s really nothing there for them,\u201d Frierson said.<\/p>\n<p>John Abernathy\u2019s story, contained in psychiatric records uncovered by The Post and Courier, shows how this played out. Born in 1959, Abernathy started working in masonry at age 8 and later dropped out of high school. Schizophrenia set in when he was a young man, and he landed in the state\u2019s asylum on Bull Street in the 1980s. He seemed to respond to treatment there and became well enough to be discharged.<\/p>\n<p>But Abernathy\u2019s problems increased as the state ramped up its shift toward community care. He went on to have roughly five dozen interactions with South Carolina police and the courts between 1984 and 2014, according to records reviewed by the newspaper. He faced 101 charges or citations in those three decades, along with stints of outpatient care and inpatient commitment.<\/p>\n<p>His records show that run-ins with police became more frequent after his wife died in the mid-2000s. In the first half of 2009, Abernathy was in jail on a near-monthly basis, mostly for drug offenses and trespassing.<\/p>\n<p>Around that time, the nation went through two periods of economic upheaval that had profound consequences for South Carolina and its mentally ill population.<\/p>\n<p>Between 2001 and 2008, <a href=\"https:\/\/www.documentcloud.org\/documents\/28072819-budget-shortfall-forcing-decisions-on-hodges-post-and-courier-the-charleston-sc-november-7-2002-pa14\/#document\/p1\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"nofollow noopener\">fallout from the dot-com<\/a> bust and the Great Recession further hollowed out the state budget for mental health services. This resulted in <a href=\"https:\/\/www.documentcloud.org\/documents\/28072812-state-agencies-must-ax-another-7-percent-post-and-courier-the-web-edition-articles-charleston-sc-december-11-2008-p1\/#document\/p1\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"nofollow noopener\">steep cuts to staffing<\/a>, inpatient bed space and community programs across the state.<\/p>\n<p>The Department of Mental Health never recovered. <a href=\"https:\/\/www.postandcourier.com\/news\/jamal-sutherlands-death-in-charleston-jail-latest-tragedy-in-americas-new-asylums\/article_1189a36e-b4e8-11eb-a60d-33d9c7435ab1.html\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"nofollow noopener\">Jails and prisons became the new asylums<\/a> amid this backdrop.<\/p>\n<p>                        <img loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" src=\"data:image\/png;base64,iVBORw0KGgoAAAANSUhEUgAAAAQAAAADCAQAAAAe\/WZNAAAAEElEQVR42mM8U88ABowYDABAxQPltt5zqAAAAABJRU5ErkJggg==\" alt=\"JUMP LEDE Gilliam inmate 1.jpg\" class=\"img-responsive lazyload full default\" width=\"1714\" height=\"1209\" data- data-\/><\/p>\n<p>A prisoner huddles beneath a blanket in his cell at Gilliam Psychiatric Hospital in Kirkland Correctional Institution in Columbia on June 26, 2025. Jails and prisons took on a greater burden of care for the mentally ill after the state shifted to community treatment but failed to properly fund it, experts say.<\/p>\n<p>                                    Grace Beahm Alford\/Staff<\/p>\n<p>The population inside South Carolina\u2019s state psychiatric hospitals plummeted 93 percent from its peak in the 1960s to around 440 people today. Its prison system, meanwhile, went from housing about 2,300 inmates to roughly 16,500 last year. A third of them received mental health care, according to officials at the S.C. Department of Corrections.<\/p>\n<p><img decoding=\"async\" src=\"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-content\/uploads\/2026\/05\/pullout-top.png\" alt=\"\" class=\"pc-pullout-img\"\/><\/p>\n<p><img decoding=\"async\" src=\"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-content\/uploads\/2026\/05\/pullout-bottom.png\" alt=\"\" class=\"pc-pullout-img\"\/><\/p>\n<p>A shrinking capacity to treat people in the community sets up a troubling cycle, said Murrie, the University of Virginia psychologist.<\/p>\n<p>\u201cAt its worst, you could have a pattern where arrest is the main route to treatment for somebody without financial resources,\u201d he said.