Gov. Mike DeWine appeared at former Ohio Supreme Court Justice Evelyn Lundberg Stratton’s Stepping Up Steering Committee meeting Tuesday to announce a future working group on co-occurring mental illness and criminal justice involvement to address the overload of convicted individuals in state hospitals.

Speaking from the Ohio Judicial Center, DeWine noted his efforts to date to address behavioral health, including RecoveryOhio, specialized dockets on mental health and substance abuse, and funding to expand them in courts around the state, but said the administration must do more to reduce the number of convicted criminals in state mental hospitals.

“I knew these numbers were bad -- maybe this group will be shocked by it,” he said, addressing a Stepping Up Ohio Project focused on reducing mental illness in jails, “but the way to get help in these state psychiatric hospitals is to commit a crime.”

The governor said over nine of 10 patients in state hospitals have criminal convictions -- including those guilty of something as small as stealing a serving of food -- stranding other Ohioans needing long-term care.

“That’s an outrage, and we have to do something about it. I’m not saying we shouldn’t be dealing with these individuals,” he said of convicted criminals, “but they’re there months and months and months, and we have to take them.”

DeWine suggested Ohio has moved ahead of some other states in recent years in providing effective, comprehensive psychiatric care.

“I think we’ve made a lot of progress in building the mental health system we want,” he said, reinforcing the criminal justice gap. “We have not made the progress on this specific issue that we need to make.”

Outside the meeting, DeWine said the working group will comprise mental health professionals, judges, sheriffs and other stakeholders from law enforcement and the community.

“Really what we need to do, in my mind, is start all over again,” he said. “The state hospital is probably not the place these people need to be.”

The governor cited the importance of intervening in the lives of those trending toward serious mental illness (SMI) before intractable symptoms develop.

“If they can get treatment early, the chance of their being able to live a better life goes up dramatically,” he said of those denied treatment due to lack of funds. “The goal is to get in front of this. We need to go upstream to find out why people are falling in the river rather than going downstream to try to save them.”

Addressing behavioral disorders in local detention centers and new figures from the County Commissioners Association of Ohio (CCAO) and Buckeye State Sheriffs’ Association (BSSA) which dwarf jail funding included in capital budget bill HB2 (Cutrona-Upchurch) this month, DeWine called it a “work in progress.” (See separate story, this issue.)

“This is not new, and we’re not going to solve it overnight. We’re going to work at it,” he said.

The governor added that he wasn’t sure whether the capital budget might be amended with funding for working group concerns.

On other questions, the governor was asked whether he would be endorsing and campaigning with former President Donald Trump or challenger Nikki Haley before the Republican primary on Tuesday, March 19.

“My focus this year is going to be on the Senate race. Once that’s decided, I’m going to do whatever I can to get that person elected,” he said.

DeWine emphasized, however, that his answer didn’t mean he wouldn’t endorse a Republican presidential candidate. He said he and the first lady likely would cast their own ballots on primary election day.

Turning to other subjects, DeWine said he had no plans at present for the State Board of Education (SBOE) vacancy but said the board’s continued work “certainly does matter.”

The governor, finally, was asked whether he had contacted or been contacted by the U.S. Department of Justice since last week’s call by Senate Minority Leader Nickie Antonio (D-Lakewood), House Minority Leader Alllison Russo (D-Upper Arlington) and other prominent Democrats for the U.S. Attorney’s Office to add DeWine and Lt. Gov. Jon Husted to its bribery investigation into 133-HB6 (Callender-Wilkin). He said no.