The San Bernardino County Board of Supervisors on Tuesday approved a $10.8 million contract with the state to expand a treatment program for mentally ill inmates at the West Valley Detention Center in Rancho Cucamonga to include inmates from other counties across California.
Under its contract with the Department of State Hospitals, West Valley’s Jail Based Competency Treatment Program, tailored to restore mental competency to inmates so they can stand trial for the crimes in which they are accused, would expand from 20 to 96 beds and allow mentally ill inmates from Los Angeles County and other California counties that do not offer such a program to receive treatment.
Mentally ill inmates from other counties receiving treatment at West Valley would be housed at the Rancho Cucamonga jail throughout the duration of their treatment, but preference will be given to inmates in San Bernardino County’s jail system, said Terry Fillman, health services administrator for the San Bernardino County Sheriff’s Department.
The average time it takes to treat an inmate and get them to the point where they are mentally competent to stand trial is about 57 days, Fillman said.
At any given time, there are roughly 50 inmates in San Bernardino County’s jail system who have been declared by a judge to be mentally incompetent to stand trial and referred to a state hospital or program for treatment. And in Los Angeles County, that inmate average is double, Fillman said.
Los Angeles Sheriff’s Department spokeswoman Nicole Nishida said there are about 100 inmates, charged with various felonies, who have been declared mentally incompetent to stand trial by a judge and are expected to be transferred to the West Valley Detention Center, if clinically appropriate.
“The inmates selected will be those who are not in need of acute hospitalization but rather high functioning,” Nishida said in an email. “More complex and unstable inmates will continue to be treated in the state hospital setting.”
San Bernardino County supervisors approved the expanded treatment program for inmates in San Bernardino and Los Angeles counties in April, but administrative issues delayed the referral of inmates from Los Angeles County into the program, and so the DSH requested that San Bernardino County amend its contract to allow inmates from other counties to participate in the program at West Valley as well in order to maximize its use, according to a staff report prepared for county supervisors.
“Right now, since we’ve been ramping up the program, we currently have a total of 55 San Bernardino County inmates in the program,” Fillman said. “We currently don’t have a wait list at all.”
According to the staff report prepared for San Bernardino County supervisors, the shortage of DSH beds has created lengthy waiting lists for inmates in county jails who are in need of mental health services. West Valley’s program would allow inmates to begin treatment sooner and get their criminal cases moved through the court system quicker.
In recent years, the DSH has been struggling to keep up with the number of offenders declared mentally incompetent to stand trial being admitted to state hospitals for treatment. Programs like the one at the West Valley Detention Center aid in helping reducing the backlog and easing that burden, said Ken August, spokesman for the Department of State Hospitals.
“The department is also exploring additional jail-based competency treatment programs with other counties and has added beds and improved processes at its hospitals to increase the number of (prisoners declared mentally incompetent to stand trial) who are served,” August said in an e-mail. He said the state’s 2015-2016 budget supports proposals to increase capacity in future years for treating such offenders.
The DSH came under fire last week, when U.S. District Court Judge Kimberly Mueller gave the state 30 days to explain why there were 256 available beds at Atascadero State Hospital in San Luis Abispo but a backlog of mentally ill prisoners awaiting mental health treatment, according to The Associated Press.
August said that Atascadero has an order to treat 256 intermediate care low-custody mentally ill prisoners from the California Department of Corrections and Rehabilitation, and as of Aug. 10, the DSH had 149 mentally ill prisoners that met the criteria for treatment at Atascadero.
“(Atascadero) has unlocked dormitories and, as such, not all mentally ill prisoners referred from CDCR can safely be treated in this environment,” August said. “DSH considers both custodial and clinical factors when determining whether a mentally ill prisoner can be safely treated at (Atascadero).”
Pennsylvania-based Liberty Healthcare Inc., which contracts with the DSH, will provide the added mental health care professionals to treat inmates under the expanded program at West Valley.
“This program shows that effective solutions can be implemented in ways that enhance treatment for patients and removes costly systematic barriers,” said Liberty Healthcare Vice President Ken Carabello.
San Bernardino Bernardno County Sheriff John McMahon said in a news release that the program has been a “big success” since it began as a 20-bed pilot program in 2011.
“It has not only provided needed treatment to mentally ill inmates, it has resulted in those same inmates spending significantly less time in jail,” McMahon said.
Staff writer Sarah Favot contributed to this report.
