The number of people languishing in Missouri jails in need of court-ordered mental health treatment currently stands at 344 — and the wait time for a hospital bed averages one year.
That’s up from 254 people this time last year, according to Missouri Department of Mental Health data provided to The Independent. A spokeswoman for the department said that because the agency’s inpatient beds are at capacity, the number of people waiting in jails for treatment will continue to rise.
Debra Walker, the department’s spokeswoman, said February was the first month the number of individuals waiting ever exceeded 300.
None of the people on the waitlist have been convicted of a crime. They were arrested, found incompetent to stand trial and ordered by the court into mental health treatment, designed to allow them to stand trial, a process called competency restoration that generally includes therapy and medication.
“We do want to increase the number of individuals who are getting competency restoration,” said Jeanette Simmons, deputy division director of the Missouri Department of Mental Health’s Division of Behavioral Health, during a mental health commission meeting earlier this month. “We have a growing number of individuals who are waiting for those services.”