Needed: Texas lawsuit for the mentally ill

As the state plans to cut its mental health services budget, we're getting more and more mentally ill "warehoused" in city and county jails. Harris County Jail is now the state's largest mental health institution.

“We’ve done everything we can do to make it therapeutic,” said Sgt. Bernard Kelly, a supervisor in the jail’s mental health unit. Some inmates say it’s the best mental health care available to them in Houston. It all costs the county about $27 million a year.

Harris County officials have seen the number of mentally ill inmates explode since 2003, the last time Texas had a budget crisis and made major cuts. Then, there were fewer than three full-time psychiatrists on duty at the jail. Now, there are more than 15. Often they see the same mentally ill inmates repeatedly.

It will probably only get worse.

Sheriffs know that, but, especially in smaller counties, they don't have the resources to do much about it. I wrote about this three-and-a-half years ago, when the state was already 50th in per-capital mental health spending, and yes, it's only gotten worse since then.

Of course, we could have something even worse - Tricky Ricky Perry could beat the drums for faith-based mental health services. And, I'm not being 100 percent facetious about the possibility of that happening.