Wisconsin budget analysts detail a growing forensic admission waitlist as the state weighs a new Sand Ridge unit
The nonpartisan fiscal bureau prepared the paper for the Joint Committee on Finance as it considered the governor's request to keep staffing a 20-bed forensic unit at the Sand Ridge Secure Treatment Center. Forensic patients, as the paper uses the term, include people found not competent to stand trial and people undergoing a competency evaluation, along with those found not guilty by reason of mental illness. Mendota Mental Health Institute holds most of the state's forensic beds, with 273 staffed forensic beds at the time.
The paper reported that the admission waiting list had fallen from an average of 69 people to about 60 after the Sand Ridge unit opened, then climbed to an average of 72 in the last quarter of 2018. The average time on the list held steady at 36 to 38 days. People waiting for a bed remain in county jails, which the paper described as poor settings for severe mental illness, and counties carry the cost of holding them.
The paper also noted that the Department of Health Services is required by statute to accept every forensic patient a court commits, and that delays could expose the state to lawsuits over jail suicides. It offered three alternatives: approve the governor's $3.4 million request using temporary positions, convert to permanent positions, or deny the funding.
Source: Forensic Unit Expansion at Sand Ridge Secure Treatment Center (Health Services -- Care and Treatment Services, Paper #406) — Wisconsin Legislative Fiscal Bureau, by Jon Dyck, Legislative Fiscal Bureau
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