Seven years after Alabama's consent decree, the waitlist for the state's secure men's psychiatric unit has grown nearly fivefold
The AP report centers on Fernando Clark, who spent his last ten months in jail waiting for treatment a court had ordered after an arrest over stolen cigarettes and fruit, and who was found unresponsive in his cell. It says hundreds of people across Alabama await a state bed despite the 2018 federal decree, which came out of a lawsuit filed in 2016.
Per an August court filing, the Taylor Hardin waitlist had grown to 273 men from roughly 60 in 2017, with the average wait now longer than a year and more than 30 men waiting beyond two years. A lawyer with the Alabama Disabilities Advocacy Program said defendants charged with lesser offenses often wait longer for a bed than they would have served if they had pleaded guilty.
The state is adding 80 beds to Taylor Hardin, but the mental health commissioner said in 2024 that only about half of technician and nursing posts at the facility were filled, so the new beds depend on hiring. The state and plaintiffs were still in mediation at the time of reporting.
Source: Alabama promised to improve psychiatric care for men charged with crimes. They still wait years — Associated Press (via Yahoo News), by Safiyah Riddle
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