Federal judge gives Washington until May to fix competency waits, saying class members were treated like boxes on a shelf
On February 8, 2016, Judge Marsha Pechman of the Western District of Washington granted the Department of Social and Health Services more time to meet her 2015 order requiring competency evaluation and restoration services within seven days. She did so grudgingly: because the state had shown it could not reach compliance on its own timetable, she set a list of ten specific interim steps due by May 27, including clearing the backlog of in-jail evaluations and drafting a triage plan that weighs clinical severity and offense seriousness. She described the existing first-in, first-out approach as treating class members like boxes on a warehouse shelf.
The Spokesman-Review reported that average waits for admission to Eastern State Hospital for restoration had climbed from 21 days in December 2014 to 94 days in December 2015, while Western State Hospital averaged 49 days. The state said it had added 15 treatment beds and three forensic evaluators at Eastern State and planned more beds at Yakima and Maple Lane. It had asked for the extension partly because federal regulators' actions at Western State Hospital the previous fall had constrained capacity.
The order shows the court shifting from setting a standard to directing how the state would get there, a pattern that continued through the contempt rulings later in 2016 and the 2018 settlement.
Source: Judge gives Washington mental hospitals more time to fix programs — The Spokesman-Review, by Rachel Alexander
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