UVA study finds misdemeanor defendants crowd Virginia's state hospitals for competency restoration
Citing new research from the University of Virginia's Institute of Law, Psychiatry and Public Policy, the Mercury reported that competency evaluations in the state rose 218 percent between 2007 and 2018 and that incompetency findings climbed almost 40 percent from 2016 to 2018. In a review of more than 1,100 evaluation reports, 44 percent of misdemeanor defendants were found incompetent, compared with 31.2 percent of felony defendants, and misdemeanor cases were more likely to be routed to inpatient restoration despite a statutory preference for outpatient services.
At Eastern State Hospital, described as the state's strongest restoration site, nearly 40 percent of restoration admissions over three years involved misdemeanors, and median stays for these patients ran about 56 days. A prosecutor said evaluations that once took a week now take a month or more. The hospital's forensic director called the pattern a revolving door, noting that restoration targets trial competence rather than ongoing treatment.
The story ties the competency surge to the state's 2014 bed-of-last-resort law and to the 10-day admission requirement adopted after a jailed man died in 2015, and it comes as hospitals were closing to new admissions amid staffing shortages.
Source: Misdemeanor offenders are flooding Virginia's state mental hospitals for competency restoration — Virginia Mercury, by Kate Masters
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