By Staci DaSilva
sdasilva@kcautv.com
It was 2006 when a then 18-year old Jose Tovar of Storm Lake, IA was accused of brutally killing his brother and stabbing both his parents.
He was booked into Buena Vista County Jail where he's been housed ever since.
You see, Tovar suffers from severe mental health issues and hasn't stepped foot in court yet. But he has been receiving mental help at Oakdale Prison in Coralville, Iowa off and on for the past 7 years, all on the County's dime.
Buena Vista County Sheriff Gary Launderville said, "As of today, we're going down to pick him up for the third time. And it's $200 a day for us to send him there."
Sheriff Gary Launderville estimates Tovar's total health care costs exceeds $400,000 and that's just one inmate at one jail.
"Jail is becoming the holding facility for the mentally ill," said Sheriff Launderville.
And its hitting taxpayers hard. The Sheriff budgeted $28,000 for inmate's medical costs this year.
He's already almost double that just 6 months into his fiscal year and mental health costs are a huge chunk of those expenses.
"For the majority of the counties in Iowa, our jails aren't set up for that. We're not doctors. We don't have medical staff. We don't have psychiatrists on staff. It's hard," said Launderville.
Launderville doesn't suggest that mental health be ignored. In fact, he says care should be supported more so that the mentally ill don't all end up within these walls.
Launderville said, "If we don't address that, and we try to rely on the jails to be the quick fix, it might be getting off the street and putting them in a cell, but it's not going to fix the problem."
Some Iowa Senators want action done on this issue. But Governor Terry Branstad says he wants to focus on funding the changes to our mental health system voted on last year - and does not consider it a major priority for lawmakers this year.