<\/p>\n<p>\u2018The cost of doing nothing\u2019<\/p>\n<p>Experts say a strong community mental health system is key to keeping people like John Abnerathy on the right path and away from the justice system.<\/p>\n<p>But so far, South Carolina is falling short in that mission \u2014 despite increasing scrutiny of its patchwork system of hospitals, clinics, jails, prisons and group homes that help care for the mentally ill.<\/p>\n<p><a href=\"https:\/\/governor.sc.gov\/\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"nofollow noopener\">Gov. Henry McMaster<\/a> raised <a href=\"https:\/\/www.postandcourier.com\/politics\/gov-mcmaster-asks-for-bold-investments-with-scs-record-surplus-mental-health-revamp\/article_4e3c9e8e-7959-11ec-aa66-87741e82623c.html\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"nofollow noopener\">alarms about the state\u2019s mental health crisis<\/a> in his Jan. 19, 2022, annual address to the Legislature. He particularly feared for children who had endured isolation and disruptions under the COVID-19 pandemic. He floated additional privatization of services. And he <a href=\"https:\/\/www.postandcourier.com\/health\/sc-working-group-seeks-to-bolster-mental-health-treatment-in-state\/article_1661a02a-0c45-11ed-b23d-23535b3fb463.html\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"nofollow noopener\">created a task force<\/a> to review the state\u2019s behavioral health system.<\/p>\n<p>\u201cThe cost of doing nothing is unimaginable,\u201d McMaster said. \u201cAnd the damage, well, the damage will likely be immeasurable.\u201d<\/p>\n<p>A 2024 report commissioned by the state concluded that South Carolina had the most fragmented health and human services structure in the nation, with eight independent agencies. It had three times fewer mental health facilities per capita than other states and a below-average supply of psychologists. This put pressure on the state\u2019s hospital emergency rooms, which treat more behavioral health patients than other states, according to the report.<\/p>\n<p><img decoding=\"async\" src=\"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-content\/uploads\/2026\/05\/pullout-top.png\" alt=\"\" class=\"pc-pullout-img\"\/><\/p>\n<p><img decoding=\"async\" src=\"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-content\/uploads\/2026\/05\/pullout-bottom.png\" alt=\"\" class=\"pc-pullout-img\"\/><\/p>\n<p>Armed with about $65 million, the task force funneled money to private hospitals to build new mental health care hubs and specialized crisis units that divert psychiatric patients from ERs. But lawmakers directed few new dollars from that pool to the state\u2019s public mental health agency.<\/p>\n<p>The <a href=\"https:\/\/www.postandcourier.com\/health\/department-of-justice-south-carolina-lawsuit-mental-health\/article_7819e236-b72a-11ef-a836-7781b7833d23.html\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"nofollow noopener\">U.S. Justice Department sued the state<\/a> in December 2024 for using South Carolina\u2019s network of around 250 assisted living facilities as <a href=\"https:\/\/www.documentcloud.org\/documents\/28072806-south-carolina-ada-findings-report-0-0\/\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"nofollow noopener\">\u201clittle asylums\u201d<\/a> with poor conditions. A federal investigation accused the state of unnecessarily sequestering thousands of people with serious mental illnesses in these group homes, including some people found not competent to stand trial. The facilities often serve as the first stop after inpatient care, with stays typically lasting five years.<\/p>\n<p>McMaster\u2019s office blasted the lawsuit as \u201cpolitical lawfare\u201d by the outgoing Biden administration while acknowledging <a href=\"https:\/\/www.documentcloud.org\/documents\/28072807-settlement-agreement-us-and-south-carolina-crcf\/\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"nofollow noopener\">reforms were needed<\/a>.