Sacramento, CA - Today, Disability Rights California (DRC) released a report which is the first to examine the Department of State Hospitals’ Early Access and Stabilization Services (EASS) program, a new program providing limited treatment services to individuals in jail who have been found incompetent to stand trial and are awaiting competency restoration services. Over the past three years, the Department of State Hospitals has invested over $500 million to implement the program in nearly every county jail in California and enrolled over 5,000 individuals. The Department of State Hospitals has used EASS as a short-term solution to fill the holes in mental health treatment in many county jails across California while high numbers of individuals await transfer to treatment programs.

DRC’s report, A Half-Measure Solution to a Long-Standing Crisis, sheds light on the harmful and anti-therapeutic conditions to which EASS enrollees are subjected in jail—including, for some, solitary confinement and treatment in cages. DRC report raises questions about whether EASS lowers the bar of what qualifies as competency restoration services, particularly in contrast to competency restoration services provided in a state hospital or in a homelike setting in the community. The report also questions whether EASS is effective at reducing the number of people who are deemed incompetent to stand trial in the long-term. Ultimately, the report finds that some people in EASS have been subject to neglect. 

Coty Meibeyer, Senior Attorney at DRC, said “people who are deemed incompetent to stand trial need enhanced mental health care and support, not isolation and punishment in jail.”

This is a pressing issue because the number of people charged with felonies and found incompetent is likely to grow over the next few years due to state and national policy changes that threaten access to community-based mental health services, among other factors. With a growing number of people charged with felonies and deemed incompetent, this group of individuals is likely to experience worsening challenges in county jails while they await trial.

With input from two nationally recognized experts, DRC’s report offers several recommendations, including that DSH should invest more in expanding the Diversion and Community-Based Restoration Program than in maintaining EASS, particularly to the extent that EASS is taking resources away from more successful medium-term and long-term solutions.  

In the words of Jennifer Stark, Managing Attorney at DRC, “We will never stop the overcriminalization of people living with mental health disabilities if we focus on band-aid solutions instead of prioritizing programs like diversion and community-based restoration that are more effective at offering the range of intensive mental health support, healthcare, and housing that people need to rebuild their lives.”

A copy of DRC’s report can be found here. 

Media Contacts

Sam Mickens
Director of Communications
(646) 945-0918
Sam.Mickens@disabilityrightsca.org

Disability Rights California (DRC) – Is the agency designated under federal law to protect and advocate for the rights of Californians with disabilities. The mission of DRC is to defend, advance, and strengthen the rights and opportunities of people with disabilities. For more information, visit: https://www.disabilityrightsca.org