East Texas man spends two years in jail before and while waiting for competency restoration
The Observer tells the story of Logan Pickard, who has been in Gregg and Van Zandt County jails for most of three years on misdemeanor theft and drug charges. His family says it took 14 months just to get a psychiatric evaluation concluding he was incompetent to stand trial, and he has since waited for a restoration bed, spending stretches in solitary confinement because of untreated psychosis.
The article situates his case in the statewide waitlist, which reached 1,813 in October and, according to sources at the Judicial Commission on Mental Health, passed 1,900 in November. Gregg County's district attorney said everyone wants the same thing, treatment so cases can proceed.
A Texas Jail Project director quoted in the piece argues that people facing only misdemeanors should be moved to community services and removed from the list.
Source: In East Texas, a Man Has Spent Two Years in Jail Waiting for a Bed at a Mental Health Hospital — Dallas Observer, by Michael Murney
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