At Circuit Court, defendants with mental health challenges struggle to help with their cases

This month, Clatsop County Circuit Court saw a record number of defendants unable to aid and assist in their legal defense against criminal charges due to incapacitating mental health issues.

With a persistent shortage of space at the Oregon State Hospital in Salem and a federal court order limiting the amount of time defendants can stay at the psychiatric facility, the increase in what is known as the fitness-to-proceed docket has presented significant challenges statewide.

As of May, 27 defendants were on the docket in Circuit Court in Astoria. When the docket was initially established in January 2020, there were 12.

The fitness-to-proceed docket was devised by Judge Cindee Matyas as a way to get cases moving through the courts more quickly at a time when the state had been under pressure from disability rights attorneys and public defenders to comply with a federal court ruling.

In 2002, a U.S. District Court judge ruled that aid-and-assist defendants could not remain in jail for more than seven days before being taken to the Oregon State Hospital. The ruling, upheld by the 9th U.S. Circuit Court of Appeals in 2003, was intended to prevent defendants who need mental health treatment to be able to participate in their cases from languishing in jail indefinitely.

“The idea behind it was we were seeing aid-and-assist cases just taking a long time to get an evaluation, taking a long time to get to the state hospital,” said presiding Judge Beau Peterson, who now oversees the fitness-to-proceed docket. “I think that was a statewide feeling, but we were definitely seeing it in our neck of the woods.”

Time limits

Over the years, federal judges have stepped in several times to prod the state to meet the standard set by the federal court ruling. Time limits have also been set for how long defendants can remain at the state hospital for treatment to restore their fitness to proceed in their cases.

Under an order from U.S. District Court Judge Michael Mosman, defendants whose most serious charge is a misdemeanor against another person face a maximum time of commitment for fitness restoration of 90 days.

For defendants with felony charges, the maximum time of commitment is six months. For violent felony charges covered by Measure 11, they could be held for up to a year.

Over half of the defendants on the fitness-to-proceed docket in Clatsop County Circuit Court have been charged with felonies. Nine are committed at the Oregon State Hospital.

The Oregon Judicial Department has shared data that show fewer defendants have been declared fit to proceed in their cases after commitments at the state hospital since Mosman’s order.

“And then you’re trying to finish that process in the community, and that gets challenging,” Peterson said. “Or if you have a particularly serious case where release is not really an option, the hospital is still limiting their stay.

“That becomes challenging because CBH (Clatsop Behavioral Healthcare) can’t provide restoration services in the jail if you’ve got someone who isn’t appropriate for a conditional release. There’s no good option at that point.”

A lack of middle ground between commitment and community restoration leaves an increasing number of aid-and-assist cases in limbo. Clatsop County has no secure mental health treatment facility. Local hospitals are not equipped with the type of staff and facilities needed to get defendants restored to competency for court.

“Oregon Judicial Department data confirm that there has been a significant uptick in the numbers of individuals being released from OSH because they have reached the time limits but are not restored to fitness,” Multnomah County Circuit Court Judge Nan Waller, who co-chairs the Oregon Judicial Department’s Behavioral Health Advisory Committee, said in an email. “We are also seeing people with more serious charges being released from OSH in need of a community placement, but those community placements are often simply unavailable.”

Bridging the gap

When commitment to the Oregon State Hospital is no longer an option for defendants, it often falls to Clatsop Behavioral Healthcare — the county’s mental health and substance abuse treatment contractor — to try and bridge the gap.

Community restoration services for defendants who have been released from jail or the state hospital revolve around ensuring appropriate housing, medical support and routine follow-ups.

While some defendants want the help and support so they can aid and assist in their legal cases, others pick up more criminal charges and find themselves back in jail and the state hospital.

“There’s not as much access to the appropriate level to stabilize somebody, and the appropriate length of time to stabilize somebody,” Dragosh Negrea, the crisis program manager with Clatsop Behavioral Healthcare, said.

“The team tends to focus much more on the folks that aren’t fully stabilized, because, you know, that’s the best they’re going to get with the resources that they have access to so far.”

The demands of the aid-and-assist caseload have put a strain on the court system.

“The changes that have happened to try and solve problems just create a different set of problems,” said Julie Vredeveld, the trial court administrator at Circuit Court.

“When you don’t have capacity, and you don’t have the secure residential, and you have an increasing population that they already struggle to meet, you’re going to keep running into challenges.”