Hays County Commissioners Court moving toward jail-based competency restoration program

The Hays County Commissioners Court unanimously approved letters of support to the Hill Country Mental Health and Developmental Disability Centers from various county officials for a Hays County jail-based competency restoration program. The program would be a partnership between Hill Country MHDD and Hays County.

The letters were approved at a Commissioners Court meeting Jan. 7.

The overview

Newly-elected Hays County Sheriff Anthony Hipolito, Hays County District Attorney Kelly Higgins and Precinct 2 Commissioner Michelle G. Cohen, on behalf of the Commissioners Court, sent letters to Hill Country MHDD in support of the program. The county officials said the new JCBR program would address issues with pretrial wait times for inmates with mental health issues and developmental disabilities, and capacity in the jail.

Defendants with mental health issues or who have developmental disabilities can be deemed “incompetent” to stand trial. These defendants must wait until they are classified as “competent” to do so, leading to potentially long wait times. The aim of the new program is to provide an understanding of the judicial system through treatment and therapy to inmates, preparing them to work with their attorney and defend their case, according to a news release.

The context

Wait times can often be more than a year, sometimes as long as 20 months, according to Hays County DA Higgins.

“What we’re dealing with are people who have maybe committed an act as a symptom of mental illness, yet because of the lack of statewide resources, we do need to be able to release people from jail to receive treatment,” Higgins said at the meeting Tuesday. “I want to dignify these defendant’s liberty interests.”

The wait times can also come at a high cost, Higgins said in his letter of support.

During the pretrial wait time, the county is responsible for paying the cost of jail placements. The JCBR program will alleviate wait times and costs by getting inmates through legal proceedings “within a reasonable time,” he said.

As of Jan. 6, there are currently 490 people in the Hays County Jail. Nearly 75%, or 366 people, are in the pretrial phase. The pretrial population includes people who have been there less than a week to three years. An estimated 21.6% have been in pretrial for six months to three years, based on calculations from the Hays County Jail Dashboard. About 55.2% have been in pretrial from one month to six months, according to data from the Hays County Jail Dashboard.

What the opposition is saying

Community members voiced concern about the program’s outcomes and questioned if they will be beneficial.

Hays County resident Sam Benavides said she is doubtful of the end-result of the program.

“I ask that you assess what the real goal is in initiating this program,” she said during public comment. “Is it to offer these individuals meaningful treatment so they can re-enter their communities and live healthy lives, or is the goal simply to get cases through the system, regardless of what their outcome is and how those outcomes will impact individuals and their communities?”

Benavides, who has worked for social justice organization Mano Amiga, said she is concerned about the mental health effects on incarcerated individuals who already have pre-existing mental health conditions.

“We worked with several clients who suffered from mental health issues that significantly worsened after spending time in our county jail,” she said.

Karen Muñoz, a civil rights attorney within Hays County, said programs such as the proposed Hays County JCBR program do not address the problem and instead can have harmful effects on inmates.

“Competency restoration is narrowly focused on stabilization, symptom management and required legal education,” she said during public comment. “In effect, this means that competency restoration exists so that the state can punish people for their disabilities or for the behaviors that are a result of their mental illness.”

Muñoz said the county needs to look at other methods to assist people with mental illnesses and developmental disabilities who face criminal charges.

“There's nothing humanitarian about jail-based competency restoration,” she said. “If liberty is indeed our most fundamental value, as our district attorney's letter states, then we should seek alternatives that do not involve keeping someone in jail in the first place, things like outpatient competency restoration, so that a person's competency can be restored outside of the jail.”

Stay tuned

Approval of the letters of support marks “the first step” in establishing the jail-based competency program.

More details about the program and its services and oversight will be presented at a later date, Hays County officials said in the news release.