FLAGLER COUNTY, Fla. – The Flagler County Sheriff’s Office was just awarded a $532,000 grant from the U.S Justice Department to start up a mental health program for inmates at their jail.

At the jail, dubbed the Green Roof Inn by the sheriff, dealing with mental health issues of inmates is a constant challenge, Chief Daniel Engert said.

“It’s daily, its hourly, we are dealing with this all the time,” said Engert, who was appoinnted to the Flagler County Court and Detention Services Division back in January.

According to Sheriff Staly, the majority of their inmates are dealing with these problems.

“I would estimate that 75 percent of our inmates in our facility have either a mental health issue or an addiction issue, whether that is narcotics or alcohol,” Staly said.

Engert explains that inside the jail they see a lot of depression, schizophrenia and addiction.

“It is frustrating and primarily frustrating for my staff who you know are not equipped to deal with mental health conditions, they don’t have the training for that, that’s not their main focus and role.”

And they are certainly not the only jail dealing with this.

“Jails across this country became the de-facto mental health and addiction facilities and usually without any services being provided to the inmates, so it is a failed policy,” Staly said.

With this new grant they hope to change all that by launching a new program that will help inmates from the moment they arrive to well after they are gone.

“This will be the first time in the Flagler county jail that they will have a full time mental health substance use treatment program in place, first time ever,” Engert said.

The Sheriff is planning to hire full time licensed mental health professional for the jail.

“So to when those individuals are incarcerated we have treatment they can start right away, individual treatment plans, group therapy sessions and so forth to get them to a point where they can leave the jail and return to the community in a better place,” Engert said.

That care will then transition to a community partner once that inmate is released. 

“That is so often times where the systems have failed when they leave jail and the resources in the comunity fall off,” Engert said.

They believe that these services will help turn inmates into productive citizens and keep them from winding up in a cell again.

“If we can improve inmate outcomes, we will improve our community,” Engert said.

According to Engert, they are in the process of hiring a full time mental health professional for the jail.

They hope to have that person in place by the end of the year, and kick off this new program in January.

The grant program will go on for the next three years.