First national estimate puts competency evaluations at over 60,000 a year
A paper in the Journal of the American Academy of Psychiatry and the Law published the first national estimate of how many competency-to-stand-trial evaluations are conducted annually across the United States — more than 60,000 — giving researchers and policymakers a baseline figure that had not previously existed for the scale of the system.
The estimate underpins much of the "competency crisis" framing used in subsequent research, including a 2023 review documenting rising referral volume against stagnant evaluator and hospital-bed capacity.
Source: Estimating Annual Numbers of Competency to Stand Trial Evaluations across the United States — Journal of the American Academy of Psychiatry and the Law, by Nathaniel P. Morris, Dale E. McNiel, and Renée L. Binder
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