Oregon found in contempt, faces hefty fines for delaying admissions to state psychiatric hospital

A federal judge on Friday found the Oregon State Hospital

in contempt of a court order

governing the timely admissions of criminal defendants and will issue hefty daily fines starting Saturday to force the hospital to comply.

U.S. District Judge Adrienne Nelson said the state has not taken “all reasonable steps” to admit

jailed criminal defendants

to the psychiatric hospital within

seven days for treatment when they are found unable to assist in their defense

.

Nelson said the state’s crisis is largely the result of its “lack of foresight.”

Its failure to correct the situation warrants the contempt finding and financial sanctions, she wrote in a

21-page opinion

.

She set fines of $500 a day per class member of the lawsuit against the state — a class member is each criminal defendant found unable to assist in their defense who is waiting for admission to the hospital.

They face the potential for harm “if not actual, harm each day they remain in jail despite their known lack of competency to face charges and need for treatment,” Nelson wrote.

The judge also said the neutral expert appointed in the case, Debra Pinals, will now serve as a court monitor as the case proceeds and that the state will be responsible for the costs of making the change.

The state needs the expert’s


further guidance to adhere to the court order, Nelson wrote.

She further directed the Oregon Health Authority to quicken the discharge of patients who no longer need a hospital level of care and said it must work to eliminate the backlog of forensic evaluators to provide assessments of defendants.

Disability Rights Oregon, which sought the contempt finding, hailed the ruling as a landmark decision.

“Today’s ruling is a major win for our clients whose constitutional rights have been violated while they suffer in jail instead of receiving the court-ordered mental health restoration services they need,” said Jake Cornett, executive director and chief executive officer of the agency.

He said he hopes the sanctions will “kickstart real solutions” to fix the state’s “broken mental health system.”

Disability Rights Oregon first sued the state in 2002, alleging that the state hospital’s failure to quickly admit defendants who need treatment violated their rights to a speedy trial and due process.

U.S. District Judge Owen M. Panner ruled then that the hospital must admit defendants within seven days of a court finding that mental illness prevents them from participating in their defense. Many of them had been waiting in jail without treatment.

In hearings before Nelson earlier this year,


Thomas Stenson, an attorney for Disability Rights Oregon, argued that the Oregon Health Authority had “no coherent” plan on how or when it would meet the seven-day admissions order.

“Wait-and-see is no longer an answer,” he told Nelson.

The advocacy group also had asked Nelson to limit who can be admitted to the state hospital, which the judge did not do.

Stenson argued that only defendants facing felonies who need mental health treatment — but not those facing misdemeanors or lower-level violations – should be admitted.

Oregon Department of Justice lawyer Jill Conbere, representing the state, had urged the judge to allow the legislative and budgeting process to play out before issuing a contempt finding or sanctions.

Gov. Tina Kotek has proposed spending at least $220 million to improve mental health care in Oregon, including $90 million for adding secure residential treatment facilities, $50 million for hiring more staff and another $80 million for permanent supportive housing.

But Nelson said the state’s actions were too little too late.

“In sum, defendants have not persuasively explained why adding more staff, funding and capacity in anticipation of this increased need was impossible,” she wrote.

In April, the state hospital admitted 128 defendants found unable to assist in their defense — tying for the largest number of aid-and-assist admissions in one month, Nelson noted in her ruling. That month, the average wait time for their transfer to the hospital was 20.7 days, down from March’s average wait of 25.4 days.

Either way, it’s far beyond the court-ordered seven days allowed, Nelson said.

If Nelson’s ruling had been in place as of June 1, 2024, the state would have owed about $9.4 million in fines through the end of last month, according to advocates for the defendants.

Jason Renaud of the Mental Health Association of Portland estimated the state could face up to $1.5 million a month in fines going forward.

— Maxine Bernstein covers federal court and criminal justice. Reach her at 503-221-8212, mbernstein@oregonian.com, follow her on X


@maxoregonian


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