California Ordered to Halt Prolonged Detention of Inmates With Mental Illnesses

(CN) --- A California appellate panel has rejected the state’s policy of detaining individuals with psychiatric and intellectual disabilities in county jails --- often for months or even years --- while waiting for them to be declared competent to stand trial.

Thousands of such people are currently being held in jails across the state because they’ve been found incompetent to stand trial, yet have not received treatment which could enable them to do so. The ruling comes in response to a lawsuit filed in 2015 against the California Department of State Hospitals and Department of Developmental Services by the family members of county jail detainees.

“This case deals with people accused of crimes who are so severely mentally ill or disabled that a judge decided they cannot meaningfully participate in their own proceedings,” said ACLU attorney Michael Risher, in a telephone interview. “The judge suspends proceedings, meaning they don’t have the right to a trial, only to receive treatment, and that treatment occurs while in custody --- in a jail or hospital.”

Under the law, individuals charged with a crime cannot be tried or sentenced if they’ve been found incompetent to stand trial after a mental health evaluation. After such a decision the trial process is suspended and the person is detained until they receive treatment and a subsequent evaluation shows their condition has sufficiently improved to carry on with proceedings. That’s the impetus behind this case --- treatment for mentally unwell individuals detained while awaiting trial is taking far too long, according to the plaintiffs.

They argue that treatment is being delayed to an unreasonable degree, forcing mentally ill inmates to languish behind bars for months or longer before they’re transferred to a treatment facility --- effectively denying their right to due process. Because state hospital beds are limited relative to the number of people who need them, the ACLU said treatment for these individuals should be allowed to occur in community treatment centers where space is more readily available.

According to the petition, California should stop delaying mental health treatment for people who remain locked away while awaiting care.

“Instead of being promptly admitted to DSH [Department of State Hospitals] or DDS [Department of Developmental Services], these defendants often remain in county jails for extended periods of time while awaiting transfer,” the plaintiffs say in their petition. “These delays have continued for many years, despite previous court orders and defendants’ own attempts to reduce them.”

Risher said the number of people considered incompetent to stand trial has been on the rise for a decade or longer and the state hasn't kept pace by adding treatment beds and staff. He described a 1,600-person backlog of inmates awaiting care and said these people are sitting in jail for months at a time without treatment, often in segregated units --- solitary confinement --- because of their mental health status.

“The judge agreed this was unconstitutional and ordered the state to start providing treatment to these individuals within 28 days of court sending paperwork,” said Risher. “Courts have been trying to address this issue for a decade, and judges across the state have sanctioned DSH, but that hasn’t prompted them to fix this.”

The petition was filed by five family members of individuals currently being held in county jails while awaiting transfer to DSH and DDS facilities for treatment. In 2019, the trial court found the state has systematically violated the due process rights of many of these inmates but made an exception for those charged with felony sex offences, saying the transfer responsibility for those inmates does not occur until the inmate and required documentation are physically delivered to a DDS facility, which may take longer than 28 days.

On Tuesday, the First Appellate District ruled all persons found incompetent to stand trial --- including suspected sex offenders --- have had their due process rights violated by the state’s delays in transferring them to a treatment facility within 28 days of receiving their paperwork.

“I hope the affect will be that DSH and DDS will address the problem. We also hope this will prompt the Legislature to get at the root cause of the problem, which is an overemphasis on the criminal justice system and not enough funding for community treatments, which is just as effective,” Risher said. “You cannot treat as many people in state hospital beds, I think that’s a critical point to this case --- we’d like to see a fundamental shift to community treatments. The state should be giving people the treatments they require so they don’t end up in the criminal justice system in the first place.”

Representatives for the California State Attorney’s Office declined to comment, and the California Department of State Hospitals did not respond to a request for comment by press time.

Presiding Justice J. Anthony Kline wrote Tuesday's opinion, joined by Justices Therese Stewart and Maria Miller.

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