Federal court rules Washington's competency delays unconstitutional
U.S. District Judge Marsha Pechman issued a permanent injunction in Trueblood v. DSHS, finding that Washington met its own seven-day statutory standard for competency evaluations and hospital admissions less than 15 percent of the time, leaving people with serious mental illness isolated in county jail cells for weeks or months without treatment. The ruling became the foundation for a decade of subsequent contempt findings, fines, and settlement negotiations.
Plaintiffs were later awarded more than $1.3 million in attorneys' fees tied to the case, an early sign of how costly the state's non-compliance would become over the following years.
Source: Delayed Washington Competency Evaluations and Treatment Violate Due Process — Prison Legal News, by Mark Wilson
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