Washington's mental-health jail-wait fines reach $83 million before settlement
Reporting around the Trueblood settlement quantified just how expensive years of non-compliance had become: Washington had paid approximately $83 million in accumulated contempt fines by the time the settlement took effect, on top of the operational and legal costs of the case itself.
The figure illustrated a dynamic that would repeat through the following decade — fines large enough to draw legislative attention, but not by themselves sufficient to fix the underlying capacity and staffing problems driving the delays.
Source: After paying $83 million in fines, Washington settles jail mental-health lawsuit — The Seattle Times, by Martha Bellisle, The Associated Press
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