Fifteen percent of the inmates in Georgia's county jails have been diagnosed with a serious mental illness and receive medication for that condition, according to a task force created by Georgia's Supreme Court chief justice. In addition, 15.5 percent of those in state prisons have similar diagnoses.

The disproportionate number of people with mental illness in the state's jails and prisons is the result of a lack of community mental health services, the task force said.

In comparison, 5 percent of all Georgians have been diagnosed with serious mental illnesses, which include schizophrenia, bipolar disorder and major depression.

Mentally ill people often become trapped in the criminal justice system instead of getting needed treatment, task force leaders Tuesday told a state commission studying reforms of the mental health system.

Most of the county jail inmates with mental illness also are addicted to drugs, the task force said.

The annual cost of mental health services in Georgia jails and prisons is $70 million, according to the report of the task force, chaired by Chief Justice Leah Ward Sears.

"It's an enormous drain on resources in regard to jails and the court system,'' said Judge Winston Bethel of DeKalb County Magistrate Court.

The chief justice's task force noted that in the past 20 years, Georgia jails have added 23,000 beds and prisons have added 35,000, while the number of psychiatric hospital beds has declined.

Criminal defendants with mental illness often face a long wait before transferring to forensic units of state mental hospitals for evaluation, the task force report added.

If community services are fully funded — such as hiring case managers to check on mental health patients' medication — ''it will reduce our caseloads,'' Judge John Allen of Chattahoochee Circuit Superior Court said. "We can keep some of these people out of jail.''

Georgia is one of seven states selected for a federal grant to study mental illness in the criminal justice system. The resulting task force began meeting last summer. The 73-member group includes judges, consumer advocates, law enforcement officials and officials in Gov. Sonny Perdue's administration.

"Large numbers of people with mental illness repeatedly make their way into our courtrooms, our jails and our prisons,'' Sears said recently in public remarks. "Mental illness is not a crime. But these citizens too often fall through the cracks of our social safety net. When they do, they enter a vicious cycle of arrest, prosecution, incarceration, release and re-offense.''

The mental health commission listened to the task force presentation mostly without comment.

The panel was created by Perdue after a series of articles last year in The Atlanta Journal-Constitution reported that Georgia's state-run mental hospitals were chronically overcrowded, underfunded and understaffed, leading to widespread medical errors and other problems.

The newspaper reported that at least 115 state hospital patients died under suspicious circumstances from 2002 through 2006. As many as 21 more questionable deaths occurred during 2007, the newspaper reported in December. In addition, dozens of substantiated cases of physical or sexual abuse of patients were reported. The articles have led to an ongoing investigation by the U.S. Justice Department.

The task force's recommendations include making sure people with mental illness have proper medication; providing housing for mentally ill people who are homeless; and starting a program of special case managers who would help link newly jailed offenders to community services.

The Department of Human Resources, which runs the public mental health system, said the task force's report was not surprising. Spending for community services in Georgia has historically lagged, but that funding has increased in recent years, said Gwen Skinner, head of the division for mental health services.

Perdue's original budget for next year would continue that growth, she said.

Several areas in Georgia have started mental health courts to divert some mentally ill offenders into treatment. Superior Court Judge Stephen Goss of Dougherty County, who runs a mental health court and is a Perdue commission member, said, "Jails have become de facto treatment centers.''

In addition, Georgia Hospital Association members told the commission that gaps in community services also have led increasing numbers of mental health patients to seek care in emergency rooms across the state. Lack of available beds in the state-run mental hospitals cause long delays in patients being transferred from ERs, the GHA members said. They called for the creation of a single state agency to oversee all spending and services for mental health, developmental disabilities and substance abuse.

Perdue recently formed a commission to reform DHR, singling out mental health as one area that needs improvement.