Trueblood v. Wash. State Dep't of Soc. & Health Servs.

MARSHA J. PECHMAN, Chief Judge.

Anita Khandelwal, Public Defender Association, Christopher Robert Carney, Kenan Lee Isitt, Sean P. Gillespie, Carney Gillespie Isitt PLLP, David R. Carlson, Emily Cooper, Anna Catherine Guy, Disability Rights Washington, La Rond Baker, Margaret Chen, American Civil Liberties Union of Washington, Seattle, WA, for Plaintiffs.

Amber Lea Leaders, John K. McIlhenny, Nicholas A. Williamson, Washington State Attorney General, Sarah Jane Coats, Olympia, WA, for Defendants.

FINDINGS OF FACT AND CONCLUSIONS OF LAW

MARSHA J. PECHMAN, Chief Judge.

Plaintiffs bring this action seeking an order to compel Defendants to provide timely competency evaluation and restoration services to class members—individuals charged with a crime who are detained in city and county jails awaiting services—after a court orders that Defendants provide

class members with those services. The Court previously granted Plaintiffs' motion for summary judgment, finding that wait times of up to seven days were constitutional, and that wait times beyond seven days were suspect. In order to determine the precise outer boundary of constitutionally permissible wait times in this case, and to determine the appropriate remedy, the Court held a seven-day bench trial, which began on March 16, 2015, and concluded on March 25, 2015. Plaintiffs were represented by Emily Cooper, La Rond Baker, Christopher Carney, Anita Kandelwal, and David Carlson; Defendants were represented by Sarah Coats, John McIlhenny, Amber Leaders, and Nicholas Williamson. After consideration of the evidence and the arguments submitted, the Court makes and enters the following Findings of Fact and Conclusions of Law:

Summary

The State of Washington is violating the constitutional rights of some of its most vulnerable citizens. The State has consistently failed to provide timely competency evaluation and restoration services, services needed to determine whether individuals understand the charges against them and can aid in their own defenses, which is required in order for them to stand trial. By failing to provide competency evaluation and restoration services within seven days of a court order, the State fails to provide both the substantive and procedural due process required by the Constitution. Our jails are not suitable places for the mentally ill to be warehoused while they wait for services. Jails are not hospitals, they are not designed as therapeutic environments, and they are not equipped to manage mental illness or keep those with mental illness from being victimized by the general population of inmates. Punitive settings and isolation for twenty-three hours each day exacerbate mental illness and increase the likelihood that the individual will never recover.

The Department of Social and Health Services has been hampered in providing these required services by insufficient funding for beds and personnel. Without these resources, they cannot collaborate and coordinate with the other agencies and courts involved in the criminal mental health system. The Department of Social and Health Services has failed to change its procedures to respond to this ongoing crisis, and has routinely defied the orders of Washington's state courts, a practice that has resulted in hundreds of thousands of dollars in contempt fines. The Department continues to fail to make significant progress in implementing any of the reforms recommended by auditors and experts. The Department has failed to plan ahead for growth in the demand for competency services, which has increased every year for the last decade, and has failed to show the leadership and capacity for innovation that is required to address the crisis. Other states and counties have been able to meet the constitutional requirements, and so can the State of Washington.

In order to stop these continued violations, the Court enters a permanent injunction requiring the provision of competency services within seven days. The Court will appoint a monitor to ensure that progress toward the timely provision of services is being made. The mentally ill are deserving of the protections of the Constitution that our forefathers so carefully crafted. The rights protected can be difficult and sometimes costly to secure; however, the Constitution is a guarantee to all people, and is not dependent upon a price tag. The State must honor its obligations under the law.

FINDINGS OF FACT

I. The Class

1. Class members are all pretrial detainees waiting in jail for court-ordered competency services that Defendants are statutorily required to provide. Putative next friends seek to assert claims on behalf of named Plaintiffs. On October 31, 2014, the Court certified the class as: All persons who are now, or will be in the future, charged with a crime in the State of Washington and: (a) who are ordered by a court to receive competency evaluation or restoration services through the Washington State Department of Social and Health Services (“DSHS”); (b) who are waiting in jail for those services; and (c) for whom DSHS receives the court order.

2. Plaintiff K.R. was booked into Thurston County Jail on June 23, 2014. On July 3, 2014, a court ordered Western State Hospital (“WSH”) to evaluate his competency. The evaluation was completed on July 23, 2014. On July 30, 2014, the court found K.R. incompetent and ordered that he be admitted to WSH for competency restoration treatment. WSH confirmed receipt of the order on July 30, 2014. K.R. was not admitted to WSH for competency restoration until October 3, 2014. While waiting for transportation to WSH for court-ordered competency services, K.R. was incarcerated for more than seventy-five days where he lacked medication and spent the vast majority of that time in solitary confinement after being assaulted by his cellmate.

3. Plaintiff A.B. was an inmate at the Snohomish County Jail on July 2, 2014, when a court found her incompetent and ordered her to be admitted to WSH for competency restoration services. Defendants received the court order on or about July 3, 2014. While waiting for transportation to WSH for court-ordered competency services, A.B. was incarcerated for thirty-seven days in solitary confinement where she declined to take medication or wash herself.

4. Plaintiff D.D. was booked into Spokane County Jail on July 29, 2014. On August 5, 2014, the court ordered that Defendants conduct a competency evaluation. Eastern State Hospital (“ESH”) confirmed receipt of the court order for competency evaluation on August 6, 2014. D.D. was evaluated by ESH on September 10, 2014. D.D. waited thirty-five days in solitary confinement or on suicide watch, which is also a form of solitary confinement, after making numerous statements about wanting to die at Spokane County Jail before the evaluation was completed. D.D. was eventually found not competent to stand trial.

