U.S. District Judge Robert Shelby approved a settlement between the Utah Department of Human Services and the Disability Law Center, requiring a reduction in wait times at Utah State Hospital for mentally ill patients charged with crimes, according to Deseret News.
The Disability Law Center, a nonprofit advocacy group, filed suit against the DHS in September 2015, alleging mentally ill individuals charged with crimes were incarcerated for an unconstitutional length of time because of the extended wait times at Utah State Hospital. The lawsuit was resolved through a settlement finalized in court last month; however, the changes needed approval from a federal judge.
Under the finalized agreement, the state must reduce wait times for treatment of mentally ill individuals facing criminal charges to allow their court cases to advance. The state has six months, beginning Sept. 30, to reduce the wait times down to 60 days. By the end of the year the wait times must be 30 days, and then eventually reduced to 14 days.
"We're very pleased with the settlement agreement, we feel it's very fair and reasonable," Dallas Earnshaw, superintendent of Utah State Hospital, told the Deseret News. "We feel it addresses the civil rights and the needs of those who are referred to us appropriately, and we really do want to be able to reach out and get these folks into programming as quickly as possible."
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