JUDY WOODRUFF: Last week,
our Brief But Spectacular
segment focused on
mental health from the

perspective of a parent
whose son was failed by
legal and mental health
systems in Washington

state.

Tonight, we hear from the
warden of Metro County Jail
in Mobile, Alabama, to get his

take on how the mental health
crisis affects his operation.

TREY OLIVER, Warden, Metro
County Jail: With our tongue in
our cheek, we look at inmates

sometimes and say, listen,
life here is not great.

This is not a resort, it's
not a hotel, it's not a
retreat, it's not Burger King.

You don't get it your way, and
we do not want you to come back.

So, we preface everything
by saying, this is
less-than-ideal situations.

The difference between a prison
and a jail is, essentially,
in a prison, you are serving

out your sentence that
a judge has handed down.

For the most part,
our population is here
awaiting to go to trial.

The average stay for an
inmate here at Metro Jail
would be about 17 days.

Now, that is misleading when
you first consider it, because
we have inmates that literally

have been here for
four-and-a-half years
awaiting to go to trials.

And, typically, that would
be facing a murder trial.

Working in any jail this size is
a very hostile work environment,
sometimes worse than a prison,

because, in a prison,
the inmates are settled.

We have court appearances,
visitation, church services.

So there's a lot of activity.

This facility was
originally designed for
less than 1,200 inmates.

However, on a daily basis,
we will have way over 1,500.

Sometimes, we will have four
or five, six and seven inmates
in a cell designed for two

people.

We see inmates return
on a very regular basis.

Recidivism is probably
around 50 to 60 percent.

I try to, at least on
a weekly basis, just
walk through the jail.

They want my time, they want my
attention, and they will flag
me down and ask me questions.

MAN: We're fighting five
men to a cell around here.

Toilet is messed up.

TREY OLIVER: Well, some places
got seven men to a cell.

MAN: Yes, sir.

Absolutely.

TREY OLIVER: Consider
yourself lucky.

Obviously, in a hostile work
environment like this, we don't
have people knocking down our

door to work for us.

So we always are short-staffed.

And, sometimes, you're looking
at one floor officer will be
responsible for anywhere from

150 to 300 individuals.

The mentally ill poses a
number of problems for us.

We feel very strongly that
anyone suffering from a serious
mental illness shouldn't be

in a county jail.

However, that happens
on a regular basis.

Because the state hospital
is so backed up, there's no
place for these people to go.

When Alabama closed our only
regional hospital, we saw an
immediate doubling of our mental

health population.

We will see the same mentally
ill person arrested for the same
charge in the same location by

the same police officer
three, four and five times.

This is not a problem that we
can arrest ourselves out of.

They need to be in a facility
to where they can receive
around-the-clock care.

Whoever was behind the closing
of the mental health hospitals,
if they thought that was

a good idea, I
challenge them on that.

They were concerned at the time
that the mentally ill were being
warehoused in these hospitals.

Well, I got news for everybody.

The mentally ill are now
being warehoused in county
jails across this country.

My name is Trey Oliver, and
this is my Brief But Spectacular
take on life here at Metro

Jail in Mobile, Alabama.

JUDY WOODRUFF: And we thank
you for that perspective.

Tonight's Brief But Spectacular
was produced in collaboration
with Jason Johnson.

He's a reporter for Lagniappe.

That's a weekly paper
in Mobile, Alabama.

You can find a special episode
with Johnson on our Web site
at PBS.org/NewsHour/Brief.