Reporting finds Oregon's 2019 aid-and-assist law is leaving some misdemeanor defendants without inpatient care
Senate Bill 24, passed in summer 2019, gave priority for hospital admission to defendants charged with serious crimes. As the report describes it, misdemeanor defendants must now show both a qualifying mental illness and dangerousness before they can receive inpatient treatment.
One case in the piece involves a defendant with a documented illness but no dangerousness finding who was released to the street because few community services existed. Judges, clinicians and defense attorneys interviewed said the standard is hard to apply, and one attorney said the law had exposed how little mental health care exists in the state.
The story captures the downstream effect of narrowing hospital access in order to meet a federal admission deadline.
Source: Oregon Law Meant To Help Mentally Ill Has Ended Up Putting More Of Them On The Street — NPR (reported by Oregon Public Broadcasting), by Conrad Wilson
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