A chance to curb incarceration rates of Iowa's mentally ill

A glimmer of hope last week for the ANCHOR Center, and for 6th Judicial District parolees and probationers whose untreated and poorly treated mental health issues have resulted in run-ins with the law.

Senate Democrats finally approved the money to open the groundbreaking Cedar Rapids residential health facility that's been sitting empty for more than four years.

The bad news: The Senate's full justice system budget passed on a party-line vote, with Republican senators grumbling about the $560 million price tag. The bill's chances of passing the House unscathed are slim.

Penny-wise House Republicans should leave untouched proposed funding for the ANCHOR Center and other community-based corrections facilities in Davenport, Des Moines, Ottumwa, Sioux City and Waterloo. Allowing those facilities to operate as intended will save on expensive prison beds and keep communities safer. It's simple math.

Cutting funding for the ANCHOR Center, specifically, would be more than foolish - it would be shameful.

Fully funded and fully staffed, the ANCHOR Center would directly address the epidemic of Iowans with mental health issues who are being warehoused in prisons because they have trouble managing their illness and can't find the community support to help.

It would provide structure and stability for two dozen parolees and probationers whose mental health issues place them at high risk for reoffending. It would provide a critical half-step between incarceration and re-entry. It would be the first facility of its kind in the state. It's desperately needed.

Not long ago, we were told that nearly one-third of Iowa's prison population, thousands more on probation and parole, had been diagnosed with some form of mental illness. Now officials say that number is nearly half in prison and more than one-fourth of offenders under field supervision - 47 percent and 27 percent, respectively, according to the state Department of Corrections' FY12 annual report. The trend won't reverse itself.

There's not a single state policymaker who would argue we should lock up Iowans with mental illness and throw away the key. They don't have to.

All they have to do is continue to cut funding for programs such as the ANCHOR Center that could help.

Comments: (319) 339-3154; jennifer.hemmingsen@sourcemedia.net