Class action lawsuit detail jail mental health crisis

OKLAHOMA CITY (KFOR) - The State Department of Mental is at the center of a new lawsuit, claiming they aren't giving inmates access to mental health resources fast enough.

The class action lawsuit involves plaintiffs from Tulsa, Comanche and Oklahoma Counties who suffer from severe mental illness but claim they're being denied timely mental health treatment.

While previously documented by stakeholders in a 2022 state House of Representatives interim committee meeting, that crisis is laid out in a nearly 60 page class action complaint filed on March first against the Commissioner of the Department of Mental Health and Substance Abuse Services and the Executive Director of the Oklahoma Forensic Center, pinpointing a broken system aimed at restoring mental health competency for anyone unfit to stand trial.

“This is a crisis. And it’s not just a crisis for the defendants. It’s a crisis for all of our county jails. It’s difficult right now for them to find folks to work in the county jail, but it’s compounded when they have to deal with mentally ill people . . . when their behaviors escalate. [Jail employees] are not trained, they don’t have the knowledge to deal with the types of behaviors they’re seeing."

Custer County Special District Judge Donna Dirickson at an October 2022 state House of Representatives interim study committee meeting

While the lawsuit states that most people found intially incompetent can be restored, it goes on to detail a "horrifying legal purgatory" where plaintiffs are "caged in county jails" that are not designed for therapeutic care.

Instead, the plaintiffs are allegedly languishing for months or more before receiving treatment, including one plaintiff from Oklahoma County who was arrested for breaking into an apartment and stealing a guitar.

He reportedly has a documented history of delusions, paranois and a psychotic disorder.

As of the filing of this complaining, he's been locked up in the Oklahoma County jail for 86 days and counting.

KFOR contacted the Department of Mental Health and Substance Abuse Servicesand have not heard back.

The website noted an ": There is a national delay in criminal defendants accessing mental health services, impacting patient flow and creating barriers to entering and exiting the forensic hospital system."

There is a national delay in criminal defendants accessing mental health services, impacting patient flow and creating barriers to entering and exiting the forensic hospital system. The increasing demand for inpatient forensic services at OFC has caused a waitlist of individuals within jails needing competency evaluations and restoration

Dr. Crystal Hernandez, Executive Director of OFC

The class action lawsuit alleges that the "number of existing Class members fluctuates", and that is appears the "Defendants are obscuring the true number of persons awaiting restoration services", while stating that the class members is "believed to be in excess of 100 individuals".