GREEN BAY, WI (WTAQ) – Right now in Brown County, it will likely take a trip to jail for someone to get help for a drug or alcohol problem if they can’t pay for it on their own.
County leaders, like Sheriff John Gossage, want to change that.
“we have a great facility and have professional that are working there, but they’re really not trained for detox”
The county set aside $1.15 million in its budget for increased mental health services.
Eric Pritzl is the Brown County Director of Urban Services.
“and the overall goal of the project is really to get people services versus through the criminal justice system. we don’t people to wait for something to happen, we don’t want the community to wait”
As of now, 750 people are in the Brown County Jail, which puts it at about 94 percent capacity. During a three-month period last year, the jail averaged 113 people a month receiving detox services.
In two weeks, the county board will be asked to approve about a quarter of that money, $300,000 for in-patient detoxification services to overcome drug and alcohol addiction.
Part of the extra mental health money is paying for expanded mobile crisis services. The county also has plans to open a day report center and offer more transitional residential treatment.
