Pulaski Sheriff’s Department Training to Help Law Enforcement Respond to Mental Health Challenges

The Pulaski County Sheriff’s Department is working to make sure law enforcement officials know how to help people with mental health issues. On Monday, the county commissioners agreed to let Sheriff Jeff Richwine send two of his deputies and the head dispatcher to critical incident training.

“We do have a mental health issue in the jail,” Richwine said. “It’s expensive stuff to treat. And the whole idea of this training is to try to get these people kind of deflected to somewhere else, instead of them winding up in jail, to get them to some mental health care, to where they don’t wind up in jail.”

Richwine said that any costs associated with the training will be paid for out of the jail’s Commissary Fund.