Fox San Antonio investigation finds incompetent Bexar County inmates waiting months or years for state hospital beds
Fox San Antonio filed open-records requests for how long Bexar County Jail inmates ordered to a state hospital for competency restoration had waited over the previous two years. For 99 people headed to the San Antonio State Hospital the average was 126 days; for 37 people waiting for the maximum-security hospital in Vernon it was 375 days. The sheriff said roughly 300 inmates at any time had some mental health need.
The station said the state's health agency ignored repeated interview requests. In an email it said it was buying private psychiatric beds in the community to free up state beds for the growing demand for forensic placements, and that $300 million had been authorized for hospital repairs and new construction aimed at expanding maximum-security capacity and shrinking the forensic waitlist.
The piece frames the wait as a cost shifted onto the county, which houses people the courts have already ordered into state treatment.
Source: INVESTIGATION: Mentally incompetent inmates ordered to state hospital remain at Bexar jail — Fox San Antonio (KABB), by Yami Virgin, Fox San Antonio
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