PORT ANGELES – Sheriff Bill Benedict is looking for a full-time Mental Health Professional to work in the jail.

Until recently, Peninsula Behavioral Health has provided mental health services to inmates, but staffing restraints there have meant they can no longer do so.

Benedict says case law requires providing inmates with health services, including mental health. “Plus,” he says, “it’s just the right thing to do”.

“People are not arrested because they’re crazy. People are arrested because they commit crimes. If in the process of them being in the jail, they present mental health symptoms, if you will, we will treat them, keeping in mind that most of the stuff we do is voluntary. We’re helping people. And sometimes we will get someone who is in a an acute mental health crisis and the MHP would be used to further evaluate, and depending on you know, the severity of it, it may well be that we have to refer them somewhere else. But generally the work that’s done is outpatient. It’s done for evaluation purposes and most of the mental health work that’s done in the jail, it begins and ends there. We don’t refer a lot of people out.”

The job posting was up for two weeks and pays a maximum of around $85,000 plus benefits, but the Sheriff says so far, they haven’t found a qualified applicant.

Brenda Wenzl in Human Resources says they’re revising and updating the job description and will post the job on the County’s website again on Monday until the position is filled.