Arkansas jails hold well over a hundred people waiting a year or more for state hospital beds
KTLO reported that people with serious mental illness who are arrested in Arkansas often sit in county jails for a year or more waiting for a bed at the Arkansas State Hospital. Most are under court orders for inpatient treatment after being found not fit to proceed or not criminally responsible, which places them in the custody of the Department of Human Services, the agency that runs the hospital. According to department records cited in the story, 141 people in several inmate categories were waiting in county jails during the most recent reporting week.
The piece traces the problem to earlier litigation. A federal court found in 2001 that the state had failed pretrial detainees who needed mental health evaluation or treatment, and a 2002 decree set required steps; the story says a department attorney now maintains the decree expired when the case settled and no longer governs current conditions.
The report matters because it documents a persistent Arkansas waitlist of detained defendants, and the state's position that no court order currently compels a fix, at a time when other states faced consent decrees over the same delays.
Source: Without trial or treatment, inmates spend months in local jails waiting for state hospital bed — KTLO
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