Washington judge hears testimony over long jail holds for mentally ill
By Victoria Cavaliere SEATTLE (Reuters) - A federal judge who ruled last year that Washington state had violated the U.S. Constitution by holding criminal defendants in jail for extended periods while awaiting mental competency evaluations began hearing testimony on Monday about how to remedy the system. Washington state law requires mental competency evaluations be performed within seven days on defendants who have been charged with a crime and might be mentally incompetent to stand trial. But in recent years, defendants were left languishing for up to six months, some in solitary confinement for 23 hours a day, partly because of staff and funding shortages at the Department of Social and Health Services. Judge Marsha Pechman found in December that the state had violated the due process rights of some pretrial criminal defendants suspected of mental illness by keeping them jailed for weeks or even months awaiting a competency evaluation. "The state has consistently and over a long period of time violated the constitutional rights of the mentally ill - this must stop," the judgment read. On Monday, a second phase of the lawsuit, brought by attorneys of mentally ill inmates and the Washington state chapter of the American Civil Liberties Union, began in U.S. District Court in Seattle. Pechman will hear testimony on how to remedy the state's backlogged system and what time standards meet Constitutional requirements in evaluating a detained person for mental illness. Last week, Governor Jay Inslee signed a bill that doubled the maximum time a mentally ill person can be jailed awaiting competency evaluations or treatment to 14 days under state law. The court is not expected to issue an immediate ruling after testimony wraps up next week. It was also unclear what would happen should Pechman rule the state's new 14-day limit does not conform to due process protections. Her previous judgment found "wait times of less than seven days comport with due process, and that anything beyond seven days is suspect." A spokesman for the ACLU said on Monday state health officials "are still not complying with the Constitution." The state Department of Social and Health Services said last week that state officials "recognize that mental health services have been severely underfunded over the past few years and that critical investments in services are needed.” (Reporting by Victoria Cavaliere; Editing by Cynthia Johnston and Mohammad Zargham)
