NASHVILLE, Tenn. (WTVF) — Despite an increased need for mental health care, many beds at a treatment program inside the Davidson County Jail go unused.
The Behavioral Care Center (BCC) has received national attention as a model for mental health care in county jails.
But my investigation found the 60-bed facility is rarely even half full.
The unused beds concern Davidson County's Mental Health Court Judge Melissa Blackburn.
"The BCC does not run at full occupancy, and that's very concerning. It runs at about 20% capacity at best," Judge Blackburn said.
Davidson County Sheriff Daron Hall championed the Behavioral Care Center because he was tired of seeing mentally ill people locked up.
Sheriff Hall used money from his jail budget to build a treatment facility inside the jail.
District Attorney Glenn Funk touts the program's recidivism rate of "a mere 7%" on his website and calls the facility "astounding."
But daily jail logs reveal only around 15 of the program's 60 beds are filled on a regular basis.
Some days the program had as few as 10 participants, meaning 50 beds sat empty.
Sheriff Hall said the facility never intended to treat people with severe mental illness.
"It was never targeting to solve the mental health problem, and all the people who complain about bed counts, I wish they would call me. Some do. Here's what I would tell them, you weren't around helping me design what we needed," Sheriff Hall said.
I asked," Are you disappointed it's only about 20 to 30% full?"
"No," Sheriff Hall responded. "It is only designed to treat a certain type of mental illness. It's not going to be forced to handle all things everyone asked it to do."
A tour of the facility shows there are no locks on the doors and the participants share rooms.
Sheriff Hall said it is a clinical setting for people who need basic help — like getting back on their medication — to keep them out of the criminal justice system.
"It's not designed to handle people who don't understand what day it is, and the rules and so forth. They have to agree to be there," Sheriff Hall said.
But projections from years ago when it was being built predicted half of everyone arrested in Davidson County would "qualify for the BCC."
It predicted thousands would use use the program, and its beds would be much more full.
The sheriff said things have changed. He said daily arrests are down dramatically in Nashville.
"I'm being asked why there aren't as many people going in. I'm asking why there aren't as many people coming to jail. Maybe it's a good thing. Maybe Nashville doesn't have as much crime," Sheriff Hall said.
He said when he planned the BCC, 100 people a day were being arrested.
Arrests went down during COVID, and have not gone back up.
He said now 60 people a day are arrested.
"The arrest numbers are down significantly. Somebody needs to be asking the question, right? If you built it with 100 a day and only 60 a day are coming in, wouldn't you expect 60 percent of people going to the BCC that you planned for?" Sheriff Hall asked.
But mental health cases have dominated headlines.
My colleague Jennifer Kraus wrote about mental incompetency and the courts: The case of a mentally incompetent man released and now accused again
I asked Judge Blackburn about Johnson Lloyd, who sat in the Davidson County Jail for nearly a year waiting on a mental health evaluation.
After doctors said Lloyd was incompetent, he was released. He then went up to Bowling Green where he was arrested for raping a woman.
Judge Blackburn questioned whether Lloyd could have been in the BCC.
"I know they do not take dangerous individuals or very difficult individuals, but he may have been someone once medicated, he may not have been (dangerous)." Judge Blackburn said.
Sheriff Hall said, "The reality of Johnson Lloyd is, he is incompetent or being evaluated for incompetency, sitting in a jail to do that. He should never be here."
Records show Lloyd ended up in Tennessee after he stopped taking his medications at a state-supervised group home in Maryland and went on the run.
Once in Tennessee, he was arrested for non-violent crimes like shoplifting, marijuana possession and stealing a wallet from a purse.
But Sheriff Hall insisted medication would not have helped Lloyd qualify for the 30-day treatment program at the BCC.
"Surely you are not asking me to just send people over there that don't belong," Sheriff Hall said.
So Lloyd was held in the jail's general population for nearly a year waiting on psychiatric competency tests to be completed.
Judge Blackburn would like to see more people have access to the Behavioral Care Center.
"I know that we have individuals in Mental Health Court that we feel desperately need to be at the BCC," Blackburn said.
Sheriff Hall said he won't fill beds with unqualified people.
"There are days where the courts aren't full. There are days when people don't work until noon. There are police officers who never arrest people. And you are holding me accountable to want to know why we are not full? We're not going to misuse the program," Sheriff Hall said.
Hall blasted the state for not building more hospitals for the severely mentally ill and said that is where many of the mentally ill people being arrested need to be.
Tennessee is in a mental health crisis.
In acknowledging that reality, Ben Hall has been investigating what that means for everyone across the state.
Some of those stories have meant him recording stories involving jails, psychiatric hospitals, emergency rooms and the court system.
You can catch up on those stories at on our NewsChannel 5 Investigates page or by pressing this link.
