Photo by Howard Owens
When a criminal suspect with mental health issues enters the justice system following an arrest, that defendant has a constitutional right to understand the proceedings, whether the defendant eventually ends up accepting a plea offer or facing trial.
In New York, that right is protected by statute as well in Article 730 of the Criminal Procedure Law.
Officials in Genesee County want to see the law changed because it is antiqued, and complying with it is expensive and less effective than more contemporary options for dealing with a defendant's mental health capacity.
To that end, the Genesee County Legislature is preparing to pass a resolution asking the State Legislature to amend Article 730. The Human Services Committee on Monday recommended the resolution be presented to the full Legislature.
"We're in a new era, and things need to change," Lynda Battaglia, director of Mental Health & Community Services, told the committee. "We have more innovative services; we have diversion; we have mental health treatment courts. All of that can be utilized before a person even gets to court. We have mental health treatment courts and drug treatment courts. All of those (options) will assist with lowering the cost of restoration."
With four defendants currently in state mental health hospitals undergoing restoration services, the county is facing a potential expense for 2024 of $1.2 million after budgeting only $300,000 for such services.
County Manager Matt Landers explained that he knew the expense could be higher when he was preparing the budget. The annual expense is impossible to predict because there is no way to guess at how many people arrested will have potential competency issues. If he had included even just another $300,000 in the budget, the property tax rate for the county would have gone up. With the conservative approach, he could avoid raising taxes, he said, and if the unanticipated expense hit, find the money elsewhere in county coffers -- for example, higher than anticipated sales tax revenue or fund reserves.
On Monday, the Human Services Committee also approved a resolution transferring $300,000 from personal services and the medical line item to contracted mental health care. The resolution still needs to be approved by the full Legislature at its next meeting.
The purpose of Article 730 is to ensure a defendant is able to understand the charges against him or her and participate in his or her own defense.
The state operations "forensic" hospitals solely for the purpose of trying to restore a defendant to competency so they can participate in the legal proceedings.
While competency restoration provides medication, the primary purpose is to help the defendant understand the proceedings in the courtroom.
It is not mental health treatment and does nothing to help alleviate or manage the defendant's mental health issues.
Judges, according to the proposed resolution, often do not understand that competency restoration is no substitute for mental health treatment.
Restoration can take from 90 to 150 days at a cost to the county of $1,300 a day.
Some defendants in New York have been in restoration for three, six, or even 10 years, though by legal precedent, the state cannot hold a mentally incompetent person indefinitely.
"They do have a right to restoration," Battaglia said. "They have to understand what's happening, what charges are being brought against them and to understand the trial process. That's their civil liberties."
Landers hopes that the four defendants currently receiving restoration services will be found competent to proceed with legal proceedings well before the county's bill approaches that $1.2 million mark.
He said he met with other county administrators from throughout the state a month ago, and competency restoration costs were a common concern.
All are pushing for changes in Article 730, including ensuring judges understand the 730 process is not mental health treatment and that the professionals conducting competency exams inform judges whether there is a reasonable chance of restoration, allowing judges to explore diversion programs and mental health treatment.
The change would also require counties to invest any savings realized from reform into community-based mental health services.
"It makes too much sense and I guess we're frustrated because from a clinical and from a financial side, we don't understand why there isn't movement on this," Landers said.
Photo by Howard Owens
