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71 °F Forecast | Road Cams Tuesday, June 15, 2004 Today's News | Classifieds | Autos | Homes | Jobs | Tempo | Health | Community | Home Delivery SECTIONS Home Page Local News Sports Business Obituaries Life Opinion - Politics Tempo AP News Weather Classified Archives Site Map SPECIAL SECTIONS Since We Asked Outdoor Journal Prime Times Wellness Connection Readers' Choice Real Estate Showcase Joy Magazine Homelife Magazine Wedding Guide Rogue Valley's Finest EXTRA Newspaper in Education Personals Movie Times TV Times E The People MARKETPLACE Find a Car Find a Home Find a Job Classifieds Place an ad eSouthernOregon Automotive Communities Entertainment Publications Recreation Calendar CUSTOMER SERVICE Frequent Questions Advertising Information Home Delivery Employment Contact Us Media Kit Network Affiliate Oregon Road Conditions & Cams Email Story to a Friend June 7, 2004 Pacifier-wielding Julia Ferguson and her sleepy brother, Riley, both 16 months, are the focus of concern for mother Deltra Ferguson, center, and grandfather Reider Peterson, right. They live across the street from a center for mentally ill criminals. Mail Tribune / Bob Pennell Housing mentally ill criminals Ashland residents complain they weren’t informed that insane lawbreakers would be living in their neighborhood Stories by JONEL ALECCIA Mail Tribune Neighbors of an Ashland care center set to house a half-dozen mentally ill criminals — including those who have committed violent felonies — are protesting the plan, saying Jackson County officials didn’t tell them about the decision. "This is our main concern right here," said DeltraFerguson, 43, rocking the stroller in which her 16-month-old son, Riley, was sleeping. Ferguson, her partner, Kirsten Ferguson, 35, and Riley’s twin sister, Julia, live across from 330 Maple St., the former Ashland View Manor, now called the Jackson House. Starting next week, the first of a dozen severely mentally ill people, including six criminals who are supervised by the state Psychiatric Security Review Board, will begin moving into the lock- down center, said Hank Collins, county health director. Ferguson and other neighbors said they understand that mentally ill people need a place to live, but they wondered why local residents were not informed earlier that insane criminals would be moving into their midst. Advertisement "I hadn’t heard anything about it," said Joyce Dickinson, 73, who has lived on nearby Wiley Street since 1970. "If they’re arsonists, see, they could set your house on fire when you’re asleep." But Collins, who made the decision to bring the new clients to Jackson County, said the same kinds of patients, including criminals, were housed successfully at Ashland View Manor for more than a decade. The Ashland View Manor closed and the facility changed hands about three years ago. "Because we weren’t really changing the use of the facility, I didn’t think it was a problem," he said. "Hindsight’s 20/20, and now I’m kicking myself." On Wednesday, Collins and several county and state mental health officials will hold a tour and informational session for concerned neighbors. The officials, including Mary Claire Buckley, executive director of the review board, hope to quell anxiety about a situation they say saves money, avoids lawsuits, helps patients and poses little risk to the public. "These types of folks are already in your community," Buckely said. "The public should be encouraged by the fact that our clients are supervised closely." Since 1978, the Psychiatric Security Review Board has supervised people found to be guilty of crimes, but insane. Since 1992, some of those clients have been released from the state mental hospital to live in foster homes and centers in Jackson County. Currently, 11 PSRB clients on conditional release live in local neighborhoods, records show. In the dozen years since PSRB started placing criminal clients in Jackson County, none has been sent back to the state hospital for commiting a new crime. Overall, the program’s recidivism rate is about 2 percent, Buckley said. The first of the dozen new residents of Jackson House will arrive starting June 14. The center has been owned by the Ashland Community Hospital Foundation since 2001. About $15,000 in security improvements, including new locks, strengthened fences and laser beam alarm barriers, await the clients. In a year or so, Collins anticipates that they’ll move to a site on Hazel Street in Medford after $600,000 to $700,000 in renovations. Half of the clients will be severely mentally ill people who also suffer from medical conditions that leave them unable to care for themselves. Half will be severely mentally ill people who have committed crimes. "They’re all serious felonies," said Becky Martin, manager of county mental health services. "It can be anything from assault to attempted murder." Martin and other state and county officials declined to release information about the new patients and their specific crimes. That information is not public until a conditional release order has been approved by PSRB. The orders were still pending on Friday. All of the patients require a secure, supervised setting, not necessarily because of their crimes, but because of the severity of their mental illnesses, Collins said. "We wanted to make it safe; we didn’t want these people getting out," he said. The new clients will arrive under an agreement that grants the county $1.7 million in state mental health funds to create new community-based care centers. The new money will allow Jackson County to keep 15 mental health workers otherwise slated for layoffs, Collins said. Collins was one of the first administrators in Oregon to respond to PSRB requests to expand local capacity. "Jackson County stepped up to the plate," Buckley said. "Some of the other counties wouldn’t have had the resources." The request followed a series of federal and state lawsuits, including one settled in March, that successfully