Federal judge orders Nevada to treat jailed incompetent defendants within seven days
Associated Press reported that Judge Miranda Du of the federal court in Las Vegas told Nevada from the bench that it must honor the 2014 consent decree requiring jailed mentally ill defendants to be treated or evaluated within seven days, and said she might appoint an independent monitor by the end of November if the state failed to comply. The state was being asked to show why it should not be held in contempt of the decree.
The decree grew out of a federal lawsuit first filed in 2005 by the Nevada Disability Advocacy and Law Center. Lake's Crossing Center had 76 beds, about 40 prisoners were waiting for transfer from Las Vegas, and recent transfers had taken 90 to 125 days. A new 47-bed Stein Hospital unit was slated to open in mid-November. A deputy public defender said the state had come close to the seven-day target in 2011 but never achieved it.
The order is the key federal enforcement moment between the 2014 consent decree and the later state-court contempt fines.
Source: US judge tells Nevada to treat competency inmates in 7 days — KSL.com (Associated Press), by Associated Press
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