Spokane attorney: State hospital patients with no mental illness should be released
Patients at Eastern and Western State Hospitals who have been adjudicated not guilty by reason of insanity and are no longer mentally ill are entitled to their release, a Spokane attorney argued before a federal judge Tuesday morning.
At a hearing at the U.S. District Court of Eastern Washington, attorney Andrew Biviano asked Judge Thomas Rice to order the state Department of Social and Health Services to review and identify all NGRI patients at state hospitals whom clinicians acknowledge have no mental illness. Those patients do not meet constitutional commitment criteria, Biviano argued, and should be discharged.
Tuesday’s hearing was part of an ongoing federal lawsuit against Washington state and DSHS, alleging that current state laws violate NGRI patients of their constitutional and civil rights to adequate mental health treatment and release. The plaintiffs in the suit are three NGRI patients at Eastern and Western State Hospitals — including Ketema Ross, whom we wrote about in February — and Disability Rights Washington, an organizational plaintiff representing for all NGRI patients at state hospitals. DSHS is required by law to regularly assess NGRI patients and petition the courts for their conditional or final release.
<snip>
When asked by the judge, Assistant Attorney General Sarah Coats flatly denied that there are any NGRI patients at Eastern or Western State Hospitals with no treatable mental illness.
<Snip>
...Biviano pointed to the case of plaintiff J.T., a former NGRI patient at Eastern State Hospital. (You can read his story here.) Biviano said DSHS actively opposed J.T.’s release for more than a year after his doctor determined he wasn’t mentally ill. J.T. was discharged last month when the superior court judge and prosecutor in the county where his case was tried agreed that his continued commitment was unconstitutional. There are other patients, Biviano said, like J.T. who have no mental illness and remain confined with no plans for release.
= new reply since forum marked as read
Seven years ago, Jonte “Rock Steady” Willis missed making the U.S. Olympic boxing team by two digits on a tiebreaking punch-count scorecard.
Seven years later, the one-time U.S. amateur super heavyweight champion sits in the Pierce County Jail, waiting for admission to Western State Hospital and mental-health treatment theoretically guaranteed by law.
He’s been locked up since July 23 on a no-bail hold. He gets no treatment — no medication, no therapy, no counseling, no help. Legal and bureaucratic barriers hinder it. Judy Snow, the jail’s mental health manager, calls them “cinder blocks.”
A further consequence: Due to his mental status, Willis was held in solitary confinement until a few weeks ago — 23 hours a day in a single cell, alone with his racing thoughts
Read more here: http://www.thenewstribune.com/2014/11/23/3499126_tacoma-boxer-trapped-in-state.html?rh=1#storylink=cpy
