Topeka ? A woman who is accused of trying to convince an Indiana family that she was their long-lost daughter needs mental health services rather than jail time, a small group of protesters contended Monday.

Donna Lynette Walker remains in the Shawnee County Jail on $100,000 bail, held as a fugitive from justice. In Indiana, she is charged with felony identity deception and misdemeanor false reporting.

Walker has said she was only trying to help in the search for Shannon Marie Sherrill, who vanished in 1986 when she was 6 years old while playing hide-and-seek near her mother’s home in Thorntown, Ind., about 30 miles northwest of Indianapolis.

Her attorney, Billy Rork, has said he will seek to lower her bail. But during a district court hearing last week, a judge said Walker was a flight risk. Her next court hearing is scheduled for 10 a.m. Wednesday.

Sonny Scroggins, an activist and leader of the Topeka chapter of the National Action Network, said he sympathized with the family Walker tried to fool but said Walker is an example of how mentally ill people end up in jail, rather than receiving the treatment they need.

“The mentally ill are being warehoused across the country in jails,” Scroggins said. “That’s not fair; that’s not reasonable; that’s not humane.”

Scroggins was joined by activists Jaye Parkerson and Eric Harkness, who serves on the board of directors of Breakthrough House, which provides services to the mentally ill in Topeka. Harkness, who carried a sign that said, “Freedom for Donna Walker,” deemed Walker’s bail “outrageous.”

In California, Walker also was well known to the Chico Police Department for suicide threats, false charges and disorderly conduct, according to a report in the Chico Enterprise Record. She lived in Chico for 14 months, until January.

Police said Walker threatened to commit suicide in November 2001. She also was the subject of a series of disturbance calls in April 2002, including another suicide threat.

And in Portland, Ore., the FBI confirmed that Walker had acted as an informant on child pornography cases. Spokeswoman Beth Anne Steele said Walker called the FBI on her own and was known for providing information to agencies around the nation.