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Mother Fears For Son In Santa Barbara Jail

Written by KEY News Staff

Story Created: Feb 9, 2012 at 7:43 PM PDT

Story Updated: Feb 10, 2012 at 9:02 AM PDT

Santa Barbara -- A 2011 grand jury report indicated the Santa Barbara County Jail isn't just overcrowded, it's also the county's largest de facto mental health institution. But at a rally on Thursday in Santa Barbara dozens gathered to say it's a problem that needs to be addressed and that jail and mental illness do not go together.

Nancy Speer was joined by local non-profit group Families ACT!, as well as others who's children suffer from mental illness. Speer's son Ben Warren has been incarcerated at the Santa Barbara County Jail for 11 months and suffers from Asperger's Syndrome, a form of autism. Warren has spent time in isolation following two suicide attempts but in the last couple of months Warren's mother has grown increasingly worried.

Warren recently refused to take his medication and was not eating or drinking and during a visit this past week Speer said her son's lost about 80 pounds and has slipped into the depths of psychosis. He's been shifted from the jail to Cottage Hospital and the county's mental health facility, which is where his mother believes he should be.

However financial constraints have made treating the mentally ill difficult, and while those at the rally did not place blame on any particular entity, they say a solution needs to be found to keep the mentally ill in hospitals, not jail.
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