Reminders are everywhere. Type &8220;mentally ill&8221; into a GoogleNews search and the possibilities are endless.

The myriad of articles detailing how counties across America are struggling with the costs related to housing mentally ill persons &8212; often many who have never committed a crime &8212; in jails is reassuring to counties in Mississippi that they are not alone.

That leaders of other states care too little to study and fix the problem in an expedited manner should also lend comfort to our state leaders that they are not the only ones turning a blind eye to the situation.

In a time when the Medicaid budget is on the line, the state populist should expect little to be done about the mentally ill. But when you consider that little was done during a legislative session where the issue of funding seven state-sanctioned facilities was clearly on the radar of lawmakers, the state having other issues with which to deal becomes largely irrelevant.

Up in Woodstock, Ill., officials in McHenry County are facing very much the same thing as officials in Mississippi counties.

Kristen Schmidt, a reporter for the Northwest Herald, writes: &8220;Jail administrators and mental-health professionals say county jails have become de facto psychiatric hospitals. They attribute a rise in the number of mentally ill in their jails to reduced state funding and the closing of large, state-run mental hospitals.&8221;

It is a lead that could apply to almost any Mississippi news article, save our state has actually built seven new facilities. Lawmakers have just failed to fund them. Our governor has said the item is not high on his priority list. And beyond a few newspaper editorials-we seem to be the only industry/group outside the mental health care system who is pushing this issue-nothing was done in response to a Congressional study released in July that showed Mississippi as one of 33 states who house mentally ill juveniles in detention facilities when they have committed no crime.

Where is the public outrage in the fact that nationwide seven percent of our incarcerated juvenile population has never committed a crime? They simply suffer from a condition no more uncommon than someone catching a cold!

It is amazing to this writer that we stand for such atrocities. We&8217;ll prevent someone from having to pay a quarter more for a pack of cigarettes, but we won&8217;t get innocent people out of jail.

That is exactly what we are talking about in Mississippi. A quarter per pack of cigarettes, for a six-pack of beer or a bottle of wine funds these facilities.

A member of Gov. Haley Barbour&8217;s staff recently asked me if I was for a tax increase. &8220;That doesn&8217;t sound like you,&8221; he told me.

Yeah, I&8217;m for increasing taxes if it means funding these mental health facilities. I&8217;m for raising taxes if it means we fund our Medicaid budget and not one person currently enrolled is lost in the cracks between their present coverage and what the state is dictating.

Remember, Barbour did not get us into this situation. Our lawmakers went on a spending spree backed by former Gov. Ronnie Musgrove when Congress approved states widening their Medicaid net. Like so many things our Legislature does &8212; see the above-referenced mental health facilities &8212; our lawmakers approved something that costs money without providing a funding mechanism.

So now, we face a dilemma with Medicaid. We can make cuts, or we can fund what is there.

But with the mental health facilities, the dilemma is much more dire. We can fund these facilities and get innocent people out of jail, or we can leave them to rot there while state lawmakers make good on election-year rhetoric of not raising taxes.

So, now, I ask the governor, why are you not for raising taxes when innocent people are in jail and only you and lawmakers can help?

Sam R. Hall

can be reached by e-mail to

shall@sctonline.net

.