<\/p>\n<p>The following year, the governor signed a bill merging the state\u2019s separate mental health, addiction and disabilities departments into one cabinet-level agency. <a href=\"https:\/\/www.postandcourier.com\/news\/south-carolina-mental-health-doj-settlement\/article_c1c10ccb-3210-45aa-8d35-6742af88e153.html\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"nofollow noopener\">The state also settled with the Justice Department<\/a> \u2014 a move that required the expansion of community-based mental health services.<\/p>\n<p>State mental health officials sought an extra $1.1 million to pay for changes such as supportive housing, intensive treatment teams and job programs. It\u2019s left their department pulled once again in many directions, still scrambling to find money to treat those in its care.<\/p>\n<p>And the wait list in the jails keeps growing.<\/p>\n<p>Working in the margins<\/p>\n<p>In the absence of legislative buy-in, the mental health agency has been working in the margins, scraping for low-cost remedies to ease the strain.<\/p>\n<p>Last spring, the Office of Mental Health launched a new screening program to flag defendants who don\u2019t need to wait for a mental competency exam. Those people are then diverted to other services. Defense attorneys can request a screening for their clients before they seek a court order for a psychiatric evaluation.<\/p>\n<p>The service should have been implemented years ago, said Frank Addy, a circuit judge who acts as a liaison between the judicial system and mental health department. So far, it\u2019s prevented more than 100 cases across the state from entering the competency pipeline.<\/p>\n<p>                        <img loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" src=\"data:image\/png;base64,iVBORw0KGgoAAAANSUhEUgAAAAQAAAADCAQAAAAe\/WZNAAAAEElEQVR42mM8U88ABowYDABAxQPltt5zqAAAAABJRU5ErkJggg==\" alt=\"Kelly-Gothard-PhD.jpg\" class=\"img-responsive lazyload full default\" width=\"1280\" height=\"853\" data- data-\/><\/p>\n<p>Kelly Gothard, forensic services director for the state Office of Mental Health.<\/p>\n<p>                                    Provided <\/p>\n<p>Kelly Gothard, the Office of Mental Health\u2019s forensic services director, also cobbled together a statewide team who travels to jails to better identify inmates at risk of a crisis. Their goal is to get them medicated before they become too ill for trial.<\/p>\n<p>The agency\u2019s workers are already playing a key role in Aiken County, which hosts the state\u2019s only fully operational jail-based restoration program. It launched in the jail there in 2023.<\/p>\n<p>Weekly group sessions of courtroom education and therapy take place inside a spartan, cinderblock room containing only a table and a couple of chairs. Sessions include workbooks that cover topics from communicating with a lawyer to coping with stress and difficult emotions.<\/p>\n<p>The program has a 10-person capacity, and mental health staff will often tailor treatment to the defendant\u2019s specific symptoms.<\/p>\n<p>Twenty-six inmates as of March had either completed or were moving through the program. Among those who finished, roughly half became competent to stand trial.<\/p>\n<p>                        <img loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" src=\"data:image\/png;base64,iVBORw0KGgoAAAANSUhEUgAAAAQAAAADCAQAAAAe\/WZNAAAAEElEQVR42mM8U88ABowYDABAxQPltt5zqAAAAABJRU5ErkJggg==\" alt=\"JUMP THIRD Nick Gallam.jpg\" class=\"img-responsive lazyload full default\" width=\"1778\" height=\"1166\" data- data-\/><\/p>\n<p>Maj. Nick Gallam, Aiken County\u2019s jail administrator, oversees what has been the state\u2019s lone jail-based competency restoration program. He said the state needs more inpatient psychiatric beds. \u201cThere are some people in this population that are not going to be able to maintain in society,\u201d he said. \u201cAnd that\u2019s unfortunate.\u201d<\/p>\n<p>                                    Grace Beahm Alford\/Staff<\/p>\n<p>The Office of Mental Health estimates the program has saved South Carolina taxpayers $2.5 million in additional inpatient bed costs. And it shaved at least 6,240 days \u2014 a staggering 17 years \u2014 off the time defendants stewed in jail, waiting for their cases to be resolved.