State workgroup sets out 2021 plan to shrink California's incompetent-to-stand-trial waitlist
The Incompetent to Stand Trial Solutions Workgroup was convened under Welfare and Institutions Code section 4147 to find ways to reduce the number of people with serious mental illness found incompetent on felony charges. Its November 2021 report says that as of that month more than 1,700 people were awaiting restoration treatment and that referrals had outpaced capacity every year since about 2013.
Recommendations are phased: near-term steps (by April 2022) focus on stabilizing people in jail, improving coordination, training evaluators and expanding diversion; medium-term steps emphasize statutory preference for diversion and community treatment and larger evaluator pools; longer-term ones aim at system transformation and reducing the criminalization of mental illness. The report lists 2021-22 budget commitments of $255 million for new sub-acute capacity, $32.8 million to add 552 community-based restoration beds and $47.6 million to expand felony mental health diversion.
Source: Incompetent to Stand Trial Solutions Workgroup: Report of Recommended Solutions — California Health and Human Services Agency, by California Health and Human Services Agency and California Department of State Hospitals
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