The closing of Northwest Georgia Regional Hospital five years ago has led to an increase of people with mental illness being incarcerated.  Law enforcement agencies around Northwest Georgia, including the Chattooga County Sheriff’s Department, saw an increase in incarceration rates when the area’s only mental hospital shuttered its doors.

Now Floyd County Sheriff Tim Burkhalter is taking a closer look at how the increase of inmates with mental illness is affecting the jail population.  Chattooga County routinely houses out inmates at the Floyd County Jail, along with other jail facilities in Northwest Georgia. 

Since last year, five people have died in the Floyd County Jail.  Two of those deaths were ruled suicide, and both of the inmates that died were believed to have been suffering from mental illness.  A third death was ruled a homicide and the accused murderer was suffering from mental illness, according to the Floyd County Sheriff’s Department.

Floyd County Jail officials say that they are going to start monitoring inmates more carefully and follow up with medical evaluations within 48 hours after they are booked into the jail.