Federal court rules Texas's competency wait times unconstitutional, orders 21-day cap
A federal court ruled that Texas's practice of keeping people found incompetent to stand trial in county jails — roughly 1,700 statewide, waiting an average of six months and some more than 500 days — is unconstitutional, and ordered the state to admit all such detainees to a state hospital within 21 days, with four years to reach full compliance.
The class action had originally been filed in 2016, making this one of the longest-running cases in this backfill to reach a decision, and immediately drew a state appeal that would play out over the following weeks.
Source: Federal Court Declares Texas’ Prolonged Jail Waits for Competency Restoration Unconstitutional — Disability Rights Texas
← Back to the map