Nashville task force finds long waits for forensic evaluation and quick re-arrest of incompetent misdemeanor defendants
Judge Melissa Blackburn, the district attorney, public defender and sheriff initiated the Task Force on Competency and Wellbeing, which met from September 2021 through January 2022, to look at defendants charged with misdemeanors and found incompetent to stand trial. At the start of its work, 182 people made up that population. The report found that these defendants typically do not get an inpatient forensic evaluation at Middle Tennessee Mental Health Institute because funding for it had not been provided, and that the average wait for a 30-day evaluation there was 60 days and at times 90.
Most of the group had psychotic symptoms and many had co-occurring addiction, and the task force expected about 60 percent to be re-arrested within 90 days, at more than twice the arrest rate of competent misdemeanor defendants. Its recommendations included funding for forensic evaluations, a jail-based restoration program manager and community services such as assertive community treatment and housing support.
Mayor John Cooper announced $600,000 in new funding for mental health services in the county court system on the day the recommendations were released, according to NewsChannel 5.
Source: Task Force on Competency & Wellbeing — Metropolitan Government of Nashville and Davidson County, by Task Force on Competency & Wellbeing, Metropolitan Nashville and Davidson County (primary author Dia Cirillo, Office of Mayor John Cooper)
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