Louisiana jails hold well over 100 incompetent defendants awaiting state hospital beds
According to the Louisiana Department of Health, 139 people were in jail awaiting admission to the Eastern Louisiana Mental Health System for competency restoration, with another eight waiting after insanity acquittals. Nearly 30 of them were held in the Orleans Parish jail, some for months.
The 2016 settlement in the federal forensic-waitlist case requires admission within 15 days of a court order. Health department officials blamed COVID-19, including four separate admissions halts and isolation rules that cut usable beds, and said they were working to add 118 beds through outside providers.
The report is one of the first local accounts of the post-pandemic backlog returning to Louisiana.
Source: Many criminal defendants deemed mentally incompetent to stand trial are languishing in parish jails, despite being ordered care at state hospital — The Lens, by Nick Chrastil
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