A program at the Pitt County Detention Center is being showcased on national television.
It’s called the RISE Program, and it aims at helping inmates deemed incapable of going to trial for mental health reasons.
Sheriff Paula Dance says the wait to be tried can be extremely difficult on these inmates.
The problem is, they sit there, sometimes longer than what they would have been sentenced to if they had gone through court and had a disposition on their case.
In the past, these inmates would need to go to a state hospital for evaluation and treatment, a process that could take up to 180 days.
Now, Sheriff Dance’s RISE program offers mental health support to inmates over the course of only 45 days.
It’s an accomplishment that will be showcased in part of a PBS documentary.
“It’s great that we’re getting some recognition in that area simply because there are a lot of people that don’t know, and when I say a lot of people, I mean sheriff’s offices in the region don’t know that I’ve made my detention center available with 10 beds to house people that need to be restored.”
The program launched last December, and Sheriff Dance says the progress being made couldn’t have been done alone.
Thanks to the help from the NC Department of Health and Human Services, as well as many others, Sheriff Dance says people are getting the help they need.
“When we went into this, we went an extra step. What we did was, we brought the Chief Superior Court Sitting Judge to the table, we brought the District Attorney’s Office to the table, we brought the Public Defenders Office to the table.”
Sheriff Dance says the documentary should be airing on Monday, November 17th, on PBS.