KXAN 'Locked in Limbo' finds Texas's $1 billion hospital rebuild would still leave the competency waitlist 555 beds short
Part of KXAN's multi-platform 'Locked in Limbo' series, the article reports that at the start of 2020 state hospitals had 970 people on a waitlist for 2,269 funded beds, and that a $1 billion construction plan would add about 350 beds, still 555 short by KXAN's analysis of state data. It notes the waitlist has prompted a federal class action alleging that holding incompetent defendants in jail is unconstitutional.
The piece then looks at ways to avoid the hospital: outpatient restoration, jail-based restoration, tele-psychiatry and county mental health courts. Lubbock was described as the only mental health authority using telemedicine inside jails for restoration, with 53 inmates treated since late 2018 and competency restored in about half. A former state senator argued competency can often be restored before clinical treatment is finished and in settings other than a state hospital.
KXAN also notes that a 2016 state attempt to launch a jail-based restoration pilot was slow to take off.
Source: Solutions to restore inmates' mental health and get them to trial — KXAN (Austin), by David Barer
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