SEATTLE — The Washington State Department of Social and Health Services (DSHS) has made significant strides in improving what the agency called a “crisis” in 2022 — hundreds of seriously mentally ill defendants stuck in county jails across the state, waiting for a bed at a state-run treatment facility.
“I’m just absolutely amazed and super impressed with the work that’s been going on,” said Dr. Tom Kinlen, DSHS director of the Office of Forensic Mental Health Services. “It is really incredible.”
Two years ago, the KING 5 Investigators’ series “Mentally Ill, Waiting in Jail,” exposed more than 500 people in the state were stuck behind bars with no treatment available and no trial on the horizon. Currently, that number is down to just 15 people.
In 2022, incarcerated patients were waiting to get transferred to a state hospital for up to nine months, while state law and a federal judge’s ruling mandated the transfer happen within seven days.
In the last few months, DSHS has met that timeframe with the average wait time now at five days.
“To be able to say today that you’ve got individuals that are five days on average waiting to be admitted to one of our inpatient facilities is really incredible,” Kinlen said. “These are the shortest wait times I’ve ever seen in nine years in this position and probably even longer than that.”
The key to progress
Officials from DSHS said the key to the progress was acquiring a closed private psychiatric hospital in Tukwila in July 2023.
With mounting public pressure and a federal judge fining the state approximately $200 million in what’s known as the Trueblood case, DSHS took sudden and drastic action.
The agency asked the legislature for $90 million to purchase, renovate and quickly staff Cascade Behavioral Health Hospital, renamed Olympic Heritage Behavioral Health Hospital. The facility features therapeutic options including a workout room, a gardening program, and a “fashion center,” where patients can acquire donated clothing to prepare for release.
In October, the state moved 70 patients from Western State Hospital in Lakewood and Eastern State Hospital near Spokane into the new facility, freeing up beds for people waiting in jails. The state accomplished the task – from purchase to getting the hospital up and running – in less than two months.
“[That] made a tremendous difference. This, along with operational changes, was the main factor that depleted the waitlist of Trueblood Class Members waiting over seven days in jail, which had been a compliance issue for over a decade. The elimination of the waitlist by DSHS staff is a testament that when given an opportunity and the tools to do their job, they are relentless, and treat our patients with dignity, respect, and compassion,” said DSHS Secretary Jilma Meneses.
“I can’t think in almost 30 years of state government of a project like Olympic Heritage that has been as aggressive and as speedy as it has been,” said Kevin Bovenkamp, the assistant secretary for the DSHS Behavioral Health department.
Other projects were put on the fast track.
This year, 60 less acute patients were transferred out of state hospitals into two newly renovated units at the Maple Lane Campus in Grand Mound, in southwest Washington. Maple Lane is a former Department of Corrections site used as a juvenile detention facility. More units are being renovated on the campus that are expected to provide treatment for 60 additional patients from Western and Eastern State Hospitals.
Residents at Maple Lane told KING 5 that the environment was more inclusive and welcoming compared to the hospital, giving them a better chance to improve and heal.
“It’s really friendly and inviting, especially with the open windows — big windows. You don’t see that in other facilities. Other facilities are more like jail,” said one resident who was transferred to Maple Lane from Eastern State Hospital. “When you have most of your freedoms stripped away little things mean a lot more. And this place has a lot of those freedoms that mean a lot.”
A variety of problems exposed
The 2022 KING 5 series exposed several negative outcomes associated with the record-breaking wait times to access a bed at a state-run hospital:
- Federal and Superior Court judges repeatedly ruled the state was violating the civil rights of mentally ill defendants, as many of them decompensated in custody. In court judges said the defendants were being “warehoused,” the suffering was “unconscionable,” and treating disabled citizens in this manner was “barbaric,” as many were held in solitary confinement to keep them and others safe.
- Local jails were overwhelmed with the increase in a population with exceptionally high needs. Counties struggled to pay for the extra resources required in their jails.
- Taxpayers were affected. The federal judge in the Trueblood case ruled DSHS must pay a fine of over $100 million in July 2023 for a “material breach” of the state’s settlement agreement to move mentally ill defendants out of jail within seven days. A total of $98 million had already been assessed by the judge.
- Public safety was at risk. Judges across the state were fed-up with the excessive wait times. Many cases were dismissed, and defendants were let out of jail. In one Clark County case a judge released a man charged with assault after waiting for a bed for four months. After his release, he crossed state lines into Idaho and murdered a couple in the small town of New Meadows, North of Boise.
- Crime victims were left in limbo with uncertainty about whether a legal case would move forward.
The case that spotlighted the crisis
Kim Hayes of Seattle is the victim of a high-profile crime that brought widespread attention to the problem.
On March 2, 2022, Hayes, who is a trauma nurse, was leaving the King Street light rail station on her way to work at Harborview Medical Center.
Security footage caught her alleged attacker, Alexander Jay, brutally assaulting her – throwing her down the steep station steps, repeatedly kicking her in the face, and breaking three of her ribs and her clavicle.
Jay was found incompetent to stand trial, and by law was supposed to be transferred to Western State Hospital within seven days. He ended up spending nearly a year in the King County Jail, waiting for a bed to open.
“You’re hanging on, [thinking] 'Can he go back to trial? Is he going to have [the needed treatment to stand trial?] Is he going to be released?’” said Hayes.
Hayes became an unlikely advocate for the mentally ill defendants stuck behind bars. She attended all the hearings in the Alexander Jay case and spoke publicly often about the injustices.
She said she’s thrilled to see the positive change.
“I think it’s fabulous. I think it is one of the best outcomes, the best outcome that could happen, for everyone,” said Hayes. “In my mind I was saying to myself, ‘Oh I’ve got to make something out of this. It was a bad situation; how can I make it not so bad or better?’ I did not want to hide in the shadows.”
This week, state mental health professionals wrote after a year at Western State Hospital, Jay is now competent to stand trial. A judge will ultimately decide if he is able to participate in his defense and have his case move forward.
The state of Washington has been under pressure for a decade to improve the system of getting seriously mentally ill patients out of jails in a reasonable timeframe. The Trueblood lawsuit was filed in 2014.
To now see the state in compliance with federal orders, state law and to know that people are getting the help they are entitled to is a welcome change for DSHS administrators.
“There has been like ‘Okay, what did we do now?’ But to have you standing here to see and hear about some of the great work that we’re doing — it’s just a positive, positive thing that we’re doing for DSHS,” said Executive Officer of Maple Lane and Brockmann Campuses Tony Bowie. “When you think about where we were just a couple years ago, I feel good.”
“I think we’ve proved that yes, absolutely, we can get tough things done and we will,” said Bovenkamp.