Kentucky psychiatric center has 302 people waiting for court-ordered evaluations, averaging nearly six months
LEX 18's investigation found 302 people awaiting competency or criminal-responsibility evaluations at the Kentucky Correctional Psychiatric Center as of November 9, 2022. Cases came from 71 counties; the average wait was 179 days, the longest 1,031 days, and about 95 percent of those waiting were in jail.
The center reported 91 vacant positions, including 47 correctional officers and several nurses and behavioral specialists. A district judge told the station the center "just doesn't have the bandwidth" for the volume. The Kentucky Judicial Commission on Mental Health had been created that August to look at how courts handle people with mental health needs.
The report documents the evaluation backlog that preceded the larger 2023 waitlist.
Source: Hundred of cases on hold as defendants wait for state mental health evaluation — LEX 18, by Christiana Ford
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