Pandemic shutters jail transfers to Western State Hospital, and a federal judge orders them to resume
Crosscut reported that Western State Hospital had almost entirely stopped admitting people from jails because of a coronavirus outbreak, quarantine rules and staff absences, while state officials said 500 of the hospital's 2,600 employees were out in one week. As of the previous week, 177 people found incompetent were in jail awaiting transfer, with waits of three to eight months. Because western Washington admissions were slow, defendants from around the state were also queuing for beds at Eastern State Hospital.
Judge Pechman, who oversees the Trueblood case, said a hospital has to adapt to work through such problems and that judges would otherwise have to keep releasing people with mental illness whose constitutional rights limit how long they can be held. She said releases to the street could strain the whole mental health system. A King County judge had already dismissed a robbery charge against a man who waited 82 days.
The state's behavioral health chief said the outbreak appeared contained and that staff were working to resume admissions while avoiding bringing infection into the hospital from jails.
Source: Judge demands WA psychiatric hospital reopen despite COVID-19 — Crosscut (now Cascade PBS), by David Kroman
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