Study documents Arizona's shift from hospital to jail-based competency restoration
The authors report that the Arizona State Hospital admitted 267 restoration patients in 2004 but averaged only about 10 a year from 2013 to 2017, with five counties running jail-based programs: Maricopa, Pima, Yavapai, Pinal and Yuma. In Yavapai County from 2010 to 2016, 79 percent of 306 detainees were restored, and Pima County reported an 83 percent success rate over 2016-17.
The paper's focus is treatment refusal. In Maricopa County, it found no specific route to medicate over objection outside the civil commitment process, which could delay care and let symptoms worsen.
Source: Treatment Refusal in Arizona's Jail-Based Competency to Stand Trial Restoration Programs — Journal of the American Academy of Psychiatry and the Law, by Joseph D. Bloom and Scott E. Kirkorsky
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