<\/p>\n<p>The department has asked the General Assembly for money to replicate programs like the one in Aiken. Lawmakers have so far failed to deliver.<\/p>\n<p>The issue seems to have largely dropped off legislators\u2019 radar. Several who played a role in the law\u2019s passage couldn\u2019t speak to its lack of progress.<\/p>\n<p>\u201cI just really don&#8217;t know what the current status of it is, or the wait times even,\u201d said Senate Minority Leader Brad Hutto, an Orangeburg Democrat and defense attorney who chaired the subcommittee that advanced the legislation.<\/p>\n<p>But some lawmakers worry the state is putting itself at risk by not paying attention to the problem.<\/p>\n<p>Sen. Tom Davis, a Beaufort Republican and attorney, suspects the lengthy wait times for restoration treatment violate federal law and leave the state open to legal challenges. Fixing the problem will cost money, but the cost of inaction could be far greater, he said.<\/p>\n<p>Rep. Tommy Pope, a York Republican and former solicitor, said South Carolina is \u201cwoefully failing everywhere\u201d on mental health issues. But competing priorities in the Statehouse make it difficult to get traction on the problem, he said.<\/p>\n<p>Pope has <a href=\"https:\/\/www.scstatehouse.gov\/sess126_2025-2026\/bills\/3088.htm\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"nofollow noopener\">two pending bills<\/a> aimed at expanding treatment options for mentally ill inmates. Both are stalled in committee.<\/p>\n<p>Without such options \u2014 and replicating restoration programs like Aiken\u2019s \u2014 many struggling inmates will grow worse while waiting months to get care, Pope said. And as Aiken\u2019s program shows, he said, getting treatment to people quicker can save money in the long run while getting them the help they desperately need.<\/p>\n<p>\u201cThat\u2019s a crazy idea that we might help people,\u201d he said.<\/p>\n<p>                        <img loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" src=\"data:image\/png;base64,iVBORw0KGgoAAAANSUhEUgAAAAQAAAADCAQAAAAe\/WZNAAAAEElEQVR42mM8U88ABowYDABAxQPltt5zqAAAAABJRU5ErkJggg==\" alt=\"2nd JUMP SECONDARY competency outside space.jpg\" class=\"img-responsive lazyload full default\" width=\"1734\" height=\"1195\" data- data-\/><\/p>\n<p>The recreation space sits empty in the competency restoration unit at Sheriff Al Cannon Detention Center in North Charleston on Sept. 10, 2025. For more than two years, the unit lacked the staff and resources needed to open, officials said.<\/p>\n<p>                                    Grace Beahm Alford\/Staff<\/p>\n<p>        Charleston unit sits empty of all but promise<\/p>\n<p>In Charleston County, a 21-bed restoration unit that could reduce treatment wait times sits empty and idle.<\/p>\n<p>Then-Sheriff Kristin Graziano <a href=\"https:\/\/www.postandcourier.com\/news\/charleston-county-jail-to-debut-competency-restoration-wing\/article_9d6686fc-5655-11ee-a499-5bcc38ddb8cc.html\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"nofollow noopener\">showed off the $180,000 redesign<\/a> in September 2023. With its calming colors, sound-dampening carpet and smoothly contoured furniture, the unit was meant to be a respite from chaos. But it has yet to house its intended occupants.<\/p>\n<p>Graziano accused Sheriff Carl Ritchie, her successor, of mothballing the program due to a lack of interest. Ritchie countered that Graziano\u2019s plans were premature. The jail didn\u2019t have the money or manpower to run the unit, he said.<\/p>\n<p>\u201cThose are things that we&#8217;re going to work to overcome,\u201d Ritchie said.<\/p>\n<p>The county would also need to sign off on a state requirement allowing for inmates to be medicated, even over their objections. This has proved a hurdle elsewhere across South Carolina. So far, Aiken\u2019s jail is the only one to sign off on the policy. Some counties remain uneasy about potential liability and litigation from forcing medications on people.