Lawsuit challenges California's refusal to admit COVID-positive competency patients
Jailed defendants found incompetent to stand trial sued in Hart v. Clendenin, arguing California's state hospitals were unlawfully refusing to admit COVID-positive patients, leaving them without court-ordered restoration treatment during the pandemic.
The case previewed a broader admissions freeze the state's Department of State Hospitals would impose system-wide roughly a year later, during the Omicron surge, showing the same underlying tension play out twice in the same state over the course of the pandemic.
Source: Could California’s psych hospitals be ordered to admit inmates with COVID? — CalMatters, by Lee Romney
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