BASEBALL TIP TOP Nakina, County Tip Top Florist has a new Optimist grab owner. Barkley retiring first-round wins. after 39 years. uuSEE SPORTS, 1B uuSEE 6A The News Reporter Published since 1890 every Monday and Thursday for the County of Columbus and her people. WWW.NRCOLUMBUS.COM Monday, June 27, 2016 75 CENTS RAISING MONEY FOR VETERANS PARK TREATING THE COUNTY’S MENTALLY ILL POPULATION Involunta The mentally ill: ‘they’re locked up and shouldn’t be’ Second in a series on mental health. By Nicole Cartrette
[email protected] Jail and prison are home to a growing number of individuals struggling with severe mental illness. A study published by the Treatment Advocacy Center and the National Sheriffs’ Association suggested that 88 percent of the nation’s states have more people living in jails and prisons with severe mental illness than in psychiatric hospitals. In North Carolina, the problem is exacerbated. Mental health beds across the state have vanished in recent years while there has been no significant shift in resources to provide more community-based services. “There is probably no state where mental health uuSEE MENTALLY ILL 9A PRINCESS ANN ROAD One killed in Friday crash with deputy By Jefferson Weaver
[email protected] A Fair Bluff man was killed Friday in a collision with a Columbus County sheriff ’s deputy. Robert Brownlee, 30, of Fair Bluff, was killed when his Staff photo by LES HIGH 1990 GMC pickup was sideswiped by a 2014 Dodge patrol car driven by Deputy Ryan Bailey Gibson, 24, according Bucket shake to the N.C.