Sheriff Urges Mental Health Support Over Criminalization
TL;DR: Chesterfield County Sheriff Karl Leonard is urging the state to address mental illness through health support rather than criminal incarceration, citing a case where a woman in crisis spent three days in county jail without receiving needed psychiatric treatment.
Quick facts
- Who: Sheriff Karl Leonard, woman in mental health crisis (name not disclosed)
- What: Sheriff calls for mental health treatment instead of jail incarceration; woman held while waiting for state hospital bed
- When: September 2026 (incident occurred recently before sheriff's public comments)
- Where: Chesterfield County Jail; Central State Hospital waiting list
The story
A woman experiencing a mental health crisis was held in Chesterfield County Jail for three days without receiving psychiatric treatment, prompting Sheriff Karl Leonard to publicly call for a shift away from criminalizing mental illness.
A magistrate issued a temporary detention order (TDO) requiring the woman to receive emergency mental health treatment at Central State Hospital for up to 72 hours. However, she remained jailed throughout that period. She was fifth on the waiting list and never received a call that a bed had opened. When her 72-hour TDO window closed, she was released without the treatment the order had mandated.
"We never got her the help she needed, and still to this day, I don't know if she ever received really the help she needs," Sheriff Leonard said, describing the outcome as a complete failure of the nation's mental health system.
The incident exposes a larger systemic crisis. Approximately 70 percent of Chesterfield County's jail population has mental health conditions, according to reporting on the case. The jail is not equipped, staffed, trained, or funded to function as a mental health facility, yet it is holding people who need psychiatric care because state hospitals cannot accommodate them.
Central State Hospital, the state's only maximum-security mental health facility, was operating at or over capacity at the time of the incident. Forensic patients were occupying an estimated 84 to 91 percent of available beds, leaving little room for civil patients like the woman in this case.
Sheriff Leonard attributes the overcrowding crisis to decades of policy failures. "We've got to stop criminalizing mental illness and get the proper bedspace we need in the medical facilities that are better trained, equipped and resourced to treat them," he said. He pointed to the fact that the nation has been "shutting down mental institutions across the country" for four decades, forcing people experiencing mental health crises into local jails instead of treatment facilities.
The woman's case is not isolated. According to a report from the state's Department of Behavioral Health and Developmental Services, jailing individuals on minor charges has become perceived as a faster route to hospital admission than civil TDO processes, effectively creating a system where incarceration is used as a gateway to mental health treatment.
Key players
- Sheriff Karl Leonard: Chesterfield County Sheriff; advocate for mental health treatment over criminalization
- Central State Hospital: Virginia state psychiatric facility where mental health patients requiring hospitalization are referred
- Chesterfield County Jail: Facility where individuals awaiting mental health treatment are being held
The case for
Shifting mental health care out of the criminal justice system frees jails to focus on public safety and allows treatment to occur in specialized facilities with trained clinical staff rather than corrections personnel, resulting in better patient outcomes and lower jail populations.
The case against
Expanding mental health treatment infrastructure requires significant state funding at a time when Virginia's Department of Behavioral Health and Developmental Services faces budget pressures and the state is still completing construction on a new Central State Hospital facility.
Why it matters: For Chesterfield residents experiencing mental health crises, the current system offers an alternative to treatment: incarceration. How the county and state respond will determine whether people in crisis receive care or spend time in jail, affecting both public health and public safety in the county.
Places
Development timeline
- 2026-09-15Woman released from Chesterfield Jail without psychiatric treatment: After three days in jail with a temporary detention order, woman released when her TDO window closed despite being fifth on waiting list for Central State Hospital [source]
- 2026-09-16Sheriff Leonard calls for mental health treatment over criminalization: Sheriff Karl Leonard publicly urges system changes to address mental illness through health support rather than criminal justice system, citing the woman's case [source]
Related links
- Chesterfield County Mental Health Support Services
- Virginia Department of Behavioral Health and Developmental Services
Read the original at NBC12 / WWBT News →
Sources
- We've got to stop criminalizing mental illness: Chesterfield Sheriff highlights need for mental health support
- Woman in crisis spends three days in Chesterfield Jail with no access to hospital bed: 'We have failed'