photo by: File

Douglas County Jail

The Douglas County Sheriff’s Office, District Court and mental health providers are launching a new local process for evaluating defendants’ mental competency and offering outpatient treatment for restoration of competency.

The Sheriff’s Office announced the new local competency restoration treatment program — which it believes to be the first in the state — in a news release Tuesday afternoon. The new process through the Douglas County Jail is expected to begin April 1, according to the release, and it is made possible thanks to a recent change in state legislation that allows counties that meet certain conditions to conduct competency evaluations and orders for restoration without sending those in custody to Larned or Osawatomie state hospitals.

“The process is believed to be the first to begin at the county level in Kansas and would help address the statewide backlog that has delayed numerous criminal cases in recent years due to the shortage of bed space at Larned and Osawatomie state hospitals,” the release reads.

According to the release, the local outpatient restoration process includes set windows of time for Bert Nash Community Mental Health Center staff to report to a judge on the progress of an individual’s treatment and competency restoration process. A court would also have the authority to order any mandatory medication, which the release notes could happen in limited cases and typically is part of the inpatient competency restoration process at a state hospital.

In Douglas County, a person in custody who was found not mentally competent to stand trial and assist in their defense has in recent years faced an average wait time of 14 months for a bed at a state hospital for treatment — a backlog which the release notes has placed “added pressure on staff and resources” at county correctional facilities and “served as a hardship with lengthy delays” for those facing trial.

There have been a few high-profile cases in Douglas County involving defendants who have waited lengthy periods for a bed at a Kansas psychiatric hospital. As of October 2023, Chad Marek, a Lawrence man accused of killing his wife in 2022, was 10th in line for a place at Larned State Hospital after a 16-month wait. He was finally admitted to Larned at the end of 2023.

Another recent case involves Robert Earl Davis, a Lawrence man accused of murdering a Lawrence resident outside a grocery store and stabbing his dog in 2021. As the Journal-World reported, Davis has been in custody since his arrest in 2021. He was deemed incompetent to stand trial in October of that year but wasn’t able to secure a bed at Larned until November 2022. He was again deemed incompetent to stand trial in January 2024 and ordered once again to be committed to Larned for another competency restoration process.

“It should come as no surprise that Douglas County is striving to be a leader in the state, but coming up with a plan to take on this work is a testament to the relationship the Sheriff’s Office has with the courts and agencies providing mental health services in our community, including years of skilled mental health providers being embedded in the Douglas County Jail,” Douglas County Sheriff Jay Armbrister said in the release. “Being able to offer this evaluation and treatment here should open doors to more people to complete the competency restoration process more quickly and being able to resolve more cases as well.”

The new process was developed by a competency restoration work group with the county’s Criminal Justice Coordinating Council. That group included members like Armbrister, Bert Nash CEO Patrick Schmitz, Douglas County Criminal Justice Coordinator Katy Fitzgerald, Douglas County Chief District Judge James McCabria, Andrea Diaz Buezo of the Association of Community Mental Health Centers of Kansas, and Bob Tryanski, the county’s director of behavioral health projects.