Texas jails hold a record number of accused violent offenders waiting for maximum-security hospital beds
The Dallas Morning News found that Texas jails were holding a record 278 inmates in July 2016 who had been ordered to one of the state's maximum-security psychiatric beds, up more than 86 percent in twelve months. Their average wait was 149 days. The state operates only 314 maximum-security beds, concentrated at North Texas State Hospital in Vernon with a few at Rusk State Hospital. Most of those waiting had been found unfit to stand trial; about 30 had been found not guilty by reason of insanity.
The article used several stalled cases to show the cost. A Collin County man had been jailed more than 100 days waiting for a bed, and a Dallas defendant in a high-profile killing was still in the county jail months after being declared incompetent. More than a fifth of those waiting for maximum-security beds were held in Dallas County. The Texas Department of State Health Services said patients were arriving in greater numbers and staying longer.
Disability Rights Texas, which represents 280 waiting inmates in a class-action lawsuit it had filed the previous month, argued the problem was not more mentally ill people but more frequent identification by the criminal system. The paper noted the bed supply had stayed flat.
Source: No room in the psych ward: Mentally ill accused of violent crimes clog jails — The Dallas Morning News, by Terri Langford, Naomi Martin
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