Nevada official grilled on failure to quickly transport defendants for competency treatment

A Las Vegas judge grilled a state official Wednesday on the problem of long delays before criminal defendants are sent to government hospitals to have their mental competency restored.

“Their rights are being violated by holding them in custody without treatment and providing proper restorative treatment, so my choice is either to dismiss the charges or violate their constitutional rights,” District Judge Christy Craig said. “What is it that the State of Nevada, the Department of Human Services and the Division (of Public and Behavioral Health) are recommending that the court do? Am I violating their rights and holding them in custody or am I dismissing serious charges?”

Laura Rich, director of the Nevada Department of Human Services since January, said the decision was not up to her.

“While I understand the frustration of the court, this is not something that I can weigh in on,” she told the judge.

“You’re the ones who put me in this position by failing to provide prompt restorative treatment,” Craig said later in the hearing.

Rich’s department includes the Division of Public and Behavioral Health, the agency that runs the state mental hospitals at the center of the issue.

According to Chief Deputy Public Defender Sarah Hawkins, 162 people in Clark County are currently awaiting competency restoration treatment with an average wait time of 90 to 100 days.

‘Should shock the conscience’

The issue has been litigated repeatedly in the last few years.

In multiple recent cases, District Judge Christy Craig has held the state in contempt of court and ordered fines of $1,000 or more a day.

Last year, the Nevada Supreme Court found that dismissing cases was an appropriate recourse after the state failed to promptly transport defendants for competency treatment.

Of the cases before her Wednesday, Craig declined to dismiss some or did not immediately issue rulings.

But she did dismiss a case in which a woman named Destiny Brown faced a battery on a protected person charge and ordered the release of Brown, who had been awaiting treatment for over 90 days.

Clark County prosecutors have argued that dismissing cases, which could result in the release of defendants from jail without treatment or monitoring, endangers public safety. They have pointed out that the delays are not their fault.

Public defenders view the delays as a violation of their clients’ rights.

“Warehousing incompetent persons in non-therapeutic, punitive and oppressive environments like the Clark County Detention Center while simultaneously depriving them of the prompt restorative treatment to which they are entitled should shock the conscience,” Hawkins argued in court.

Judge says state has ignored issue

The judge criticized what she perceived as the state’s inaction.

“It’s your division, your department’s responsibility to provide these services, and the Supreme Court has made very clear that difficulties in the availability of beds, resources, staffing shortages isn’t an excuse,” Craig said. “What’s the department’s answer to this?”

She added: “The condition that I’m in is the result of the division ignoring this over the last 20 years. It’s not like it just snuck up on everybody.”

Rich repeated, over and over throughout the hearing, that her department could “only operate within the confines of the resources that we’ve been allocated.”

“What we can do is continue to have those conversations with lawmakers and our county partners to find solutions and to discuss possible alternatives,” she said.

Craig cut the director off.

“The division having conversations over the last year helps me zero because it hasn’t resulted in anything,” she said.

Future solutions

Rich said the state would break ground on a new hospital Thursday.

The state has cast that facility as a way to ameliorate the problem. Rich also spoke of efforts to provide competency treatment while defendants are in jail and to add beds to an existing state hospital.

Jail-based restoration would only add about 60 beds, Rich said. The state previously told the Las Vegas Review-Journal that the new hospital will have 298 beds. It is expected to open in 2029.

Rich reported that her agency discusses the issue frequently with Clark County and Gov. Joe Lombardo’s office.

“We are all very motivated to fix this problem,” the director testified.

In a statement, Lombardo spokesperson Drew Galang said, “Governor Lombardo is committed to working with the Department of Human Services to address this longstanding challenge, reflected in the $339 million investment in the Southern Nevada Forensic Facility which will reduce delays, expand treatment capacity, and better serve patients, courts, and the broader justice system.”

Galang added Lombardo included $21 million in funding for Clark and Washoe County jail-based treatment in special session legislation.

The public defender questioned Rich about immediate relief.

“Would you agree with me that a groundbreaking of a hospital does nothing to alleviate the current restorative treatment delay?” asked Hawkins.

“Respectfully, I have to say it will not alleviate it today or tomorrow but as I said, there are actions being taken to alleviate this in the future,” Rich replied.

“We’re having very frequent meetings to address this, but as of right now, we have no solutions that we are rolling out today,” the director conceded in response to a follow-up question.