San Antonio editorial: Texas's forensic waiting list of 675 defendants outpaces planned hospital expansion
The editorial describes a state hospital system with about 2,200 beds, roughly 60 percent of them reserved for people in the criminal justice system, and a waiting list of 675 defendants for forensic beds. A Texas Health and Human Services deputy commissioner gave the figures to the new Judicial Commission on Mental Health at its first meeting. Only two facilities can take maximum-security patients, so those waits run longest, and 100 beds were out of service on the day because of staffing gaps.
The board noted that a ten-year plan to add 1,100 beds had begun with 338 beds, including 40 in San Antonio, but argued that would not clear the list. As of early May, 753 state hospital patients had been there more than a year, including 345 found incompetent to stand trial and 189 found not guilty by reason of insanity.
The piece is opinion, and it asks the 31-member commission to bring recommendations to the Legislature in 2019.
Source: Wait list for state mental hospital beds troubling — San Antonio Express-News, by Express-News Editorial Board
← Back to the map