Florida woman ordered to a state mental facility sat 14 months in a Polk County jail after the order was never carried out
WFLA's investigation traced a breakdown in Florida's process for moving defendants found incompetent to stand trial into state treatment. A judge found Octavia Jordan incompetent and ordered her placed with DCF for a state mental facility, but she stayed in the Polk County Jail for about 14 months without medication for her schizophrenia and bipolar disorder until the lapse was noticed.
The public defender said responsibility was spread across every office involved: the court, the clerk, the state attorney, the jail, his own office and DCF all failed to notice she was not where the judge had ordered. His office relied on a jail list of inmates awaiting transport, and her name never appeared on it. The clerk said a packet went to the sheriff in April 2017 but she had no proof DCF received it; DCF said it never received an order; and a prosecutor told the court in October 2017 that Jordan was in a state hospital when she was in the jail.
Source: Lost behind bars: Woman ruled incompetent for trial spends months at Polk County Jail — WFLA (Tampa)
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