Oklahoma's forensic hospital is full as judges press the state over inmates awaiting competency treatment
Oklahoma Watch, in a year-long series on mental health, reported that the state Department of Mental Health and Substance Abuse Services was negotiating with Tulsa County over evaluating and treating mentally ill jail inmates. The Oklahoma Forensic Center in Vinita was at full capacity, with about 100 inmates on a list awaiting treatment, the department's commissioner said.
After an Oklahoma County judge threatened contempt in February, the department had already reached an agreement with the Oklahoma County sheriff's office to perform evaluations inside the jail, and the commissioner said similar contempt actions were under way in Tulsa County. The Tulsa sheriff's office preferred to use its own resources rather than send people to the forensic center.
The story is an early record of the Oklahoma bottleneck that later drove a federal class action: a single state facility, courts losing patience, and counties and the state improvising jail-based evaluation to relieve it.
Source: State Mental Health Officials Work on Agreement With Tulsa County — Oklahoma Watch
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