A judge has fined the Oklahoma Department of Mental Health and Substance Abuse Services $500 a day for leaving in jail a criminal defendant who needs treatment.
Oklahoma County District Judge Susan Stallings last week found the department in direct contempt of court.
The contempt finding is the latest example of the longstanding frustration in the judicial system with the state agency responsible for treating defendants whose criminal cases are on hold because of mental issues.
At issue is a lack of beds at the Oklahoma Forensic Center in Vinita, the state agency’s only facility treating mentally incompetent defendants.
An Oklahoma County judge in 2015 threatened to jail the mental health commissioner at the time for not accepting a defendant at the Vinita facility for six months. “You just don’t get to ignore a court order,” the judge said.
The frustration has intensified in the last year, as the department has increasingly tried jail-based competency restoration programs because of the space issues in Vinita. The department has been hit with a civil rights lawsuit and has been accused of contempt of court almost 200 times.