Attorneys For Tulsa County Inmates Worried About Delays In Mental Health Treatment

The attorneys for a woman charged with assault are furious that she sat in the Tulsa County Jail for five months waiting for mental health treatment.

They said this is a situation that’s happening all over the state and something needs to change.

They argue the Oklahoma Department of Mental Health and Substance Abuse Services is not doing enough, but the department said it’s doing all it can.

Attorneys for Dalia Shehada said her case is just one example of many who are in desperate need of mental health care and end up sitting in the jail way too long, waiting.

ODMHSAS said it can only admit as many people as it has rooms available.

Shehada was booked on February 10 in the Tulsa County Jail and was found incompetent to stand trial.

However, it was determined she could be found competent with the right treatment.

The Oklahoma Forensic Center is the place for mental health treatment, but it only has 212 beds and a long waiting list, so Shehada sat in jail for five months later.

Shehada’s attorneys said this isn’t acceptable.

"These people need treatment,” said Janay Clougherty, an Assistant Public Defender. “Jail is not a therapeutic environment. There is no mechanism in jail to help these people attain competency. And without that, there is no way for their cases to move forward."

Clougherty said there are many people who sit in jail much longer than five months, who are waiting on mental health treatment to become competent.

Clougherty said just in Tulsa right now, 32 people are waiting for treatment.

"Jail competency is not working, it is not even occurring in this county, and these people need treatment,” said Clougherty. “It doesn't matter if you've been accused of a crime, it doesn't matter what you've done, if you are mentally ill and you are in jail, you need treatment so you can address your case."

ODMHSAS said in court documents it sends people to the Oklahoma Forensic Center as soon as a bed becomes available for them, but they are at capacity because it houses people needing treatment to become competent as well as people found not guilty by reason of insanity.

The department said it gave mental health treatment to Shehada while she was still in jail, and then once a bed was opened, moved her to Vinita.

Shehada’s attorneys said they will keep fighting to bring attention to this crisis and get people treated sooner, rather than later.

ODMHSAS said in a statement, “the Oklahoma Forensic Center (OFC) is the largest inpatient behavioral health facility in Oklahoma, with over 200 beds serving all 77 counties as the only inpatient forensic facility in our state. OFC will add over 80 additional beds next year. As beds open, we immediately transfer individuals into our care, but remain at capacity. Oklahoma law requires The Oklahoma Department of Mental Health and Substance Abuse Services (ODMHSAS) to transport the individual to OFC for treatment once it has a bed available. To help provide resources immediately, ODMHSAS and its network of providers offer services locally through county jails and has had great success in dozens of counties by providing immediate treatment to those in crisis. In Tulsa County, these services have been provided by Family and Children Services, which has successfully treated several individuals in the Tulsa County Detention Center to competency. Recently, the Tulsa County District Attorney’s Office asked Family and Children Services to cease and desist jail-based competency operations in the Tulsa County detention center, limiting their ability to offer care to those in jail. ODMHSAS asked the Tulsa County District Attorney’s Office to reconsider, especially due to the potential danger involved in immediately ceasing mental health treatment. To date, we have not received a response. We continue to stand by ready to resume treatment in hopes of serving those at the David L. Moss Criminal Justice Center before their mental health worsens.”

The Tulsa County District Attorney’s Office said In a statement: “For too many years the Oklahoma Department of Mental Health and Substance Abuses Services (ODMHSAS) has been engaged in a shell game with people who have been adjudicated mentally incompetent. I, along with Tulsa County Sheriff Vic Regalado and a host of mental health professionals have repeatedly and without heed requested ODMHSAS to remove these mental health patients from the Tulsa County jail and place them in a facility which is therapeutically designed to meet their treatment needs. Waiting lists here and across the state have accumulated to the point of dangerousness for these individuals as well as those around them. Oklahoma law is clear – once a criminally accused person is adjudicated as a mentally incompetent person, their custody is placed with ODMHSAS. Within a reasonable period of time those persons should be transferred to an ODMHSAS facility. However, these individuals continue to languish in jails across this state with minimal hope of being timely placed in a therapeutic environment. Without obtaining approval from the Tulsa County Sheriff or the Tulsa County Board of County Commissioners, ODMHSAS circumvented Oklahoma law with the implementation of competency restoration in a jail house setting. Once we became aware of this illegal act we took immediate and appropriate action to terminate it. We have consulted with representatives of Family and Children’s Services and we are confident that there will not be an interruption in the continuity of medical care in the jail. Once legal custody of these mental health patients resides in ODMHSAS, it rightfully assumes all responsibility for care, treatment, housing and any other necessities. These patients deserve to be surrounded by health care professionals, not detention officers. By not accepting the transfer of these individuals, ODMHSAS receives the benefit of zero expenses related to these patients. ODMHSAS has not paid one dollar to reimburse the citizens of Tulsa County for the countless individuals who are mired in the competency limbo that ODMHSAS has created. Instead of engaging in a serious discussion on how to remove these individuals from a jailhouse setting and into a therapeutic environment where they may best be treated, ODMHSAS prefers to engage in some sort of public relations war. The rule of law is clear in this matter and the Tulsa County District Attorney’s Office and the Tulsa County Public Defender’s Office will continue to seek the enforcement of it, even if it means running up against a State agency with a one-half billion dollar budget.”