5. In the month preceding trial, one class member committed suicide while incarcerated and waiting for DSHS to provide competency services.

6. Each named Plaintiff and class member is a constituent of Plaintiff Disability Rights Washington (“DRW”). All fall within DRW's mandate to ensure that the rights of persons with mental health conditions are protected. DRW's interests are in complete alignment with those of the class members.

7. DRW is a private non-profit organization designated by the Governor of the State of Washington as the protection and advocacy system for individuals with mental, physical, sensory, and developmental disabilities in the state of Washington pursuant to the Developmental Disabilities Assistance and Bill of Rights Act, 42 U.S.C. § 15041 et seq. ; the Protection and Advocacy for Individuals with Mental Illness Act, as amended, 42 U.S.C. § 10801 et seq. ; the Protection and Advocacy of Individual Rights Act, 29 U.S.C. § 794e; and RCW 71A.10.080.

II. The Competency Process

8. Defendant DSHS is charged under Washington law with overseeing competency services, including evaluations and restorations. RCW 10.77 et seq. If an individual is found to be incompetent to stand trial, state law places responsibility on Defendant for “providing mental health treatment and restoration of competency.” RCW 10.77.088; see also 10.77.084 and 10.77.086.

9. When a court has ordered an individual to undergo competency evaluation or restoration, the individual's criminal case is stayed during all competency-related proceedings. See RCW 10.77.084 (providing that after a criminal defendant has been found incompetent, the proceedings against the defendant are stayed); Washington State Court Rules: Superior Court Criminal Rules, CrR 3.3(e)(1) (excluding all proceedings related to the competency of a defendant to stand trial when computing time for trial).

10. Defendants provide competency services in local jails, in the community, or at the two state hospitals, ESH and WSH. See RCW 10.77.060. Nearly ninety percent of evaluations occur outside the state hospitals, either in jails or, for persons who have been released from jail on personal recognizance, in the community.

11. The process begins when there is reason for a judge or an attorney to doubt that an individual charged with a crime is competent to stand trial. Because state and federal law forbid the criminal prosecution of individuals who do not understand the charges against them or are unable to aid in their own defenses, courts order that these individuals' competency be evaluated to determine whether they may stand trial. RCW 10.77.060; See also Medina v. California, 505 U.S. 437, 449, 112 S.Ct. 2572, 120 L.Ed.2d 353 (1992) (“the Due Process Clause affords an incompetent defendant the right not to be tried”).

12. When a court orders a competency evaluation, the court order is sent to Defendants, who gather the required documentation and assign the case to an evaluator.

13. In order to complete an evaluation, an evaluator requires the following documents: (1) the court order; (2) the charging documents; and (3) discovery (e.g., criminal history, police reports). If the evaluation will be completed at one of the state hospitals, the individual must also be medically cleared, i.e., cleared by a medical professional at the jail as stable enough to receive care in a psychiatric hospital, which is not equipped to handle all types of medical emergencies.

14. While evaluators require access to the necessary documentation, the evaluation is based primarily on a thirty-to-ninety-minute face-to-face interview with the individual.

15. After completion of the evaluation, the evaluator provides his or her report and recommendation to the court in which the criminal proceeding is pending. RCW 10.77.065. If the court finds the individual competent to stand trial, the criminal prosecution resumes. If the court finds the individual incompetent, the proceedings are stayed and the court may enter a competency restoration order as allowed by RCW 10.77.086 or 10.77.088.

16. Approximately fifty percent of individuals ordered to receive a competency evaluation in Washington are found to be incompetent to stand trial.

17. Depending on the nature of the criminal charges against the individual, the court orders restoration periods ranging from two weeks to ninety days. RCW 10.77.088 (non-felony restorations) and 10.77.086 (felony restorations). Restoration periods of forty-five days are ordered

for individuals charged with class B and C felonies, and periods of ninety days are ordered for individuals charged with all other felonies. After a hearing, a second ninety-day restoration period may be ordered. If certain conditions are met, a court may order additional restoration treatment for a period of up to six months. Restoration periods of fourteen days, in addition to any unused in-patient evaluation time, are ordered for individuals charged with serious non-felony crimes, for total restoration periods of up to twenty-nine days.

18. Individuals charged with non-serious non-felony crimes are not ordered for restoration if they are found incompetent. Instead, their charges are dismissed or stayed, and the individual may be referred for civil commitment under RCW 71.05.

19. Sixty percent of individuals charged with misdemeanors have their charges dismissed after the completion of a competency evaluation. Ninety percent of individuals referred for competency evaluations have had prior contact with the criminal justice system. Thirty-seven percent have been referred for a competency evaluation more than once since 2011.

20. If the court orders that an incompetent individual receive competency restoration services, the individual is placed on a waiting list for admission to one of the state hospitals, ESH or WSH, where DSHS provides competency restoration services. Individuals who receive competency evaluations at the state hospitals and are found to be incompetent are usually transported back to jail, where they must wait until Defendants have sufficient bed space and staff to provide the ordered restoration services.

21. From 2001 to 2011, Washington has seen an eighty-two percent increase in the demand for competency evaluations. Demand for competency services has grown, and is expected to continue to grow, at a rate of eight to ten percent per year. In addition to yearly growth, there are seasonal fluctuations in the demand for services each year.

22. For years, Defendants have failed to timely provide competency services pursuant to state law and have almost never provided court-ordered competency services within seven days. While much of DSHS's data is incomplete and unreliable due to poor data collection and management practices and a lack of consistency of practices across the state hospitals, the following chart, based on information provided by DSHS to the legislature in December 2014, is illustrative of the nature and persistence of Defendants' delays: