Maryland health department sued for leaving mentally ill criminal defendants 'languishing in jails'

Alex Mann, The Baltimore Sun on Jan 9, 2025

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A disability rights group is suing Maryland’s health secretary and health department in federal court for leaving mentally ill people accused of crimes to languish in jail rather than admitting them to psychiatric hospitals as required by state law.

Filed Thursday, the lawsuit by Disability Rights Maryland claims Health Secretary Dr. Laura Herrara Scott and the Maryland Department of Health are violating the U.S. and Maryland constitutions and the Americans with Disabilities Act.

The complaint seeks to address a longstanding crisis in the state that sees hundreds of defendants who are deemed too mentally ill to participate in their court cases and found to present a danger to themselves or others, left to deteriorate in jails ill-equipped to treat their conditions.

Maryland law requires the health department to admit defendants deemed incompetent to stand trial to state hospitals within 10 days of a judge’s order. In reality, that rarely happens.

“More than 200 individuals charged by the State of Maryland with a criminal offense, but determined to be incompetent to stand trial (IST) and a potential danger to themselves or others due to their mental health, have been detained and are currently languishing in jails — some for weeks to months at a time,” the complaint says. “Notwithstanding its unambiguously clear statutory obligation to do so, the Maryland Department of Health has continuously failed to commit these individuals to an appropriate health care facility for purposes of treatment, as ordered by Maryland courts.”

It takes the health department an average of 53 business days to transfer defendants deemed incompetent to stand trial from county jails to one of the five mental health facilities statewide, health officials told The Baltimore Sun in July. The department’s more than 1,000 beds are perpetually full, as patients stay in the department’s care for more than two years on average.

Frustrated that the department has continuously failed to comply with the 10-day deadline prescribed by state law, judges around the state have imposed fines against the department of hundreds of thousands of dollars. Health officials have said in court that the fines don’t solve the problem.

A spokesperson for the health department did not immediately respond to an emailed request for comment Thursday.

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