<\/p>\n<p>The Charleston County Sheriff\u2019s Office has not announced a timetable for opening the unit. But in response to questions from The Post and Courier, the agency did reveal on April 23 that it had recently launched a pilot program with the Office of Mental Health and other partners to provide competency restoration to a handful of inmates. Sheriff\u2019s officials did not reveal specifics about the effort.<\/p>\n<p>                        <img loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" src=\"data:image\/png;base64,iVBORw0KGgoAAAANSUhEUgAAAAQAAAADCAQAAAAe\/WZNAAAAEElEQVR42mM8U88ABowYDABAxQPltt5zqAAAAABJRU5ErkJggg==\" alt=\"2nd JUMP SMALLER Chs Jail window writing.jpg\" class=\"img-responsive lazyload full default\" width=\"1724\" height=\"1202\" data- data-\/><\/p>\n<p>Writing on the windows of cells inside the competency restoration unit at the Sheriff Al Cannon Detention Center, Wednesday, September 10, 2025, in North Charleston.<\/p>\n<p>                                    Grace Beahm Alford\/Staff<\/p>\n<p>In the meantime, Charleston County\u2019s restoration wing is filled with promise but little else.<\/p>\n<p>A row of deserted cells. A closet stacked with unused mattresses. A mural with a bright blue sky, floating lily pads, lush green hills and no one to look at it.<\/p>\n<p>Jamal Sutherland, a 31-year-old Goose Creek man who died on a floor below in the throes of a mental health episode, inspired the mural. Sutherland would visit this tranquil pond in his family\u2019s backyard every morning after waking up. He found peace in the water, Amy Sutherland said of her son.<\/p>\n<p>&#13;<\/p>\n<p>Harold Ancrum feels his new chance begins by managing his bipolar disorder.<\/p>\n<p><a href=\"https:\/\/www.postandcourier.com\/users\/profile\/Gavin%20McIntyre\" rel=\"author nofollow noopener\" target=\"_blank\">By Gavin McIntyre gmcintyre@postandcourier.com<\/a><br \/>\n                &#13;<br \/>\n                    &#13;<\/p>\n<p>The county\u2019s failure to open the unit has brought her a certain sadness and frustration: \u201cGod has given you a place to put people who need to be there, and you didn\u2019t put them,\u201d she said.<\/p>\n<p>It was too late for her child. But she hopes the unit \u2014 and the mural \u2014 will bring comfort to those who may someday fill its walls.<\/p>\n<p>Faces of the cycle<br \/>\nStarting over after decades in prison<br \/>\n<img decoding=\"async\" src=\"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-content\/uploads\/2026\/05\/69163c874f58b.image.jpg\" alt=\"Harold Ancrum\" class=\"pc-face-image\"\/><\/p>\n<p class=\"pc-big-text-face\">At age 48, <strong>Harold<br \/>\nAncrum<\/strong> can measure much of his life in prison terms.<\/p>\n<p>Around a year in 1995 for carrying a concealed weapon, among other<br \/>\ncharges. Nine in 1997 for strong-arm robbery. Another 18 months in<br \/>\n2007 for spitting on a nurse. And a decade in 2015 for his role in<br \/>\na Jasper County armed robbery. In between, he piled on more than a<br \/>\ndozen other charges, spending short stints in Lowcountry jails.<\/p>\n<p>As a quiet child with an occasional stutter, everyone thought<br \/>\nAncrum was \u201cslow,\u201d he told The Post and Courier. He fell in with<br \/>\nthe wrong crowd, playing hooky and getting into trouble. He caught<br \/>\nhis first charges as an adult in 1995 \u2014 the same year he found work<br \/>\nat McDonald\u2019s, flipping burgers and cleaning grills.<\/p>\n<p>He had to quit after he started \u201cfeeling funny.\u201d At six months,<br \/>\nit\u2019s still the longest he\u2019s ever held a job.<\/p>\n<p>Ancrum said he didn\u2019t receive mental health treatment until the<br \/>\ntail end of his second prison stint. He was admitted to the<br \/>\nprison\u2019s psychiatric hospital, where he reported visions of \u201clittle<br \/>\ngreen men,\u201d according to a copy of his court-ordered evaluation. He<br \/>\nlater became delusional, unsure of the date or time. He wasn\u2019t<br \/>\ntaking medicine and only sporadically ate.