Mississippians who need mental health treatment before they can stand trial have to wait in jail longer than people in any other state but Texas, according to a new national study by the nonprofit Treatment Advocacy Center.
But the Department of Mental Health says a new 83-bed forensic facility scheduled to open later this year will drastically reduce wait times. It’s asking for $9.5 million from the Legislature to fully staff the facility and will open as many beds as it can with whatever funding it receives.
Forensic beds are reserved for people with a mental illness who have been charged with a crime and require treatment before they can stand trial, and for people who have been found not guilty by reason of insanity.
The Treatment Advocacy Center report also found that the number of state hospital beds in the state dropped by 31% from 2016 to last year. That decline was in part a response to a 2016 lawsuit by the Department of Justice alleging that Mississippi discriminated against people with mental illness by failing to provide services at the community level and instead forcing them into state hospitals.
Read more at MississippiToday.org.
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