PIERCE COUNTY, Wash. – A Pierce County judge has ruled in favour of a lawsuit against the state Department of Social and Health Services, ordering it to immediately assess patients with behavioural health problems.
The lawsuit also orders the department to provide adequate notice to the community when patients are discharged from treatment.
“Today’s ruling affirms the state’s basic obligation to assess the behavioural health needs of people in the justice system who cannot be tried because they are incompetent to assist in their own defence, and to provide them with an opportunity for meaningful treatment. Of course, it does not solve the very real capacity problems in the behavioural health system created by long-term funding and workforce shortages,” said King County Executive Dow Constantine. “With today’s ruling, counties across Washington can move forward with greater clarity and work with the state and other jurisdictions on funding and strategies to meet the needs of the people we all serve.”
Judge Michael Schwartz’s order, issued on Friday morning, requires the Department of Social and Health Services to evaluate all new diversion patients. These patients are those whose criminal charges have been dismissed after they were found incompetent to stand trial.
Prosecutors from 22 counties in Washington state originally filed the lawsuit over the department’s policy decision to stop evaluating and treating mentally ill defendants who have their charges dropped because they don’t understand the charges against them.
After the lawsuit was filed, the Pierce County Superior Court granted the motion for a preliminary injunction. Six other counties joined the lawsuit.
Representatives from the counties said denying access to people whose charges have been dropped violates state law, places an unsustainable burden on county resources and threatens public safety. When charges are dropped against a defendant and the state won’t provide mental health treatment at a mental health facility, such as Western State Hospital in Pierce County, the only option is often to release the former defendant back into the community.
As KING 5 investigators reported in their series “Mentally Ill, Waiting in Jail”, the wait time for mentally ill defendants to receive treatment to understand their charges has reached an all-time high in the last two years. Currently, defendants wait about seven months in jail for a bed at Western State Hospital. State law and federal court orders require a wait of no more than seven days.
