GUEST COMMENTARY: Missouri’s mental health policies are failing — It’s more than reducing recidivism

Reducing recidivism is about more than just keeping individuals from returning to jail. While breaking the cycle of incarceration is the ultimate goal, the real focus should be on addressing the root causes of criminal behavior through meaningful support and services. This includes access to education, employment opportunities, mental health care, substance abuse treatment and stable housing. Providing these resources helps individuals reintegrate successfully into society, reducing the likelihood of reoffending. While a lower recidivism rate is a measurable outcome, the true success lies in creating lasting, positive change for individuals and strengthening communities.

However, addressing recidivism is only part of the issue. On the front end, individuals suffering from mental illness often spend a year or more in jail, placing undue liability and risk on detention centers, inmates, and staff. Missouri’s criminal justice system has failed its most vulnerable citizens, turning county jails into makeshift psychiatric facilities. Many individuals with severe mental illnesses remain incarcerated—not because they have been convicted of crimes, but because the state lacks available treatment beds and refuses to allocate funds for care. Some have been detained for over a year, trapped in a cycle of suicidal ideation, repeated medical and mental health evaluations and solitary confinement. This is not justice; it is systemic neglect. Some of these individuals’ offenses stem from untreated psychiatric conditions, yet Missouri’s broken system funnels them into jails instead of hospitals.

In Mississippi County, at least 10% of detainees need mental health care. In other examples, such as Greene County, a woman has been jailed for 450 days awaiting a psychiatric bed—far exceeding the sentence she would have served had she been convicted.

Jails Are Not Hospitals

Jails lack the resources to provide adequate mental health care, often resorting to solitary confinement for individuals in crisis. Jails and Detention Centers will, however, partner with outside resources such as Bootheel Behavioral Health and Gipson Center but these individuals remain in jail putting strain on staff who have to disperse medication and sometimes transport to a mental health facility for a 96-hour commitment. This is not treatment; it is grant grabbing and deferred treatment because Missouri has dismantled their mental health infrastructure and put the burden both financial and liable back on the counties.

Meanwhile, the Missouri Department of Mental Health, or DMH, has a $4.5 billion budget, yet structured care such as psychiatric hospitals remain years away, and outpatient treatment programs are grossly underutilized or overwhelmed from a lack of bedspace. The state’s inaction has left county jails—many in underfunded rural areas—to bear the cost and responsibility of a failing system.

A Path Forward

Missouri has the financial resources to fix this crisis. What it lacks is political will. The state must take immediate action by:

— Ending the practice of jailing people for mental illness—Crisis stabilization units, not jail cells, should be the first point of care.

— Expanding outpatient treatment programs—Hundreds of detainees on the waitlist could be treated in their communities instead of locked away.

— Enforcing time limits on pretrial detention—No one should spend more time in jail than their maximum sentence due to bureaucratic inefficiency.

— Holding the DMH accountable—Taxpayer dollars should fund real solutions, not delay tactics.

Mental illness is not a crime, and jails are not hospitals. Until Missouri acknowledges these truths, countless individuals will continue to suffer needlessly. Mississippi County taxpayers and mental health patients deserve better. The time for action is now.