<\/p>\n<p>\u201cI was like, out of my mind,\u201d Ancrum recalled.<\/p>\n<p>When he left prison in 2006, staff told Ancrum to seek treatment<br \/>\nfor his bipolar disorder at a mental health center in Beaufort. He<br \/>\nwent to appointments but still rebuffed medication, unsure of what<br \/>\nit was for.<\/p>\n<p>Staff there sent Ancrum in 2010 to live at a homeless shelter in<br \/>\nCharleston, he said. He wound up sleeping underneath an overpass.<br \/>\nTrips to jail started piling up.<\/p>\n<p>\u201cEvery time I got out, I go back,\u201d he said. \u201cGet out, go back. Get<br \/>\nout, go back. Get out, go back.\u201d<\/p>\n<p>A judge in the summer of 2011 signed an order to evaluate Ancrum\u2019s<br \/>\nability to stand trial for a slew of charges: second-degree assault<br \/>\nand battery, indecent exposure and breaking into a car.<\/p>\n<p>Examiners found him incompetent, and a judge sent him to the state<br \/>\npsychiatric hospital in Columbia for restoration treatment. Ancrum<br \/>\nremembers clinicians watching him all day, never knowing what they<br \/>\nwere saying about him.<\/p>\n<p>He was glad when they ultimately said his case could move<br \/>\nforward.<\/p>\n<p>Ancrum pleaded guilty to two charges and received a sentence of<br \/>\ntime served. The other charge was dismissed. But he was back in<br \/>\nprison by 2015 \u2014 not long before the S.C. Department of Corrections<br \/>\nbegan making much-needed improvements to its mental health services<br \/>\nas a result of a class-action lawsuit.<\/p>\n<p>This time, Ancrum consistently took his medicine and found meeting<br \/>\nwith mental health staff to be helpful. He initially feared they<br \/>\nwere trying to kill him when a doctor ordered an injection, he<br \/>\nrecalled. But then he felt better.<\/p>\n<p>\u201cMy problems went away,\u201d Ancrum said. \u201cI wonder why they didn\u2019t<br \/>\ngive me the shot before.\u201d<\/p>\n<p>Ancrum is nervous about readjusting to society after a decade spent<br \/>\nlocked away. But he wants this time to be different. He knows he<br \/>\nhas another chance. Keeping up with his appointments at the local<br \/>\nmental health center will be key, he said.<\/p>\n<p>On Halloween, Ancrum\u2019s niece picked him up from Kershaw<br \/>\nCorrectional Institution in Lancaster County. She offered him<br \/>\nsomething to eat from a gas station. His request was simple: a<br \/>\nPepsi, a bag of Fritos and a pack of Newport shorts.<\/p>\n<p>Sometimes, Ancrum said, it\u2019s good to start over.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"\u00a0Caught in the cycle PART 4 SC\u2019s history of failures, missed chances leaves mentally ill desperate for care.&hellip;\n","protected":false},"author":3,"featured_media":779344,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[36],"tags":[319082,319083,319081,319086,210,20991,97535,319085,319084,517,87308,147569,67,132,68],"class_list":{"0":"post-779343","1":"post","2":"type-post","3":"status-publish","4":"format-standard","5":"has-post-thumbnail","7":"category-mental-health","8":"tag-brad-hutto","9":"tag-bull-street","10":"tag-charleston-county-news","11":"tag-competency-restoration","12":"tag-health","13":"tag-henry-mcmaster","14":"tag-inmates","15":"tag-jail-based-treatment","16":"tag-jamal-southerland-jail-death","17":"tag-mental-health","18":"tag-psychiatric-hospital","19":"tag-south-carolina-news","20":"tag-united-states","21":"tag-unitedstates","22":"tag-us"},"share_on_mastodon":{"url":"https:\/\/pubeurope.com\/@us\/116532634557810978","error":""},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/779343","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/3"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=779343"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/779343\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/779344"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=779343"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=779343"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=779343"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}