San Mateo County Sheriff’s Office pivots to address behavioral health 

Quickly working with the classification unit after confirming the diagnosis with family, the individual was brought immediately to be housed within the behavioral health unit rather than go through the more extensive intake process. 

“Our goal is to always do what’s in the best interest of the incarcerated person,” said O’Malley, who is the assigned sergeant to the unit. “Because we were able to identify what was in his best interest, that’s how we were able to work with admin to get him assigned here.” 

In recent months, around 500 employees in the Sheriff’s Office went through a training on autism spearheaded by Sheriff Christina Corpus that gave deputies and front-line professional staff comprehensive training on ASD to raise awareness and prevent harmful outcomes. 

As jails often become de facto mental and behavioral health facilities, Corpus said changes had to be made.

“We can’t just let people exist in our jails,” Corpus said. “We have to pivot and we have to work at providing them with the support system and mechanisms where when they do go back out into our communities they have a chance to really continue with their health process.”

When such identification of an individual’s needs cannot immediately be confirmed, efforts are still made to individualize care once a person is in the system, O’Malley said. Medical assessments, forensic mental health intakes, and documentation collection hope to address the person’s needs in the facility. 

Gathering information is not always easy, forensic therapist Katherine Saraceno said. 

Project Guardian, a voluntary self-identification registry for those with autism or special needs, hopes to help law enforcement interact effectively on a call and fill in possible information gaps. However, if an individual is not registered, Saraceno said efforts are abundant to try to gather as much background information as possible to help the individual. 

“We don’t have to move so fast,” she said. “We can sort of slow down the process and get the most information and our collaboration really helps.” 

The collaboration comes more easily since everyone in the facility has the same baseline understanding of autism and behavioral health, correctional officer Denny Rivera said. 

“It takes everyone involved,” Rivera, who is assigned to the behavioral health unit, said. 

After being assigned to the behavioral health unit for a year and a half, Rivera said he enjoys seeing the transformation in people — which can be as simple as getting up in the morning or being clean shaven — who are able to get the help they need. The goal is to “graduate” from the supportive behavioral health unit and upgrade to general population. 

The behavioral health unit houses around 50 people each day but the population ebbs and flows. 

While the best circumstances are that individuals who leave to general population don’t have to “drop floors” to more restrictive housing, O’Malley said constant reassessment of individual needs means people can move between units regularly. 

“I know somebody that’s up three floors above us right now that, because of everything we do here, he is able to be up on general population,” he said. “But, we’re just a small study. It’s not different from somebody with mental health issues at home. It comes and goes.” 

The training applies far beyond interacting with individuals who may be on the spectrum, O’Malley said. 

“I’ve been a cop for a long time, 24 years, and the way we did business 24 years ago is a whole lot different than the way we do business now,” O’Malley said. “It’s recognizing that everybody’s going through things in life … and it’s recognizing how to deal with people, that soft approach, even if it’s just someone having a bad day.” 

Though O’Malley admits California police academy training is already more progressive than in other states when it comes to addressing mental and behavioral health, the additional efforts administered by Corpus are noteworthy. 

“Having somebody at the top that supports training is the huge part,” O’Malley said. “The sheriff encourages it, always looking for new and better ways of doing business. That’s always what this job is about.”  

Training the entire staff was a priority for Corpus. Everyone within the Sheriff’s Office, including public facing personnel working in records, now have a comprehensive understanding of autism. 

“It’s not only our law enforcement who are sworn that encounter the public,” Corpus said. “I wanted to provide that because I not only think about when they’re on duty, I think about when they’re off duty as well and the possibility of them helping somebody.” 

O’Malley said he’s seen changes among staff already, and hears more people talking about their personal experiences with family members who have autism. 

The training recognized the significant increase in children who are identified with ASD — according to the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention, one in 36 children are identified, an increase from the 1 in 44 estimated in 2021. 

“We get thrown into people’s lives for brief seconds and have to try and help them,” O’Malley said. “With having this tool now, we can better interact with the families, we can better interact with the individuals and hopefully even avoid them ending up coming here.”