It’s a story we’ve told so many times, even police dispatchers can finish it before it starts: “She’s back.”
Once again this week, the mentally ill homeless woman who’s become the unofficial face of Portsmouth’s broken mental health system was arrested twice in a single day — and released both times within hours.
📅 Arrest #1
Just before 10 a.m., Portsmouth Police took the woman into custody for disorderly conduct and booked her into the Scioto County Jail. But in what’s become a darkly familiar pattern, she was immediately released — no treatment, no evaluation, no support.
📅 Arrest #2
Fast-forward to just after 6 p.m. — this time a caller from 14th Street reported the same woman, now draped in a blanket, acting erratically, and attempting to remove signs from the Community Center. Officers took her into custody again… and again released her right back onto the streets.
🌀 The Endless Cycle of Arrest and Release
This woman isn’t new to law enforcement. In fact, she’s arrested so often, many residents know her by name. She’s been jailed for everything from trespassing and theft to bizarre behavior like dancing in traffic, breaking into campers, or screaming in parks. Yet none of it sticks, because there’s nowhere for her to go.
Last month alone:
- She was arrested twice in one weekend for public disturbance and camper theft.
- Before that, she’d been seen wandering near the break wall, talking to herself.
- Then she showed up at Daehler Mortuary, reportedly threatening to “kill someone if she wanted to.”
- Officers found no drugs or alcohol in her system — just untreated, devastating mental illness — and let her go.
🚨 Jail Isn’t Helping. But There’s Nowhere Else.
She’s not violent. She’s not high. She’s just profoundly unwell. And the “arrest-and-release” routine isn’t helping — it’s enabling her slow-motion spiral.
Despite being:
- Banned from rehab centers
- Turned away from counseling
- Arrested for stealing, breaking in, and causing public disturbances
- Convicted of multiple misdemeanors…
…she keeps coming back, because no one in the system has the authority or resources to actually help her.
💬 The Public is Growing Weary
One homeowner recently found her passed out on his porch. After calling police again, he told them, “Next time, I won’t call you. I’ll handle it myself.”
Police reminded him — and their body cams — that vigilante justice isn’t the solution. But they also know they’ll likely be back at the same porch tomorrow.
🔁 Portsmouth’s Open-Air Holding Cell
The city’s streets have become a de facto psych ward without walls, where untreated individuals live in a revolving door of arrests, complaints, and confusion.
Jails aren’t designed for mental health care. But with no inpatient psych beds in Scioto County and the nearest facility nearly two hours away in Athens, there’s nowhere else to send them.
💭 What Now?
The residents are fed up. Police are exhausted. And those caught in the spiral are suffering — sometimes in plain sight, sometimes in silence.
Until the city finds a real solution — not just temporary fixes or task forces — this woman, and many like her, will continue to haunt Portsmouth’s streets, headlines, and court dockets.
Because at this rate, it’s only a matter of time until someone doesn’t walk away.
