So far this year, sheriffs' deputies across the state have driven 2 million miles and spent 12,000 hours delivering mentally ill people to treatment.
That's according to the Georgia Sheriffs' Association, which says it has collected such data from only 73 of the state's 159 counties so far.
"I think it's a lot worse than that," Terry Norris, the association's executive director, said of the running total. "It is the No. 1 problem that we face throughout the state."
That extraordinary expense, which runs into the millions of dollars, is covered entirely by local taxpayers. And it's just one small part of the burden that hospitals, clinics, governments and other institutions bear in caring for the poor and mentally ill in Georgia. Part II of our Invisible Epidemic series reveals those costs and more.
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