Three Alabama men found incompetent to stand trial sue the state over months-long waits for treatment in county jails
The complaint was filed on September 30, 2016 in the U.S. District Court for the Middle District of Alabama against the commissioner of the Alabama Department of Mental Health. Three men, each committed to the department's custody after an incompetency finding, argued that the department's failure to start competency restoration promptly violated the Fourteenth Amendment and Title II of the Americans with Disabilities Act. They asked for declaratory relief and for preliminary and permanent injunctions.
The filing says people in their position waited an average of eight months between the commitment order and the start of treatment, and that they spent that time in county jails not equipped to provide it. The men sued through family members acting as next friends, because their illness limited their ability to protect their own interests.
The suit matters because it started the litigation that shaped Alabama's competency system for the next decade. It was amended into a class action in December 2016 and settled with a consent decree approved in January 2018, which set evaluation and admission deadlines the state has struggled to meet since.
Source: Complaint | Hunter v. Beshear M.D. Ala. | Civil Rights Litigation Clearinghouse — Civil Rights Litigation Clearinghouse (University of Michigan Law School), by Plaintiffs in Hunter v. Beshear (U.S. District Court, M.D. Ala.)
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