Legislative Analyst warns California's IST waitlist has grown to 601 and weighs Kern County jail treatment proposal
California's nonpartisan Legislative Analyst's Office told lawmakers the waitlist for state hospital beds for defendants found incompetent to stand trial had grown significantly since July 2015, reaching 601 people in January 2017. Because those patients generally wait in county jails, the report warned that their conditions can worsen and that long waits raise the odds of court contempt findings against the Department of State Hospitals.
The analysis compared costs, putting jail-based competency treatment (JBCT) beds at about $125,000 a year against $215,000 for a state hospital bed, and noted that trial judges, not DSH, have final say over JBCT placements. It recommended approving the governor's $10.5 million request to open a 60-bed Admission, Evaluation, and Stabilization center in the Kern County Jail while letting DSH admit patients directly into existing JBCT programs statewide.
It is a government budget analysis rather than news reporting, but it is a dated, primary account of how the waitlist and the shift toward jail-based restoration were being framed to the Legislature in 2017.
Source: The 2017-18 Budget: Department of State Hospitals (DSH) — California Legislative Analyst's Office
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