argued that mentally ill people can’t be held in the state hospital once they’ve been judged "good to go," said Kathy Wilde, litigation director for the Oregon Advocacy Center, which filed the suit. Although that action targeted civilly committed patients, it held implications for criminal, or forensic, patients as well, she said. Rather than spend money defending lawsuits, state officials decided to expand services, Buckley said. "It ends up being a lot less money for the state," she said, noting that if it costs $8,000 a year to care for a client in the community, that service would cost $10,000 at the state hospital. Neighbors and Ashland city officials said that although they understand arguments in favor of placing manageable psychotic criminals in the community, they’re still concerned about security — and communication. Ashland Councilmember Cate Hartzell said she knew nothing of the plan until a worried neighbor called her. If Collins hadn’t set Wednesday’s hastily arranged information meeting, she would have scheduled one herself, Hartzell said. "I do not want to flame fear about people with disabilities, but offering information, answering questions and finding out what people need to feel comfortable about this is appropriate," she wrote in an e-mail to council members. It’s important to understand exactly who will reside at the center, said Deltra Ferguson. When she contacted Collins several weeks ago to discuss the issue, he didn’t tell her that some of the clients would be criminals, Ferguson said. "He sort of omitted details about their crimes, about their past," she said. "The brain-injured population is very different than the criminally insane." Aneeahseah Lefler, 50, who rents a house next door to the center, said neighbors should have been notified. "I feel that when something of that magnitude comes to our community, we have the right to be heard," she said. "Everybody deserves a fair chance, but I don’t think our community had a similar fair chance." Despite neighbors’ concerns, there’s little chance the mentally ill criminals won’t come to the Jackson House, Collins said. That bothers James McIntyre, 79, who has lived on nearby Greenbrier Place for 40 years. "My normal impuses are liberal, but like many liberals I like my liberality at a distance," he said. "I suppose we have to put up with it, but it if gets in any way bad, we would certainly join a protest." Reach reporter JoNel Aleccia at 776-4465, or e-mail [email protected] Mental patients already reside in the county Nearly a dozen mentally ill people convicted of crimes ranging from arson and burglary to assault, rape and murder already live in Jackson County, where they’re housed in neighborhood foster homes much less secure than Ashland’s center. Public records from the state Psychiatric Security Review Board, which has jurisdiction over people deemed "guilty, except for insanity," reveal that some clients have escaped and most would be dangerous without vigilant medication. One client, a Portland man, murdered someone in 1985 while on a PSRB conditional release for a 1981 robbery. He now lives in a foster home in the 2300 block of Kings Highway, Medford. Another client, a 51-year-old man convicted of attempted murder with a firearm, absconded from supervision on June 12, 2003. His release was revoked, then reinstated. He now lives in a foster home in the 3000 block of Springbrook Road, Medford. Such cases are exceptions, however, according to state and county mental health officials and those who work directly with the psychotic criminals. They say PSRB clients successfully have been housed in quiet local neighborhoods with no trouble for more than a decade. "The paperwork always sounds way worse than what they turn out to be," said Christie Thomas, a independent caregiver who contracts with Jackson County. Thomas, who has a dozen years of experience sheltering PSRB clients, will staff the new center in Ashland. How worried should neighbors be? "Not at all. Not very much at all," she says. "This is a locked-down facility." That contrasts with the foster homes, where clients may be allowed to come and go, drive cars and hold jobs. Those freedoms are determined by the PSRB board, which studies each case carefully before release, said Mary Claire Buckley, the agency’s executive director. Conditional release forms detail the rules clients must follow to stay out of the state hospital. That can include rigid medication regimens and strict behavior limits. One client, for example, can have no more than three caffeineated beverages in one day. If he does, his conditional release could be pulled and he could be sent back to the state mental hospital, where more than 450 criminal, or forensic, clients are held. Still, the PSRB reports detail grave crimes and concerns. The 11 clients in Jackson County include a 58-year-old woman convicted of first-degree assault, a 48-year-old man convicted of first-degree arson and a 60-year-old man convicted of first-degree sodomy. All of them live either in one of Jackson County’s 35 foster care homes or in private residences where they’re monitored by relatives and county staff. That monitoring makes the difference, said Becky Martin, manager of county mental health services. "These people are under really close supervision," she said. "It’s the people not under the jurisdiction of PSRB that are the ones we should worry about in the community. Mail Tribune Home Local News | Sports | Business | Obituaries | Life Opinion - Politics | AP News | Archives | Site Map E Southern Oregon | Classified Copyright © 1997-2004 Mail Tribune. All rights reserved. Privacy Policy | Terms & Conditions Website Feedback ADVERTISERS A D V E R T I S E R S RESOURCES Oregon Road Conditions & Cams SPECIAL SECTIONS Auto Finder Job Finder Home Finder Joy Magazine Homelife Magazine Tempo Readers' Choice Real Estate Showcase Since We Asked Food for Thought Wellness Connection Outdoor Journal Moving to Southern Oregon? Volunteer Opportunities Prime Times