Inmates with mental illness often wait months for care to give them a shot at being deemed capable to assist in their defense. Disability Rights North Carolina wants a judge to order the state’s Department of Health and Human Services to take immediate steps to drastically reduce those times.
Disability Rights NC sued the state health department in April saying that long waits for mental health care violate incarcerated people’s civil rights. This week the group asked a judge to issue an injunction ordering the state to start the process of restoring an inmate’s mental capacity within 14 days. That’s in line with what federal courts have ruled. It’s also a drastic reduction in current wait times. NCDHHS says those average 159 days, or just over five months.
The request cites testimony from Daniel Murrie, director of the University of Virginia’s Institute of Law, Psychiatry, and Public Policy. He was part of WFAE’s series “Fractured” that examined long waits for mental health care in jails.
As part of Disability Right’s request, Murrie made recommendations, including offering community-based capacity restoration programs, like those in Mecklenburg and Wake counties, across the state; developing a triage system; and allowing inmates awaiting treatment to start taking medication in jail.
NCDHHS says the department is making “significant investments” to expand capacity restoration programs, using a chunk of $99 million in new state money focused on “improving the health and well-being” of those incarcerated.
Community-based restoration programs and those based in jails are part of the department’s strategy to cut wait times. NCDHHS says as the state has seen an increase in demand for capacity restoration, “state psychiatric hospitals have struggled with unprecedented staffing shortages, limiting their ability to operate at full volume …causing long waitlists for beds.”
