Multnomah County District Attorney Rod Underhill said this week that his office “made mistakes” by prosecuting some mentally ill homeless people accused of low-level crimes, and pledged to instate policies that “roll back the punitive sanctions” employed at times by his agency.

In an interview Tuesday at his office in the county courthouse, Underhill said wrongheaded decisions to pursue those cases came as his agency made “miscalculations” in its position that pursuing convictions would help mentally ill people get treatment.

That is often not the case, as The Oregonian/OregonLive reported in an investigation published in January. It showed how mentally ill homeless people charged with low-end crimes get locked up in Oregon’s jails and state mental hospital for extended periods at great public expense, with little benefit to those individuals or society.

The process – where mentally ill arrestees are sent to the Oregon State Hospital for treatment until deemed able to assist their defense – costs taxpayers as much as $35 million a year, the news organization found. People accused of misdemeanors who fall into that system often end up confined for far longer than a person convicted of those crimes would spend in jail, the investigation showed.

Oregon’s elected prosecutors play a central role in that procedure as they hold the power to decide whether to file charges and seek convictions for low-level crimes, including those committed by homeless people or those with mental illness. Those defendants may commit crimes such as trespassing, disorderly conduct or using the bathroom in public by virtue of their mental state or lack of housing.

Underhill, the top prosecutor in Oregon’s most populous county since 2013, adopted a reflective and at times conflicted tone in an interview Tuesday, expressing disappointment at what he described as punitive elements of the justice system, the complexities of cases involving mental illness and a lack of funding for alternatives.

His office previously worked with other agencies to come up with an another pathway to respond to cases involving mentally ill people accused of low-level crimes, he said. But it didn’t take hold and his office has moved on to working on other programs, he said.

“We need to revisit our practices,” Underhill said, adding, “We don’t need convictions in these areas. We don’t need jail. There’s no tally or checkmark that has us thinking we’ve just succeeded in this area.”

Asked whether prosecutors should decline to pursue more cases against mentally ill people charged with misdemeanors, Underhill said he is uncomfortable with a “do nothing” approach.

“If we do nothing – and we can do nothing, that’s a choice – then have we assisted the situation or the person? I think the answer is no,” Underhill said. “Can we do too much sometimes? I think the answer is yes. And we don’t want to be doing that anymore.”

“To me, it’s very complicated,” he continued. “Maybe we do need to just have less involvement at all, period. I’m conflicted about this.”

A successful outcome, he said, would be one under which a defendant receives effective help for their mental illness.

“That’s what we’re trying to do,” Underhill said, “although concededly I think we’ve missed the mark on many occasions in the past.”

Underhill said he will expand a program his office runs, called Law Enforcement Assisted Diversion, through which people charged with low-end drug offenses have their charges dismissed if they meet program requirements, to apply to mentally ill defendants charged with some misdemeanors.

“I’d like the L.E.A.D. model to be as successful in the area of mental health-involved,” he said. “Frankly, I’d like it to be more successful.”

Underhill said he will also draw up policies to train and empower his deputies to “make the right decisions in the moment,” such as deciding to drop a case, and will request money from the board of county commissioners to hire two special attorneys. Those officials would assist with misdemeanor cases that involve homeless and mentally ill people, Underhill said, and ideally help his deputies “reduce mistakes that we make.”

Underhill said he will support measured reforms – initiatives he called “a bit ideal and probably Pollyannish” – but stood by prosecution as a “last resort” that he said can prod defendants into treatment.

“Please help me understand, if we’re not there as that last option where are we? What should we be doing?” Underhill said. “We’re yearning for the right answer.”

-- Gordon R. Friedman

GFriedman@Oregonian.com; 503-221-8209