New York counties' association proposes overhaul of competency restoration after state shifts full cost to counties
The report describes how felony defendants found incompetent in New York, known as "730s," are restored at four Office of Mental Health forensic facilities (Kirby and Mid-Hudson are the largest) with 568 secure beds, and at two developmental disabilities facilities. It says between a quarter and two-thirds of defendants committed under Article 730 cycle through the system more than once on the same charge, and it argues that restoration is meant to ready a person for trial rather than to promote recovery.
On funding, the association says that the state's fiscal 2021 budget began charging counties 100 percent of the cost of restoring defendants, where the state had previously charged 50 percent, a shift it estimates at about $22 million for counties outside New York City. The paper recommends a set of reforms drawn from the Council of State Governments Justice Center's national strategies, including better data, more diversion, and limiting use of the competency process for cases better handled by dismissal or diversion.
The document is an advocacy report by a local-government association, but it is one of few statewide accounts of how New York's 730 system is structured and paid for.
Source: A Blueprint for Change: Reforming Mental Health Competency Restoration in New York State — New York State Association of Counties
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