Leaders work to reduce number of people with mental illness in prison

TULSA, Okla. (KTUL) – More than 40 agencies met Tuesday to come up with a solution to reduce the number of people with mental illness in prison.

Kimberly Cummings is a peer advocate speaking at the Sequential Intercept Mapping Workshop.

“In 2009 I was arrested for endeavoring to manufacture methamphetamine which at the time in this state was a crime punishable only by prison,” she said.

She was accepted into Women in Recovery, an intensive outpatient alternative for women facing long prison sentences for non-violent, drug-related offenses. It was brand new at the time.

“I attended that program,” she said. “Successfully completed it and was able to get a hold of all of the resources in this community that are available because I’ve got a lot of spunk in me. I just hunted them down and was able to make and rebuild my life.”

That attitude got her where she is today, working as the director of IT at the Mental Health Association Oklahoma and advocating for criminal justice reform.

Now she’s helping Melissa Baldwin as a peer advocate for workshops like this one.

“It’s really going to create a picture of where we need to go as a community to really start making a difference in reducing the number of people with mental illness in jail,” said Baldwin.

Elected officials, law enforcement and people who have experienced mental health incarceration all worked together.

“We’re putting people who deserve to be in jail, in jail,” said Mayor G.T. Bynum. “But people who need help who have mental illness who need assistance are getting it and that is what today is all about.”

Cummings role at this workshop is key.

“I get to speak on behalf of thousands of people that we keep in prison every year in this state, tens of thousands and say these are the things that you’re missing as I’m going through the process,” she said. “I need treatment. I don’t need to go to prison because prison is not the answer.”

Cummings battled addiction for 23 years but today she is eight years sober.

According to the Mental Health Association Oklahoma, approximately six percent of men and 12 percent of women entering U.S. jails have serious mental illness and 72 percent of them have a co-occurring substance use disorder.

This workshop is part of a national push to reduce the number of people in jail with mental illness through The Stepping Up Initiative. Tulsa joined this initiative in 2015.

These leaders will meet again on Wednesday.