We recently reported on a lawsuit filed against Chautauqua County involving the death of a Gowanda youth in the jail.

The case is going to be heard in U.S. federal court because it alleges violations of the U.S. Constitution, but the case largely alleges county jail staff didn’t address Maybee’s suicidal thoughts and behaviors before his December 2022 death. Maybee had been diagnosed with schizoaffective disorder, had been hospitalized for a month and undergone a few days of electroconvulsive therapy at the Erie County Medical Center. He was released from ECMC on Nov. 8, according to the lawsuit, and booked into the county jail on Nov. 17, 2022, after being convicted of reckless driving and DWI.

The lawsuit states Maybee had made jail officials aware of his disorders, previous admissions to psychiatric hospitals and previous suicide attempts and mental health hallucinations he was experience while in the county jail. He was prescribed antipsychotic medication Nov. 30, 2022, about two weeks after he was taken to the county jail. One of Maybee’s previous suicide attempts came while during a locked psychiatric facilities, something lawyers said is noteworthy because the psychiatric facility is similar to a jail environment.

For years county jails have been on the front lines of the addiction and mental health treatment crises our society faces. Treatment of both has come a long way in county jails across the state over the years – including in Chautauqua County. County officials have increased access to mental health treatment in the jail significantly over the years. Could the county do more? It’s possible. But let’s not forget why the county has had to take such steps in the first place – because the state has closed too many psychiatric centers and, at the same time, has lost hospital capacity tied to psychiatric treatment as well. We’ve been talking about the issue in regard to the county’s homeless populations for the past couple of years, but lack of mental health treatment options in the region affects local jails, too, when there is nowhere else to send someone who is sentenced to serve time in the county jail who has mental health emergencies. The corrections system has picked up the burden created by the closure of psychiatric centers and the lack of needed investment in local mental health treatment options. County jails are asked to fill a role that they are ill-suited to provide despite the strides that have been made.

Maybee’s family argues that Chautauqua County failed her son. That is up to a court to decide. But should Maybee have been in a county jail in the first place with his history of mental health issues if there were other alternatives? Is that a thread that runs through other jail deaths in Chautauqua County and other counties? A valid argument can be made that the deinstitutionalization movement and lack of mental health treatment in rural areas of the state failed Maybee’s son and other families throughout the state.