skip to main content
skip to newscasts

Thursday, March 28, 2024

Public News Service Logo
facebook instagram linkedin reddit youtube twitter
view newscast page
play newscast audioPlay

Pulling back the curtains on wage-theft enforcement in MN; Trump's latest attack is on RFK, Jr; NM LGBTQ+ equality group endorses 2024 'Rock Star' candidates; Michigan's youth justice reforms: Expanded diversion, no fees.

view newscast page
play newscast audioPlay

Transportation Secretary Pete Buttigieg says rebuilding Baltimore's Key Bridge will be challenging and expensive. An Alabama Democrat flips a state legislature seat and former Connecticut senator Joe Lieberman dies at 82.

view newscast page
play newscast audioPlay

Historic wildfires could create housing and health issues for rural Texans, a Kentucky program helps prison parolees start a new life, and descendants of Nicodemus, Kansas celebrate the Black settlers who journeyed across the 1870s plains seeking self-governance.

Fines to WA: $500K and Counting for Slow Mental Evaluations of Inmates

play audio
Play

Thursday, August 18, 2016   

SEATTLE – Washington state owes nearly $500,000 in fines over the last month for failing to provide mental competency evaluations within a week to inmates in jail.

The state has been fined $500 a day for each inmate who waits between 7 and 13 days for an evaluation, and a $1,000 each day after that.

Emily Cooper, a staff attorney at Disability Rights Washington, says the new deadlines for evaluations will greatly improve the lives of inmates with mental illnesses.

Disability Rights Washington was part of the against the state.

"People with mental illness suffer real harm from their warehouse in jail waiting for court-ordered services, and whether it's 7 or 14 days, this is a tremendous improvement from the weeks or months that some of our class members had been waiting in jail for evaluation when the suit was first filed," Cooper states.

Last month, U.S. District Judge Marsha Pechman held the state in contempt of court for violating inmates' civil rights by making them wait extended periods of time in jail for evaluations.

This week, Pechman extended the deadline for in-jail evaluations to 14 days.

The state’s Department of Social and Health Services (DSHS) says it has made improvements since the federal court decision last year, adding nearly 100 beds to its state hospitals so that more inmates in need of evaluation aren't housed in jails.

Cooper says some of her clients already have been harmed because of long wait periods.

"This is actually something that has kept me awake many a night,” she says. “As lawyers, we think if we go to court and we win, it's going to help our clients. And we won in April 2015 and since then we've had two class members die waiting in jail."

Thomas Kinlen, director of Forensic Mental Health Services at DSHS, is keeping track of the fines. According to Kinlen, DSHS paid nearly $200,000 in fines at the beginning of July.

That money is supposed to go toward funding programs aimed at keeping people with mental illnesses out of the criminal justice system.

Cooper says her organization has had promising conversations with the state about the programs that should be funded.

"It's really been wonderful that for two years we've been in protracted litigation with the state, and as a result of this contempt finding, we're actually sitting around the table with them and trying to come up with actual, concrete solutions and it's been a very respectful, productive conversation," she says.




get more stories like this via email

more stories
Many factors affect a customer's bill amount, including energy usage, weather, and the number of days in a billing period, according to Arizona Public Service. (Jason Yoder/Adobe Stock)

Social Issues

play sound

Earlier this month, a new Arizona Public Service rate hike went into effect and one senior advocacy group said those on a fixed income may struggle …


Social Issues

play sound

Michigan recently implemented a significant juvenile justice reform package following recommendations from a task force made up of prosecutors…

Social Issues

play sound

A mix of policy updates and staffing boosts has helped to put wage theft enforcement on the radar in Minnesota, and officials leading the efforts are …


More than six in 10 Americans favor keeping the abortion pill mifepristone available in the U.S. as a prescription drug, while over a third are opposed, according to a Gallup poll. (Adobe Stock)

Social Issues

play sound

New research shows more than six in 10 abortions in the U.S. last year were medically induced, and U.S. Sen. Catherine Cortez Masto - D-NV - is …

Social Issues

play sound

Colorado is working to boost the state's agricultural communities by getting more fresh, nutritious foods into school cafeterias - and a new online …

Social media platform X temporarily shutdown searches of "Taylor Swift" following the release of explicit deepfake images in early 2024. (Mdv Edwards/Adobe Stock)

Social Issues

play sound

Missouri lawmakers are concerned with protecting people from the potential risks of the increasing accessibility of AI-generated images and videos…

Social Issues

play sound

A 2023 study from the University of Nebraska Medical Center concluded the number of Nebraskans with a mental health or substance abuse disorder has pr…

Environment

play sound

A farm group is helping Iowa agriculture producers find ways to reduce the amount of nitrogen they use on their crops. Excess nitrates can wind up …

 

Phone: 303.448.9105 Toll Free: 888.891.9416 Fax: 208.247.1830 Your trusted member- and audience-supported news source since 1996 Copyright © 2021