Community mental health centers, counties and a state agency have reported vastly different numbers of people who spent time in jail while waiting to be treated for serious mental illness.

But the data submitted by different entities is contradictory and incomplete, making it impossible to know if the numbers are really going down.

“It’s been inconsistent. It’s been sometimes just absent in different parts of the state,” said Rep. Sam Creekmore IV, a Republican from New Albany who chairs the Public Health and Human Services Committee and who sponsored legislation related to civil commitment during the last two sessions. “And so it’s really hard for us to evaluate how well or how bad we’re doing when the numbers aren’t consistent.”