Disability Law Center sues Utah over jail waits for competency treatment
The suit was filed in September 2015 against the state human services department. It says the hospital's waitlist rose from 15 people in 2013 to 56 in 2015 and that typical waits stretched from 30 days to 180 days over three years, far longer than in states that move defendants within days.
One plaintiff, arrested on a shoplifting charge in March 2014, waited nearly 18 months before admission. The center's legal director said the state had chosen the cheapest of four options the department had offered, which ranged from $300,000 to $24 million.
The case ultimately produced a 2017 settlement with mandatory wait-time targets.
Source: Utah sued over a 'crisis' of tardy treatment toward mentally incompetent inmates — The Salt Lake Tribune, by Tom Harvey
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