Alameda County judge orders California to admit incompetent defendants within 28 days
In the case brought in 2015 by the ACLU and Sullivan & Cromwell, Judge Winifred Smith held that the two state departments had systematically violated the due process rights of people found incompetent to stand trial by leaving them in county jails for extended periods, some for more than a year. Her order requires the state to admit such defendants for competency treatment within 28 days of receiving the court's commitment papers.
The judgment sets a compliance schedule: an initial deadline 12 months after the ruling and full compliance within three years. The ACLU's lead counsel called it a critical acknowledgment that the state had been violating the rights of defendants with disabilities.
The order applies statewide and became the benchmark by which California's waitlist, and its later jail-based and community restoration investments, would be measured.
Source: Court Rules State Violating Due Process Rights of Defendants with Psychiatric and Intellectual Disabilities — ACLU of Northern California
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