NATCHEZ — Budget cuts to the Mississippi Department of Mental Health could impact Adams County disproportionately.

The Mississippi Department of Health announced last month it was eliminating 650 positions due to state budget cuts. The department plans to cut services and hand them down to community mental health centers.

Adams County Sheriff Travis Patten said Adams County is No. 2 in committals in the entire state of Mississippi, with Jackson being No. 1. Adams County is No. 1 per capita, Patten said.

“I hate the fact that everyone on the state level keeps passing on mental health,” Patten said. “It leaves it up to the sheriff’s office to handle the situation. I don’t think it should be handled at the sheriff’s office. I think counties and the state need to get together and work out something with hospitals in the community.”

Adams County Board of Supervisors Board Attorney Scott Slover said by law, the Legislature is supposed to fund mental health. Last year, the U.S. Department of Justice sued the State of Mississippi for its inadequate funding of mental health care.

Slover said states, under federal law, are supposed to help people live at home and not in institutions.

“In Mississippi, we basically commit them,” Slover said. “They go to jail, wait for a bed, then they go to (the state mental health hospital) Whitfield and come back and cycle on and on.”

Slover said putting mentally ill people in jail is ridiculous, to begin with. Patten said he agreed.

“Being thrown in a cell is only going to add to their traumatic experience,” Patten said. “Right now, the only real option in the community is shipping them out all over the state, besides putting them in a padded cell.

“You don’t have to be a mental patient to have a padded cell mess you up. It’s a hell hole for them and they deserve to be treated humanely.”

Patten said the sheriff’s office has to balance the moral side of the issue with protecting the mentally ill and the community from a potential tragedy. The sheriff’s office has a crisis intervention team trained to handle the mentally ill, but Patten said it’s only made up of three deputies.

“They have been doing an outstanding job dealing with this issue,” Patten said. “But they can’t do it all.”

Patten said Merit Health would take some mental health patients, but not the violent ones.

“We have the obligation to protect the county from these type of incidents, and to protect the person with mental issues,” Patten said. “This is a problem that is on the rise throughout the nation. This is one area where we should not be cutting funding.”

Chancery Court Clerk Brandi Lewis said most counties benefit from regional facilities, but Southwest Mississippi is one of two regions in the state that does not have such a facility.

Lewis said some counties are raising millage to fund the regional health centers, with the goal of each county contributing approximately $100,000 annually.

Supervisors President Mike Lazarus said in the absence of state funding, the county should at least look at the regional option. Lazarus said he just did not want such a proposal to end up like the regional Drug Court where Adams County ends up funding 80 to 90 percent of it.

“I think with mental health, we could partner with more counties with more resources,” Lazarus said. “We need to look and see what other people are doing. If they are doing it right, we can always take something from them.”