A price of due process: Genesee County is in for $775K to cover competency evaluations
Genesee County will have spent upwards of a million dollars on competency-related services for questionable individuals sent to court, Mental Health Services Director Lynda Battaglia says.
Battaglia requested $166,000 during Monday’s Human Services meeting for an additional 730 competency invoices, explaining to county legislators that “I will be coming back to ask for additional funding, but this is what we’re going to pay so far.”
“We’re waiting for some invoices to come in from (the Office of Mental Health) and (Office for People With Developmental Disabilities). When those invoices come in, we will have spent about $775,000 in 2024 on these services,” she said as some legislators seemed sticker-shocked. “So this is 100% county cost. The individual is not competent to stand trial. Therefore, they’re designated to a psychiatric facility in order for competency to be restored because that’s their due process, right?”
A person who is charged with anything from petit larceny up to more serious felony crimes such as assault and who may be incompetent and therefore unable to stand trial is afforded due process, she explained. Defendants have a right to understand the charges being brought against them and to be able to aid in their own defense for the legal process to proceed.
“So if our psychologists deem them incompetent, then they’re designated to a bed, and they have to get restored to competency, depending on the length of that time and the changes, they will come back once they’re restored and go have their trial and their hearing,” she said.
Legislator John Deleo asked if all of these people were from Genesee County or from other counties, and others asked how many actually go through this process. Each county is going through a similar situation and expense, Battaglia said, and these people belong to Genesee.
“For 2024, we probably have had about eight to 10 individuals. Sometimes we run the risk that it’s the same individual a couple of times throughout the year,” Battaglia said. “Those are individuals who pay their time, go back out into the community, get rearrested, and don’t link with services. So it’s not a huge number of individuals; it’s the cost that is the significant number. It’s about $1,300 or $1,400 per day per person. The average length of stay in a (mental restoration) facility is about 90 days. But this is on NYSAC’s (the NYS Association of Counties) radar, and this is on the conference’s radar, and they’re always trying to push legislation to make changes.”
Legislative Chair Shelley Stein asked her to explain the full process of how someone enters the system and is not only diverted for a mental health evaluation once but that it can be a repetitive cycle.
For example, a person is arrested, goes before a judge, and is released on his own recognizance but has to return. If the attorney or anybody determines that the person is experiencing symptoms of mental illness and doesn’t understand the process, the judge can be asked to order a 730 competency evaluation.
“It’s the judge's decision. The judges will usually order that evaluation, and the judge is ordering me to find two psychologists to evaluate an individual. So through the clinic, we schedule this individual, let's say, for two competency evaluations by two different psychologists, and then they will make the determination as to whether or not they're competent to stand trial or not,” Battaglia said.
A report is returned to the judge when a defendant is found incompetent. The judge decides whether he or she agrees with the evaluation. Therefore, it is not a decision of the Mental Health Department; it is a criminal justice system decision, she said.
If the judge agrees with the report that the person is not competent, then he will be designated to a facility for restoration services and may go back to the jail and wait for a bed to be designated, she said. When a bed is designated, her office is notified, and the jail transports the person. During that time in the facility, a treatment team does “whatever they need to do in order to try to restore competency.”
“Oftentimes, that might be medication over objection, that might be going through some mock trials to see if they understand the charges. Once restoration is restored, they go back,” she said. “Sometimes their charges may be dropped if they're lower misdemeanor charges because of the lot of time that they've spent in the jail and facility, they might just say, Okay, your time's kind of been served. If they're felony charges, they're going to come back to the jail and stand trial."
Others could be ordered to serve a few months in jail, and once released, they're back in the community and may commit another crime. That could mean another 730 proceeding is ordered.
"When you think about an individual who has developmental disabilities, if somebody has a cognitive developmental disability, the restoration for that is, I hate to say it, but it's nothing," she said. "We can't restore that cognitive functioning. So they come back in the community, try to wrap services around them, work with service providers. But ultimately, that person has autonomy, and they can decide whether or not they want those services. They might not want them, and therefore the cycle continues.”
Those who are restored go on to face a trial, and some may end up going to state prison, returning to the community, and/or obtaining additional legal services. It’s “very, very individualized,” she said, depending on the crime.
The Human Services Committee agreed to pass along the resolution for approval to transfer an amount of $166,000 to cover the expense of competency restorations for individuals found unable to assist in their defense at a court hearing in the year 2024.
