{"id":662,"date":"2011-07-14T12:04:11","date_gmt":"2011-07-14T17:04:11","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/iowappa.com\/?p=662"},"modified":"2011-07-14T12:04:11","modified_gmt":"2011-07-14T17:04:11","slug":"another-wonderful-date","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/iowappa.com\/?p=662","title":{"rendered":"Another Wonderful Date"},"content":{"rendered":"

\"\"<\/a><\/span>One of our first dates was visiting the state\u2019s maximum security prison in Fort Madison, the oldest operating prison west of the Mississippi River.\u00a0 Actually, we were there because one of Iowa\u2019s best wardens was retiring.\u00a0 The tour of the prison was the icing on the cake.\u00a0 We have visited or toured many of Iowa\u2019s correctional facilities since, and we have been invited to tour or visit a few Iowa jails, also.\u00a0 <\/span><\/span><\/p>\n

Last week, we had the opportunity to spend 2 \u00bd hours in the <\/span>Story County Jail<\/span><\/a>.\u00a0 Again, we were not arrested for a violation of an Iowa or federal law, city or county ordinance, or any other criminal sanction.\u00a0 We were guests of Story County <\/span>Sheriff Paul Fitzgerald<\/span><\/a> and his staff.<\/span><\/p>\n

Sheriff Fitzgerald has a <\/span>vita<\/span><\/a> that goes on forever.\u00a0 He and his staff have been innovators of various programs and project.\u00a0 The first thing he told us as we entered his office was that the Story County Sheriff\u2019s Office was going to do something that has never been done before.\u00a0 He rarely speaks in the first person, most often including his staff in mentioning an idea or accomplishment.\u00a0 The plan was to expand the jail by twice the size in order to create a program for the mentally ill.\u00a0 Unfortunately, jail is not where mental health treatment should occur, but what the heck, that\u2019s where they land.<\/span><\/p>\n

The expansion wouldn\u2019t be dedicated solely to the needs of mentally ill offenders; the pod would also have options for ICE holds (ICE is the Immigration and Customs Enforcement division of Homeland Security) and federal marshal holds, along with something that might be acceptable for juveniles.\u00a0 The current jail was completed in 2001 as part of an overall improvement in Story County\u2019s Justice Center.\u00a0 It was designed to add segments of more space in three specific areas of justice and service to citizens as the need arose.\u00a0 <\/span><\/span><\/p>\n

Currently, the county jail has a mental health professional on hand, and contracts with an out-of-state psychiatrist who sees inmate patients via Skype.\u00a0 However, Sheriff Fitzgerald\u2019s dream is to have this service expanded and offer telepsychiatry and telemedicine more often to those in need, as well as increasing the mental health professionals on site. <\/span><\/p>\n

While we appreciate Sheriff Fitzgerald\u2019s proactive response to the social issues of substance abuse and mental illness, a correctional facility is not an appropriate environment for addressing these problems.\u00a0 As policymakers and stakeholders passively sit around running countless meetings discussing the problem, Fitzgerald is stepping up to actively help people.\u00a0 Corrections and treatment should be polar opposites.\u00a0 There is clearly a fairness violation as society continues to expect correctional facilities to meet the needs of the mentally ill and chemically dependent.<\/span><\/p>\n

We\u2019re grateful to Sheriff Fitzgerald and his staff for a very in-depth tour of the jail, including the kitchen, where Marty was offered two of the best oatmeal butterscotch cookies he had ever tasted.\u00a0 They\u2019re good, but not good enough to want to taste them on a daily basis. <\/span><\/p>\n

\u00a9\u00a0 Copyright 2011.\u00a0 Fawkes-Lee & Ryan<\/span><\/span><\/em><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

Corrections and treatment should be polar opposites. Continue reading →<\/span><\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[42,17],"tags":[250,249,248],"class_list":["post-662","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-criminal-justice","category-issues","tag-ice","tag-paul-fitzgerald","tag-story-county-jail"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/iowappa.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/662","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/iowappa.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/iowappa.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/iowappa.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/iowappa.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcomments&post=662"}],"version-history":[{"count":2,"href":"https:\/\/iowappa.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/662\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":664,"href":"https:\/\/iowappa.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/662\/revisions\/664"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/iowappa.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=662"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/iowappa.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcategories&post=662"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/iowappa.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Ftags&post=662"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}