Michigan House votes for 45-day limits on competency exams; advocacy group cites an average six-month wait
The advocacy organization points to a chronic pile-up of cases at the Center for Forensic Psychiatry, the state facility that does diagnostic work for the courts. It puts the typical wait for a competency exam at six months and argues that this keeps people with mental illness in pretrial detention longer than necessary, at public expense.
Representative Klint Kesto's House Bills 5244 and 5246 aim to curb the delays and widen the pool of facilities that can perform competency exams, setting firm deadlines that include a 45-day clock for psychological examinations once a court orders one. The group says the full House approved both bills by a lopsided margin on Feb. 28, 2018, and they moved to the Senate Judiciary Committee.
Safe & Just Michigan, which praised Kesto's effort, also called on the Legislature to back the bills with money for adequate staffing at the Center.
Source: House calls to end longstanding backlog of mental health evaluations — Safe & Just Michigan, by Kate McCracken
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