With only 39 staffed forensic beds, Mississippi defendants wait up to a year in jail for restoration treatment
The article follows a 40-year-old man with schizophrenia, charged with assaulting a police officer, who a psychiatrist found incompetent but restorable and whose family was told to expect a jail wait of up to a year for a forensic bed. It says he is one of an unknown number of Mississippians waiting for the State Hospital's forensic unit.
The Department of Mental Health said the hospital could staff only 39 forensic beds, versus 57 if fully staffed, and blamed pandemic-era staffing problems. Those beds cover pretrial evaluation, restoration, high-risk civil commitments and people found not guilty by reason of insanity. The department said a renovation would lift capacity to 83 beds by mid-2023, and that jailed people are prioritized over those waiting at home.
The piece also describes Disability Rights Mississippi's suits against the department for records, including a man who was in jail for five years without trial before the group stepped in.
Source: Mentally Ill Defendants Languish in Mississippi Jails Due to Staff, Bed Shortages — Mississippi Free Press (with Mississippi Center for Investigative Reporting), by Julie Whitehead
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