Pennsylvania settles ACLU competency-wait suit, agreeing to add treatment capacity
CBS Philadelphia reported that the state Department of Human Services resolved J.H. v. Dallas, the class action filed in 2015 on behalf of hundreds of defendants found incompetent who were being held in county jails without treatment. The agreement came just before trial.
Under the terms the station described, the state committed to provide 120 additional treatment slots for people with severe mental illness and to give Philadelphia $1 million for expanded housing. Department Secretary Ted Dallas called it a good first step on a long-standing problem.
The settlement did not end the waits. Later court filings by the plaintiffs said the number of people waiting for a state hospital bed had grown rather than shrunk in the year that followed.
Source: ACLU Settles Class Action That Brings More Resources For Mental Health In Pa. — CBS Philadelphia
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